Lafayette football eceiver Carson Persing is a former Danville star
The Lehigh Valley is justifiably proud of its high school football heritage.
From Chuck Bednarik to Saquon Barkley, from Tom Donchez to Jahan Dotson and from Jim Ringo to Andre Reed, there's a great sense of pride about the number of great players this area has produced over the last century.
But the Valley doesn't have a monopoly on high school football greatness.
District 4, which encompasses Bradford, Columbia, Lycoming, Montour, Northumberland, Snyder, Sullivan, Tioga, and Union counties, is the home of Mount Carmel, the winningest program in Pennsylvania football history. It's also home to Southern Columbia, which has won a record 14 state titles and currently has a seven-year streak of PIAA title teams going.
It's an area of the state where high school football is more of a religion than merely something to watch on a Friday night.
As a sophomore receiver at No. 14/18 ranked Lafayette College, Danville product Carson Persing has brought a piece of the District 4 tradition to College Hill.
In the team's 2-1 start, Persing has caught 16 passes for 123 yards and will play a pivotal role when Lafayette visits Ivy League foe Columbia at 12 noon on Saturday.
After a record-breaking career at Danville where he was a three-time all-state selection and finished his career with 225 receptions (the fifth-most in PIAA history) and had 4,246 yards receiving and 60 touchdowns (both third in PIAA history), Persing is making an impact for the Leopards.
"Carson is one of the best to ever come out of Central Pennsylvania and he led Danville to a lot of wins and we were so happy to get him here," Lafayette coach John Troxell. "He's a natural. He's top-five in the state all-time in receptions, receiving yards and touchdown receptions."
Persing is listed at just 5-foot-7 and 177 pounds but plays much bigger.
"I try to play bigger than my size," he said. "I think a lot of it comes from preparation and hard work in the offseason. I try to be the best receiver I can be whether it's through my footwork, working on my hands or my knowledge of the defense and where to get open. Obviously, not everyone is blessed to be huge with crazy height and weight. But everyone is able to do what they can to succeed and that's what I try to do."
It's easy to see why Persing was a fan favorite with the Danville faithful and he is proud to represent the Ironmen in the Patriot League.
"I was born and raised in Danville so it's really all I ever knew," he said. "It's a great environment. People love sports there. It's a smaller community so everyone kind of knows each other. It's nice to get out and come here and get looked at, but my experience at Danville was great. We had a great career and some great teams there and it was a lot of fun."
Persing's alma mater is undefeated and is the only team ranked ahead of Northwestern Lehigh in Class 3A in the latest state rankings. As busy as he is with his own career, Persing likes to keep tabs on how the Ironmen are doing.
"I try to keep in touch," he said. "I still have a couple of buddies who play there. I still know some of the coaches. Obviously, throughout the week I have a lot of things to worry about here but on a Friday night it's nice to check online and see how they're doing and I am happy they're still doing well. I knew we had a lot of talented guys coming up after I left, so I am not surprised they're doing well."
And no one should be surprised Persing is doing well at Lafayette.
His numbers may not be nearly as eye-popping as they were at Danville because he's part of a strong receiving corps in the Leopards offense, but he's still a difference-maker.
"We are really close in our receivers room and we believe anyone can go out there and make plays when we're asked to," he said. "There's no drop-off in our minds when we go out there. We had a great season last year, but we knew we had to regroup and come back together because every season is different. We're getting things going and the key is to stay focused and prepare for Columbia as best we can."
Dominant DeNobile: Lafayette junior QB Dean DeNobile was selected the Patriot League Offensive Player of the Week after he completed his first 14 passes in a 56-14 rout of Marist. He finished 20 of 23 in the apri or 241 yards and a TD. He sat out the game's final 27 minutes.
Back in the Lions den: Troxell spent three seasons as a Columbia assistant coach under Ray Tellier from 1994-96. Justin Stovall, a 2007 Lafayette graduate, is in his 10th season at Columbia and his third season as defensive coordinator. Stovall was on Troxell's staff at Franklin & Marshall from 2009-11.
Better late than never: This is the opening weekend for Columbia and all Ivy League schools. That means that Lafayette has no film on Columbia while the Leopards have three games under their belts and should have first-game kinks out of their system. "It's always exciting to play an Ivy League school and we've had great rivalries for years," Troxell said. "The hard part is they have a new staff and this is their first game of the year. They have three games on us and we don't really have much on them, so we're going into this a little bit blind. They have some advantages and we have some, but it's a matter of us going out and doing what we do best."
Leading the way: Lafayette leads the all-time series with Columbia 29-12-2 and has won nine of the last 10, including a 24-3 win in Easton last year.
New York state of mind: The Leopards have their bye week next week and return to action Oct. 5 with another trip to New York Citym this time to play at Fordham in their Patriot League opener.
Streaking: When Lehigh hosts Princeton at noon Saturday at Goodman Stadium, the Mountain Hawks will be looking for its first three-game win streak since the end of the 2021 season.
They do run, run: Lehigh leads the Patriot League in rushing offense with 166 yards per game and the Mountain Hawks have not only rushed for more than 100 yards in each of the first three games of this season, but in 10 straight overall dating back to 2023.
Taming the Tigers: Lehigh holds a 43-17-2 all-time series lead over Princeton, but the Tigers have won three straight in the series and by a lopsided total of 127-24. Princeton won the last meeting, 29-17, in 2022 in New Jersey.
QB shuffle: Three of Lehigh's five quarterbacks have seen time in all three games with all three contributing to the Mountain Hawks' 2-1 start. Grad student Dante Perri has started all three games, throwing for two TDs and running for a third against Wagner and then tossing the go-ahead TD pass to Mason Humphrey at LIU. First-year Hayden Johnson, a Manheim Township grad, scored on a 45-yard run in the second quarter against Wagner and threw his first career TD at LIU. Palmerton's Matt Machalik, another first-year player, has been used situationally and has had 10 carries for 50 yards.
