By Rich Rhoades

CLARION – The records keep falling for Brockway Rovers junior quarterback Derek Buganza.

He and his teammates would surely rather be celebrating a district title, but what Buganza and the Rovers offense did this season was remarkable.

Buganza needed 240 yards (not 250 as was incorrectly reported earlier) to break Mechanicsburg’s Zach Frazer’s 2004 record of 3,674 yards. He passed Frazer’s mark on a 10-yard pass to Zack Freemer one play before his 25-yard TD pass to Freemer on the Rovers’ first drive of the second half.

Frazer reached his total in 13 games while Buganza reached his numbers in 12 games.

Buganza finished the 42-40 loss to the Karns City Gremlins in the District 9 Class AA Championship game by completing 28 of 59 passes for 389 yards and four touchdowns with one interception.

For the year, he completed 256 of 423 passes (60.5 percent) with 37 touchdowns and 15 interceptions.

Also Friday night, Buganza broke Smethport’s Mike DeFilippi’s district career passing yardage record of  6,638 yards and he’ll take his 6,747 yards and 65 touchdown passes into another season with a team returning nearly intact.

Speaking of teammates, his receiving unit finished with some gaudy numbers as well. One of them also set a record in the championship game.

Junior receiver Mike Vervoort finished up with 88 receptions, a district record, and 1,390 yards with 16 touchdowns. His yardage total surpassed Clearfield’s Wes Dahlem’s 1994 mark of 1,349 yards.

Junior Jake Shaffer’s big game against the Gremlins — 7 catches for 151 yards — put him right at the 1,000-yard milestone on 66 catches with 8 touchdowns.

Junior Zack Freemer finished with 40 receptions for 756 yards and 10 touchdowns and junior Chris Marshall caught 26 balls for 423 yards and 3 scores. Running back Ryan Terwilliger, the only senior on the starting offense, finished with 31 catches for 339 yards.

So what’s left for Buganza to break? Clearfield’s Chad Kroell still owns the state record for TD passes in a season with 49 and the district record for TD passes, which also used to be the state record, with 79.

The state’s career passing yardage and career TD passing marks could also be within reach with a season similar to this  year.