Dan York is now Oil City's all-time leader in coaching victories with 60. Two weeks ago he broke Paul Stamm's record 58.
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De'Vaughn Griffin's speed has translated into 13 TDs and about 800 yards receiving.
Oil City seniors Tim Walentoski, Gavin Stephens and Tanner Kightlinger stand in front of a new display featuring District 10 title winners and all-state players that can be seen at the Oil Field. They're holding a $1,000 check from Northpointe Chevrolet to Oil City football.
The Oilers brought the Route 8 sign down the river to Franklin for the Oct. 18 game, just in case, but returned home with it afterward. It has resided in Oil City since 2017. (Photo by Richard Sayer/8and322.com)
Harbor Creek 13, Oilers 6
Oilers took a 6-0 lead on Cole Findlay's 20-yard pass to Gavin Stephens, but game tied 6-6 at halftime. After being held to an unheard of minus 1 yards rushing before intermission, Oilers took second half kickoff and moved to Huskies 14 in seven minutes, before drive stalled. Harbor Creek answered with the deciding TD after a long drive of its own. After an exchange of turnovers, Oilers had one final chance, moving to the 9 before the Huskies held in the final seconds, but not before an apparent TD pass to TE Tim Walentoski was ruled a drop. Each team had three turnovers -- an interception (Steven Heise for the Oilers) and two fumble recoveries (Hank Lockhart, Walentoski, force by Danny DeLong). Lockhart also got off a 58-yard punt. Ben Garland made 18 tackles (17 assists), Lockhart 13 and Heise 10. Huskies led Oilers in total yards, 211-210. Oil City found its ground game and its tailback for now in the second half with Heise, who was 12/46. Huskies outgained the Oilers on the ground 160-74. Findlay was 9/17 for 136 passing, Stephens catching four passes for 55 yards.
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Oilers 29, Mercyhurst Prep 13
Cole Findlay threw for a career high 210 yards and three touchdowns -- two to De'Wayne Griffin and the other to Gavin Stephens. The start of the Oilers' home opener was delayed by about an hour and a half due to rain, but once it did begin, it didn't take long for the Oilers to get on the scoreboard -- Findlay's 84-yard strike on a swing pass to Griffin less than a minute in. That's the sixth longest TD pass in school history. An interception by Hank Lockhart set up the second TD (Stephens). Oil City led 22-7 at halftime on Findlay's second scoring strike to Griffin. Dawan Cruz scored on a 13-yard run after intermission with Lockhart booting the extra point. Findlay was nine of 18. He's Oil City's first 200-yard passer since 2017 when Dylin Chapin threw for 210 vs. DuBois. Griffin caught five passes for 152 yards, and Stephens had three receptions for 46. Steven Heise ran for 101 yards, the first time in his career that he's reached the century mark. Danny DeLong and Brayden Buzzard each had nine tackles to lead the Oilers. Senior lineman Kamdyn Reagle and sophomore linebacker Deryk DeLong added eight apiece. Last week's tackle leader, Ben Garland, didn't play.
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General McLane 35, Oilers 14
Isaac Zietz threw for 311 yards and four touchdowns as the Lancers mercy ruled the Oilers. McLane scored all of its points before halftime. Zietz's TD passes covered 41, 11, 66 and 77 yards. Two of them went to his brother Isaac -- the 41- and 66-yarders. The 77-yard touchdown went to 6-3, 240-pound Jared Corwin. The Lancers started the game at their 6, but gained 10 yards on each of their first two plays and were at midfield by their third play. It took them 1:50 to score. A 44-yard pass from Cole Findlay to Gavin Stephens set up the Oilers' first touchdown, an 8-yard pass to Hank Lockhart late in the third quarter. Findlay's 1-yard run and PAT late in the game accounted for their second TD. McLane riddled the Oiler defense for 552 yards. Jacob Zietz had six catches for 209 yards. Oil City was held to 92 yards rushing and 241 yards in all, Findlay throwing for 149. The Oilers couldn't make anything happen in the first half, despite a long KO return to the GML 26 by Dawan Cruz.
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Meadville 42, Oilers 6
Fourth straight win for Meadville over the Oilers with a 157-14 PF-PA advantage for the Bulldogs since 2021. Jacoby Thompson scored two touchdowns and threw for another. Oil City fumbled the opening kickoff and it went downhill from there. Jordan Lawrence ran for 119 yards and two more TDs and Bradyn Miller added 103 yards. The Bulldogs outgained the Oilers, 420-230. They led 28-0 at halftime and 35-0 before the Oilers dented the scoreboard on a 75-yard pass from Cole Findlay to De'Vaughn Griffin in the fourth quarter.
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Oilers 28, Fairview 14
Cole Findlay threw three touchdown passes, two to De'Vaughn Griffin for 45 and 32 yards and the other to Gavin Stephens for 88. The Oilers led 21-0 after three quarters but had to withstand a Fairview rally in the fourth. The Tigers scored twice to get to within 21-14. They were looking for their third straight TD when Dawan Cruz broke up a pass on fourth down. The Oilers then put the game away on the 32-yard pass to Griffin. Trailing 8-0, Fairview was at the Oil City 4 when a Danny DeLong fumble recovery after a Steven Heise strip gave the ball back to the Oilers. That set up the TD to Stephens for the third longest passing touchdown in OCHS history. (Findlay to Stephens is also No. 2 on the list with their 89-yard TD last year against Meadville; school record is 90 yards, Holden Stahl to Brayden Crocker in 2019.) Heise also scored on a 15-yard run late in the third quarter. Findlay's 238 yards through the air and his three scoring strikes were career highs. The TD passes were the most, presumably, since Dylin Chapin threw four vs. Conneaut in 2017. Oil City, crippled by penalties (11-62), outgained the Tigers, 338-287. Stephens finished with four catches for 115 yards. Heise had an interception just before the first half ended, and Danny DeLong was in on 18 tackles, Kamdyn Reagle 11.
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Oilers 35, Grove City 21
Cole Findlay racked up 229 yards total offense and made an interception. The junior threw for 169 yards and two touchdowns to De'Vaughn Griffin covering 15 and 58 yards that gave the Oilers a 13-0 lead. Griffin finished with six catches for 119 yards and added a 33-yard TD run on a backwards pass. Freshman Shia Sanchez threw himself a coming out party of sorts with 124 yards rushing on 25 carries, including a 43-yard burst that set up his 3-yard touchdown run, the first of his two TDs. Sanchez also scored from the 1 in the fourth quarter. Hank Lockhart accounted for all the conversions -- three kicks and a two-pointer off a pass from Findlay. The Oilers outgained Grove City, 428-246, rolling up 259 on the ground. Sanchez became the Oilers' second 100-yard rusher of the season. Steven Heise, who was the first, also had an INT for the Oilers. The victory was the 58th for coach Dan York, tying him with Paul Stamm for the most in OCHS history. Grove City had two big plays for TDs -- a 41-yard run by QB Lucas McCreadie and a 58-yard pass to Nathan Greer, who totaled six catches for 105 yards.
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Erie 14, Oilers 7
A gallant effort by the Oilers, who were picked by the Erie paper to lose by four touchdowns to the speedy and slippery 6A Royals. Both Erie touchdowns came on quarterback keepers -- a 42-yard run in the first quarter and a 5-yard run in the third by Marqwan Darnell. It was tied 7-7 at halftime, thanks to a 38-yard touchdown from Cole Findlay to De'Vaughn Griffin. Earlier in the half, the Oilers were stopped on downs inside the 10. But much of the time Findlay was running for his life (5 for 19 for 90), and the ground game was hit-or-miss (32 for 91). And much of Erie's yardage came on chunk plays -- both on the positive and negative side. According to The Derrick, the Oiler defense racked up six sacks (two by Noah Lucarelli, while Danny DeLong, Ben Garland and senior lineman Kam Reagle could also be seen in the backfield) and five TFLs, not to mention a fumble recovery (Findlay) and an INT (Danny DeLong). In the end Garland was credited with 17 tackles, 3 TFL and 3 sacs, while Brayden Buzard added 13 tackles. Garland is averaging 13 tackles in the three games he's played. DeLong is averaging 10.7 and Reagle 8. There were also flags galore -- 27 for 223 yards combined. Erie led 278-175 in total yards with Darnell finishing with 207 yards total offense, but even he was only 8-for-23 passing.
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Oilers 62, Warren 0
Dan York became Oil City's all-time leader in coaching victories with 59, breaking Paul Stamm's record 58 from 1993-01. Oilers led 28-0 at the quarter and 49-0 at halftime, spoiling winless Warren's homecoming somewhat. De'Vaughn Griffin started the Oilers' parade of points with a 65-yard punt return -- same distance as a Dutch Butch runback in 1949. It was the 14th punt return for a TD in school history and the first since 2021when Ethen Knox logged one for 78 against Conneaut. Another Warren punt figured in the Oilers' next TD. Sophomore DE Noah Lucarelli blocked one, setting up Cole Findlay's 32-yard scamper. Later in the quarter, Findlay flipped a 12-yard score to Gavin Stephens before freshman Shia Sanchez hit pay dirt from the 6. The Oilers were into mercy rule for the second half when they made it 35-0 early in the second quarter on a 46-yard swing pass to Griffin. Findlay threw three touchdown passes, giving him 15 on the season. The other went to Griffin for 79 yards. In between the two TD receptions by Griffin was another TD run by Sanchez, this one for 5 yards. Second-half TDs came from Dawan Cruz for 17 yards and backup QB Alex McIntyre for 2. The Oilers finished with 464 total yards, 315 on the ground. Ten different Oilers logged carries, led by Sanchez with 11/79 and sophomore backup Dylan VanWormer with 8/43. Sanchez also scored a PAT. The Dragons were in the red with minus 35 yards total offense, all rushing, but didn't set any records, what with Titusville's minus 123 rushing and minus 44 total offense in 2020. Findlay, who attempted only six passes, threw for 137. Hank Lockhart made an interception, kicked four extra points and caught a two-point conversion pass from Findlay.
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Oilers 48, Franklin 6
Steven Heise, filling in at tailback for Shia Sanchez, scored a five touchdowns and ran for a 188 yards on 22 carries, both career highs. Sanchez left the game with an injury in the first quarter after rushing for 65 yards on the opening drive, which was capped by Heise's 8-yard burst for his first touchdown. Later on that quarter, the Oilers made it 14-3 on a 98-yard kickoff return by De'Vaughn Griffin -- the second longest in school history, topped only by Eric McDay's 99-yard return in 1995, also against Franklin. Heise also scored on runs of 63 and 3 yards to give the Oilers a 29-6 halftime lead. The Oilers also scored a second-quarter safety when the ball skipped out of the end zone. Heise added his fourth TD on a 7-yard run after Dawan Cruz returned the second-half kickoff 70 yards to the Franklin 25. The Oilers got the running clock going when quarterback Cole Findlay scored on a 19-yard run later on in the third quarter, and Heise added a 2-yard burst for his fifth touchdown later on. Fumble recoveries by Caleb Sparks and Spence Singleton led to the Oilers' last two touchdowns. The win proved costly injury-wise to the Oilers. Not only did they lose Sanchez, but hard-luck Ben Garland and Brayden Buzard also went down. Still, the Oiler defense twice turned away the Knights inside the 10, but Connor Ritchey got them on the board with 35- and 42-yard field goals. Hank Lockhart made a touchdown-saving tackle on a 55-yard run by Caleb Mincer before Ritchey'a first field goal. Danny DeLong led the Oilers with 11 tackles, giving him 90 for the season. Senior DL Kamdyn Reagle and sophomore LB Blake Stevens added 10 apiece. Reagle also had a sack and two TFLs. Reagle, Noah Lucarelli and Tanner Kightlinger kept the pressure on the QB with three hurries apiece.
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Corry 26, Oilers 21
Down two touchdowns, the Oilers rallied to take a 21-20 lead with 6:49 to play only to see the Beavers march down the field -- as they had all game -- to take it back and make it stand up. The Oilers were without five starters -- linebackers Ben Garland and Brayden Buzard and tailback Shia Sanchez, all went down early in the Franklin game -- and tailback Steven Heise, who ran for 188 yards against the Knights, and soph DE Noah Lucarelli were unavailable, too. Still it gave some younger players a chance to strut their stuff and some of them did, including fullback Lincoln Galla, who caught a 9-yard TD from Cole Findlay to cut a Corry lead to 20-14, and Spence Singleton, whose INT two plays later set up the go-ahead score, a 5-yard fourth down pass to tailback-at-the-moment Dawan Cruz. The TD was the second of the game for Cruz, who scored from the 2 on the Oilers' first possession. Hank Lockhart, who was iffy on extra points against Franklin, made all three this game. (He's now among the leaders on Oil City's modest all-time kicking list.) The Beavers' short passing game, orchestrated by QB Nolan Carey (234 yards, three TD passes, one on fourth-and-17) gave the Oilers fits all game -- although they did come up with a goal line stand at one point. Corry outgained the Oilers, 350-203. The Beavers are bound for the 3A playoffs with an 8-2 record. The Oilers finished the regular season with a 5-5 mark. and will play Meadville, also 5-5, in the 4A tournament. General McLane awaits the winner for the championship. D-10 brass will meet Sunday to draw up the schedule.
18 tackles
Danny DeLong
Ben Garland
Junior Steven Heise ran for career highs 188 yards and five touchdowns in the 48-6 win over Franklin.
Tanner Kighlinger (75) spearheads another strong Oiler line this season.