Penn State Sports Magazine
Issue link: https://comanpub.uberflip.com/i/1430714
D E C E M B E R 2 0 2 1 5 9 W W W . B L U E W H I T E O N L I N E . C O M pass attempts for 322 yards and six touch- downs before being pulled from the game. Those stats grabbed the attention of many Penn State fans, but he's been on a tear since the end of September. Against Spring Grove on Oct. 8, Pribula com- pleted 18 of 22 attempts for 307 yards and four touchdowns in a 48-17 win. The week earlier at South Western, he com- pleted 13 of 17 attempts for 308 yards and three touchdowns in the Panthers' 60-0 romp. In a 68-21 win over Dover on Sept. 24, he completed all 10 pass attempts for 261 yards and four touchdowns before be- ing taken out. His completion percentage during that span of games was 87 percent. "It's hard to explain how much he's taken his game to a different level. He just takes over games when he needs to," Yon- chiuk said. "He's seeing the field so well now. Also, his competitive fire burns as much or more than ever, which says so much about him. I mean, he was the 6A Player of the Year last year in Pennsylva- nia and he's hungrier now than ever be- fore. He's just taken everything to a whole new level. He's extremely confident in his ability, and that's inwardly more than outwardly, which makes him just an ex- cellent leader and mentor. "When he comes to the sidelines, I'm picking his mind about everything be- cause he's seeing things so well, and I know he's going to be spot on. It's so re- freshing as a coach to have that because I recognize it's not normal. This isn't a once-in-every-10-years kind of player. This is a once in-a-lifetime kind of player for any coach." Against Dallastown, Pribula was asked to do more with his legs than with his arm, and he impressed there, too, averag- ing more than 12 yards per carry. "His leadership ability, his athletic abil- ity, his speed — it's all there," Yonchiuk said. "If you take a wheel and cut it into those intangibles, it's all there. People talk about Beau's arm strength as if it's a nega- tive. Let me tell you: His arm has gotten a whole lot stronger since last year. Our offense doesn't always allow him to really showcase it, but it really has. Also, he's a legit 4.5 kid. He ran a 4.6 for [Penn State] as a freshman. He's very athletic. He hang cleans 315 pounds, too. I mean, you don't see many quarterbacks doing that." Pribula's best pass of the night against Dallastown came in the second quarter when he threw a beautiful 23-yard fade in the corner of the end zone to give the Panthers a 14-6 lead. Yonchiuk said that in addition to the throw, Pribula deserved credit for the play call, which stemmed from a weakness that he spotted using the sideline HUDL system after the previous drive. "That fade pass speaks to what Beau is all about," Yonchiuk said. "Beau came over, started looking at the film and im- mediately noticed how close the defensive back was playing when we ran a hitch. He was saying, 'Coach, we have to double- move him. Let's fake him.' "It's like we're connected sometimes. That's how bright he is. He saw it right away. Of course, he then threw a ball that was absolutely perfect. You couldn't have put that in a better spot. We didn't need him to make a lot of difficult throws in this game, but whenever we've asked him to do that this season, he's been excellent for us." Now a senior, Pribula has stepped up as a more vocal leader, too, Yonchiuk said. "He's always been a great leader for us, but now he's like a coach on the field," he said. "Perfect example: We're at prac- tice watching something, and he ends up coaching our secondary on things that he sees as a quarterback so they know why they shouldn't do something. He's not trying to hammer them or anything like that, but he's so demanding and deter- mined to maximize this season. I've had some great leaders over the years. This is Year 38 for me. I've coached all over and I've never had anyone like Beau. He's just so ahead in all of that stuff. "But his ability to step in, explain why someone's not getting the job done, but also do it in a way that he's respected, is beyond his age. It's just not normal in this day and era. It's so cool to see that." Pribula has been Central York's top quarterback since the 2019 season, and after a 26-14 victory over Manheim Township on Nov. 5 in the District 3 Class 6A quarterfinals, his record as a starter was 30-3. ■ Pribula was the 6A Player of the Year in Pennsylvania as a junior in 2020. As a senior, he has thrown for 1,931 yards and 27 touchdowns against just four interceptions, despite playing sparingly in second halves of most games this year. PHOTO BY RYAN SNYDER