Spleen injury sidelines standout QB
Hayden Johnston of Clarion-Limestone has put up impressive numbers.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clarion-Limestone quarterback Hayden Johnston is believed to be the first quarterback in PIAA District 9 to pass for more than 4,000 yards and rush for more than 2,000 yards in his career.
Even those numbers don't illustrate the type of competitor Johnston is.
Johnston tore his spleen when a player fell on top of him as Johnston lay atop the ball at the end of a run during last week's 42-41 overtime victory against Redbank Valley.
The injury occurred near the end of the first half, but the 5-foot-10, 180-pound Johnston stayed in the game and threw for the game-tying touchdown in overtime. He finished with 234 yards passing, four touchdown passes and 82 yards rushing.
"Nobody knew how bad the injury was," Clarion-Limestone coach Todd Smith said. "You could tell he was hurting as he threw on the sidelines [before] the second half, but he said he had the flu and that's the reason he was sick.
"He has such a high pain tolerance that you just can't tell how badly he's hurt. Every time the trainer or doctor would get close to him, he'd say he was fine and get up and walk away," Smith said.
Diagnosis
The torn spleen was discovered during a hospital visit the following day. He was transferred to UPMC Presbyterian Hospital in Pittsburgh and won't play again this season.
"They hope the bleeding stops and they won't have to remove his spleen, but they wanted him down there to keep an eye on him," Smith said.
Johnston's injury is a big loss for Clarion-Limestone (8-0), which owns the state's longest regular season winning streak of 34 games. Clarion-Limestone entertained Moniteau on Friday in a Keystone-Shortway Conference game.
With Johnston out, sophomore Scott Davis will step in at quarterback. He has 11 touchdowns this season as a running back and wide receiver and has 400 yards rushing and 406 yards receiving.
Johnston finished his career with 4,400 yards passing, 2,148 yards rushing, 70 touchdown passes and 27 touchdown runs. He also returned a kickoff for a score and caught a touchdown pass.
While his numbers are outstanding, football isn't Johnston's sport of choice. An infielder-pitcher, he will play baseball at Ohio University after hitting .559 with three triples, 14 home runs and 45 RBIs as a junior last spring. He also was 7-1 with a 3.44 ERA as a pitcher.
Johnston also plays basketball and has scored 820 career points.
"A good portion of his basketball season is in jeopardy because they say it will be eight to 10 weeks before he recovers," Smith said.
Special guest
Allentown Dieruff's football team had a special visitor deliver a pep talk last week: former Buffalo Bills receiver Andre Reed, a Dieruff graduate who played on the school's undefeated 1979 team.
Reed's speech was well received, but Parkland defeated Dieruff 12-0.
Notes
Greensburg Salem wrestler Donnie Jones, 45-0 last year and a two-time PIAA Class AAA champion, gave West Virginia a verbal commitment. His older brother, Greg, is a two-time NCAA champion for the Mountaineers. ... Trinity wrestler Dan Burkholder gave Penn a verbal commitment. Burkholder, 43-2 last season, also had offers from West Virginia, Princeton and North Dakota. ... McGuffey senior Jeff Weiss, fourth at the PIAA Class AAA cross country championships last year, set the course record for high school runners on Slippery Rock University's 3.1-mile course last week. Weiss finished the Tri-State Track Coaches Association championships in 15 minutes, 30 seconds, topping the record of 15:36 set last year by Jim O'Toole of Mount Lebanon.
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