Fels-Franklin to finish their barn-burner Thursday

PASSING ALONG some city high school football tidbits . . .

The game already has produced 94 points . . . and it ain't over yet!

Nudged hard by this reporter, who lives for statfests, Public League sports czar Robert Coleman yesterday agreed that Friday's nonleague game between visiting Fels and Franklin, halted by darkness with Fels on top, 48-46, should be completed.

The final 3 minutes, 21 seconds - and numerous OTs, hopefully; numbers make the world go 'round! - will be played Thursday, 2:30 start, at the same site, 29th Street Stadium.

"The kids put out too much effort to have it end like that," Coleman said. "They're etching records in stone. We're making this happen."

Head referee Bill Hall halted play after Franklin's Willie Battle was stopped on a conversion run.

"We couldn't see anymore," he said. "It was a safety issue."

"Our kids were upset," Franklin coach Desmin Daniels said. "We really wanted to finish, even with a running clock."

Daniels, as expected, was thrilled to hear Sunday that a push for a completion was being made. But so was Fels coach Bill Harrigan.

"Our players didn't want to win that way," he said. "Franklin scored the last two TDs. It was like we were being let off the hook. We absolutely want to finish this."

Fels' Tyree "Bam" Rucker already has fired for six TDs - most ever by a Pub player - and 324 yards. Franklin's Anwar "Huddy" Mathis has thrown for four and 159. Fels' Nijah Kelly (4-143) and Franklin's Jonathan Parker (4-100) own three TD catches apiece.

Fels leads the yardage war, 506-357.

The city records for TD passes and catches are seven and four. The mark for highest-scoring game involving Pub teams - 92 in a '97 semi; Frankford thrashed Dobbins, 63-29 - has already been eclipsed. The city mark is 103; West Catholic beat Neumann, 55-48, in a 2003 playoff.

Out of a no-huddle spread, Rucker has been wildly productive this season. He has passed for 1,798 yards and 24 TDs, while adding 661 yards and 12 more scores on runs.

The Pub standard for passing yards in a season belongs to Frankford's Warren Mays (1,875 in '69). Fels will visit Frankford Thanksgiving morning as the replacement for outta-here North Catholic. By then, Rucker might stand alone.

Penn Charter lineman/captain Jake Richards, out since September with a bruised heart, was permitted to begin the Quakers' 124th game with Germantown Academy by kicking off (and he followed orders to avoid contact). After thumping a skidder to the 25, he quipped, "Can I make all-Inter-Ac kicker for one kick?" . . . Defensive tackleScott Paxson, who played for the Steelers in their 2008 Super Bowl season, was a sideline visitor at the La Salle-Roman final. He starred with Roman coach Joe McCourt for the Cahillites' 1999 CL Red champs. QB Tim Schmidt was also among those on hand . . . Quadeem Starkes has caught one conversion pass in each of Prep Charter's last six games . . . Stats whiz Ed "Huck" Palmer reports West Catholic has scored on 15 of its previous 17 possessions, with one of the "failures" resulting from it's-all-over kneeldowns. Also, the Burrs boast 21 TDs in their last 23 first-half possessions; one was halted by halftime with the ball on the foe's 14 . . . Four guys made catches for Northeast in its title-game triumph over Washington. Deion Barnes, who cradled the winning 5-yard TD pass from Lamont Davis off a fake field goal, was a veteran. The snags by Camille Max, Anthony Quail and Davis were season firsts . . . Right beforehand, referee Ernie Gallagher realized no game ball was present. It was tossed down from the press box by clock operator Vince Presto, Northeast's coach in '67 and later a longtime athletic director. A driveway on Northeast's campus is named after him . . .

Washington's current cold spell (6/13/6 points vs. Northeast/Frankford/Northeast again) is its worse since the first three games of 1980 also began with 25 (17/6/2 vs. Mastbaum/Frankford/Northeast). Worst before that: 24 in games 7 through 9 of '77 (9/0/15 vs. King/Frankford/Northeast) . . . On its last play of the season, in a 46-6 loss to Overbrook, Edison finally notched a passing TD - Carlos Collado's 13-yarder to Dom Boseman . . . Senior Matt Pinzka made 26 catches for 350 yards in Lansdale Catholic's first nine games, but posted no TDs. His finale vs. Plymouth-Whitemarsh yielded six catches, for 139 yards and two scores . . . As University City (1-9) bested Bracetti, 34-6, for its first win this season, Amir Jones contributed two apiece of TD catches, interceptions and forced fumbles . . . After noticing that the time remaining on Central's scoreboard looked like hieroglyphics, G-town coach Mike Hawkins cracked, "I'll be happy to get them some bulbs" . . . Haverford School (5-6) is the first outright Inter-Ac champ to finish with a losing record since Penn Charter in 1919 (4-5). Father Judge also had six losses (8-6-1) while capturing the CL title in '83. *

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