Eight Lehman Catholic and Riverside football players have earned spots on all-Northwest Central Conference first or second teams, with six landing spots on first team.
Lehman Catholic’s Brendan O’Leary, Conner Stewart, Ethan Potts, John Edwards and Drew Barhorst were named first team, along with Riverside’s Ethan Burrows.
O’Leary, a senior receiver, was named first team as a wideout. He caught a team-high 49 passes for 964 yards with 14 touchdowns. Stewart, a junior, was named first team as an offensive tackle and Burrows, a junior, was named first team as an offensive guard.
Edwards, a sophomore linebacker, was named first team on defense. He led the Cavaliers with 106 tackles, including six for loss. He also intercepted three passes.
Burrows was also named first team as a linebacker. He led the team with 84 tackles and had six tackles for loss. He also had three fumble recoveries.
Barhorst was named first team as a defensive back. He had 60.5 tackles, three fumble recoveries and two interceptions.
Potts was named first team as a kicker and Barhorst was named first team as a punter. Potts averaged 42.5 yards per kickoff, made 25-of-29 extra point attempts and 3-of-3 field goal attempts. Barhorst punted 38 times for 1,405 yards — an average of 37 per punt.
Riverside quarterback Kale Long was named second team, along with running back Ethan Jackson.
Long completed 87-of-165 passes for 1,059 yards and nine touchdowns with 16 interceptions and also ran for a team-high 1,455 yards on 178 carries with 17 touchdowns. He became the school’s first quarterback to pass and run for at least 1,000 yards in a season. Jackson’s blocking helped Long accrue those numbers.
Long was also named second team as linebacker. He accumulated 67 tackles, including six for loss. He also had two sacks, two fumble recoveries and one interception.
Riverside senior Levi Godwin, sophomore Deven Frilling and freshman Walker Whitaker were named honorable mention along with Lehman seniors Danny Lins and Seth Peoples and junior Landon McIver.
Riverside and Lehman tied with Waynesfield-Goshen for third place in the NWCC with 4-3 records.
Lima Perry, which went undefeated and won the league with a 7-0 record, swept player and coach of the year honors. Receiver Chazz Jackson was named offensive player of the year, defensive back Devares Glenn was named defensive player of the year and coach Dan Baker earned coach of the year honors.
