By Cam Smith, USA TODAY High School Sports
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Real life Pennsylvania high school football score: Meadville 107 DuBois 90 Journey Brown ran for 720 yards and 10 TDs pic.twitter.com/Hs3HEuAvho
— Alan Robinson (@alanrobinson412) September 12, 2015
When the final horn sounded, the 90-7 score on the electronic scoreboard appeared to showcase a dominant DuBois victory. It didn’t. Instead it signaled something even more remarkable: A final score of 107-90, one of the highest scoring high school football contests in modern history.
As noted by The Sentinel, a Central Pennsylvania newspaper, Meadville topped Pennsylvania rival DuBois by a final score of 107-90. The victors racked up so many points on the back of running back Journey Brown, who finished with 720 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground. In one game. His big night was offset by DuBois’ star quarterback, Matt Miller, who set a new single-game passing record with 782 yards and 10 touchdowns … also in one game.
WATCH: All 28 touchdowns from the crazy 107-90 football game in Central Pa.
Brown’s total yards broke Pennsylvania’s single-game mark by more than 200 yards, and will stand as the second-most in national history, after all stats are confirmed by the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS). The national mark for 11-man football is 754 yards, set by Netcong (N.J.) High’s John Giannantonio in 1950.
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Miller’s night also matched the national high school record with 10 touchdowns in a single game. All of these records are still subject to further review by NFHS, particularly in the aftermath of revised statistics released by the Associated Press; the AP reported Brown rushed for 722 yards, two more than believed, while Miller was given credit for 741 yards passing, a full 41 fewer than were recorded at the game.
“On the bus ride down, I thought the game would be competitive with some offense,” Meadville coach Ray Collins told the Erie Times-News. “I figured both teams would scored 35-40 points, but both offenses were clicking,”
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How did Brown possibly rack up a season’s worth of yardage and touchdowns in a single game? According to Meadville’s own Twitter feed, the running back had touchdown runs of 94, 60, 58 and 50 yards. He finished the first half with 341 yards and 5 touchdowns, then proved he had plenty more where that came from in the second half.
“He was absolutely unstoppable,” Collins told the Times-News of Brown. “He would hit a seam and would be gone. He ran away from the DuBois defense all night long. They were playing tough, but he was making moves out there and stutter steps and cutting back. Journey was even cramping up in the second quarter, but he kept stretching and hydrating to get back in the game. He’d get in there and just take off. He was just in the zone.”
In case you’re wondering, Brown would have accounted for 132 points in a standard scoring fantasy football league.
Brown’s big output wasn’t alone, as one might have guessed from the final score. His brilliance was matched by DuBois quarterback Miller, who appears to have set the national single-game passing record with 782 yards and 10 touchdowns in the loss. The prior single-game passing record was 764 yards, dating back to 2000 and Pacific Palisades (Calif.) High School star David Koral.
Will we ever see a pair of performances like this again? It seems unlikely in 11-man football, though you can never say never. A single game with either 720 yards and 10 touchdowns, or 782 yards and 10 touchdowns through the air, would have seem ludicrous before Friday. Now we know it’s a reality.
Follow Cam Smith on Twitter: @camsmithsports
