Much has been written and said about Hopewell sophomore running back Rushel Shell. But to fully appreciate what Shell has done so far, you need to look at him next to the WPIAL's all-time leading rusher.

Shell is pretty much running stride for stride with Mike Vernillo.

Vernillo, a 2000 graduate of Fort Cherry High School, is the WPIAL's top rusher with 7,646 yards. After 18 games of his career, when Vernillo was a sophomore, he had 3,022 yards.

Shell is a sophomore at Hopewell. After 18 games of his career, he has 3,008 yards.

Shell said he had no idea what the WPIAL all-time record is.

"I think it's around 9,000 yards," he said.

When told of Vernillo's mark and told of the similar statistics, Shell said: "I'm surprised. If I'm on the same pace as him and he has the record, then maybe someday I can eventually come close."

Notice he said close. The record is not something he thinks much about.

"It will be a goal to accomplish, but it will be in the back of my mind," he said. "I won't really worry about it. I'm just worried about now."

What makes Shell's statistics impressive is he is playing in the tougher Parkway Conference of WPIAL Class AAA. Not to downgrade Vernillo's success, but he played in Class A, going against Avonworth, Northgate, Cornell, Brentwood and Avella, among others. It's a little different than facing the likes of West Allegheny, New Castle and Blackhawk.

As for Shell's chances at the record, much will depend on how far his teams go in the playoffs. Fort Cherry made it to the WPIAL championship game Vernillo's sophomore year. The Rangers lost in the first round of the playoffs when Vernillo was a junior and the semifinals his senior year.

Hopewell is 7-0 this season and ranked No. 2 in WPIAL Class AAA. But all of the Vikings' offensive linemen are seniors.

"But I'm used to playing with some of the kids who will come up and play the line next year," Shell said. "It won't be that big of a deal."

McKeesport is averaging 42.1 points a game. While that is impressive, the Tigers' big-play statistics are staggering.

The average length of Mc-Keesport's touchdown plays is 37.7 yards, and the Tigers have 18 touchdowns this year of 50 yards or more.

The best big-play artist is running back Darien Robinson. He has scored 12 touchdowns, and the average length of those scores is 47.2 yards. He has six scoring runs of 60 yards or more.

Former Beaver Falls football star Todd Thomas signed with Pitt in February but enrolled instead at Milford Academy (N.Y.) this fall to take care of his academics. Thomas is playing at Milford, and his mother, Jodie, said her son will enroll at Pitt in January and participate in spring drills.

"Sometimes you have to take a detour to get to where you want to go," she said.

Thomas, who played receiver and defensive back at Beaver Falls, is playing only defense for Milford, which will play Robert Morris' junior varsity at 4 p.m. Monday at Robert Morris.

More than two dozen WPIAL football teams will have some pink on their helmets for next Friday's games. They will have pink helmet stickers, a symbol to raise awareness about breast cancer.

The trail to the pink helmets can be traced back to Mt. Lebanon student Ellese Meyer, whose mother died of breast cancer in June. Meyer approached Mt. Lebanon athletic director John Grogan this summer, hoping to do something to raise money and awareness at the football team's final regular-season game against Upper St. Clair.

"We kicked around some ideas and we got the idea to challenge the rest of the WPIAL to make this a big deal and a nice deal," Grogan said.

Grogan sent letters to athletic directors around the WPIAL asking if they wanted to participate in a pink-out night. He said a little more than two dozen schools responded favorably, and Grogan had helmet stickers sent to those schools.

"It's been a pretty amazing response. A lot of schools are doing things," he said. "Besides the helmet stickers, some coaches are going to wear pink ribbons. All the kids in our student section that night are going to wear pink. We're going to sell pink cookies. We're looking for a sponsor to maybe do pink towels."

• Baldwin's victory against Upper St. Clair was an eye-opener, but it is the second time in three years Baldwin has defeated Upper St. Clair. In Jim Render's 31 seasons as Upper St. Clair's coach, he is 19-4 against Baldwin. The other losses were in 1999 and '79.

• Freeport will try for the 500th win in school history tonight. Freeport is 499-297-36.

• McKeesport will play the 1,000th game in school history tonight against Hempfield.

The Moon girls' soccer team had one of the best regular seasons defensively in WPIAL history. The Tigers couldn't get any closer to defensive perfection.

Moon (16-0-1) allowed only one goal in 17 games. The only goal was in a 4-1 victory against Montour. Moon finished the regular season outscoring opponents, 80-1.

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