Information for this story is courtesy of the DuBois Courier-Express/Tri-County Sunday

BROCKWAY — Brockway quarterback Derek Buganza threw down another District 9 passing record owned by Clearfield’s Chad Kroell and tied him on another record as he threw eight touchdown passes in the Rovers’ 56-36 shootout win over visiting Smethport.

Buganza completed 16 of 23 passes for 391 yards and was intercepted twice. He threw scoring strikes to three different receivers, including four to Mike Vervoort on connections of 27, 22, 65 and 23 yards; three to Kyle Braun on passes of 55, 72 and 27 yards; and one to Jake Shaffer on a 25-yard pass.

Buganza’s eight TDs bested Kroell’s single-game district record of seven TD passes thrown in the Bisons’ 54-6 win over Philipsburg-Osceola in 1994. Buganza hiked his career TD pass total to 79, which ties Kroell’s mark.

With his 3911 yards passing, Buganza is now at 7,695 career yards moving him into fifth place on the state’s all-time yardage list just 60 yards behind D.J. Lenehan of Wilson Area for fourth. He is also 305 yards shy of becoming just the fourth passer in state history to throw for 8,000 career yards. The others are Wilson Area’s Tyler Smith (8,000), Downingtown East’s Pat Devlin (8,162) and Lancaster Catholic’s Kyle Smith (8,545).  

Vervoort caught six passes for 158 yards and Braun made four catches for 161 yards,

The Rovers (3-0 overall, 3-0 AML South) led 42-21 at halftime thanks to six Buganza TD passes. Smethport (1-2, 1-2 AML North) scored first in the third quarter on Brian Zetwick’s 10-yard run with 6:49 left in the quarter, but Buganza and the Rovers responded with two more aerial strikes on his 23-yarder to Vervoort and the 27-yarder to Bruan with 4:07 remaining.

Kevin Lord rushed for three touchdowns for the Hubbers on gains of 14, 3 and 73 yards, all of them in the second quarter, and finished with 167 yards on 18 carries.

The Rovers piled up another big yardage game, 570 yards in all. Chris Marshall rushed for 85 yards on 11 carries.

BROCKWAY 56, SMETHPORT 36

Score By Quarters

Smethport       0          21        7          8          —        36

Brockway        28        14        7          7          —        56

Scoring Summary

First Quarter

B - Kyle Braun 55 pass from Derek Buganza (Phil Esposito kick), 10:50.

B - Mike Vervoort 27 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 5:00.

B - Vervoort 22 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 3:44.

B - Jake Shaffer 25 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 0:25.

Second Quarter

S - Kevin Lord 14 run (Jory Okerlund kick), 10:08.

B - Braun 72 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 9:48.

S - Lord 3 run (Okerlund kick), 5:13.

B - Vervoort 65 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 5:01.

S - Lord 73 run (Okerlund kick), 3:59.

Third Quarter

S - Brian Zetwick 10 run (Okerlund kick), 6:49.

B - Vervoort 23 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 0:23.

Fourth Quarter

B - Braun 27 pass from Buganza (Esposito kick), 4:07.

S - Jake Abrams 1 run (Clay Schuler run), 0:48.

            S          B

First Downs    16        14

Rushes-Yards  58-393 28-169

Passing Yards 0          391

Comp-Att-Int  0-9-2    16-23-2

Total Yardage 393      560

Punts-Average            4-39.5  0-0

Fumbles-lost    2-0       2-1

Penalties-Yards           5-35     4-25

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing - Smethport: Kevin Lord 18-167, Brian Zetwick 16-115, Ryan Wells 15-111, Clay Schuler 3-6, Jake Abrams 2-5, Kolin Strawcutter 1-6, Jory Okerlund 1-(-3), Karl Lightner 1-3, Team 1-(-17). Brockway: Chris Marshall 11-85, Mike Vervoort 8-45, Zack Freemer 3-35, Derek Buganza 3-23, Kyle Braun 1-9, Team 2-(-28).

Passing - Smethport: Kevin Lord 0 of 8, 0 yards, 0 TD, 2 INT; Jory Okerlund 0 of 1, 0 yards, 0 TD, 0 INT. Brockway: Derek Buganza 16 of 23, 391 yards, 8 TD, 2 INT.

Receiving - Smethport: None. Brockway: Mike Vervoort 6-158, Kyle Braun 4-161, Chris Marshall 3-19, Jake Shaffer 2-33, Zack Freemer 1-20.

Interceptions - Smethport: Alex Ball, Andrew Paulik. Brockway: Joe Caruso 2.