Pennsylvania high school running back
Ethen Knox of
Oil City continued his record-breaking campaign Friday in a 30-14 win over Titusville. The 6-foot-1, 190-pound junior became just the fourth player in history to rush for 3,000 yards in the first nine games of a season and posted his seventh 400-yard performance this fall.
Knox needed just 43 yards entering Friday's contest to get to 3,000. He got there early, scoring two touchdowns in the first half to help send his Oilers (7-2) to the locker room with a 14-7 lead.
In addition to intercepting a pair of passes against Titusville, Knox topped the 400-yard mark for the seventh time in the last eight games, scored four touchdowns (1, 1, 34 and 30 yards, respectively) and ran in three two-point conversions to account for all 30 of Oil City's points.
For the season, Knox has over 3,300 yards and 37 touchdowns heading into next Friday's regular season finale against Sharon (5-4)
Last week in a 34-7 win over Conneaut Area, Oil City went to Knox an incredible 54 times for a season-high 444 yards and four touchdowns. As a junior, he rushed for 1,825 yards and 14 touchdowns in just eight games.
According to Kevin Askeland of MaxPreps, only two players are known to have gone over 3,000 yards in nine games with a third believed to have done so nearly 70 years ago. Tyler Ebell of Ventura (Calif.) had 3,102 yards in nine games in 2000, David Dotson of Valley View (Moreno Valley, Calif.) had 3,069 yards in 1991 and Ken Hall of Sugar Land (Texas) likely did it in 1953 based on his 337-yard average during that season.
Knox's efforts this season have helped Oil City compile a 7-2 record. (File photo: Eric Elliott)
