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Relay for Life of Wyoming Valley to hold Bark for Life pet walk Oct. 24 at Kirby Park in Wilkes-Barre to benefit American Cancer Society

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Injuries in focus as Nittany Lions host Hoosiers

The Wilkes University football program has been part of many historical moments in its 69 years of existence.From the Golden Horde team that won 32 straight games in the mid-sixties through the current year, many team records have come and gone.One mark that has stood since the 1990&#8217;s is the team record for career passing yards with Boo Perry&#8217;s 6,940 after the 1996 season.There&#8217;s a long way to go to get there, but current Wilkes signal-caller Ryan Dailey is on pace to get close to that number.Dailey, a junior is on pace to shatter Perry&#8217;s mark. Dailey is averaging 269.0 passing yards per game this season and enters Saturday&#8217;s game at unbeaten Albright with 3,524 passing yards in his career. Through 15 career games, he&#8217;s already seventh on the school&#8217;s all-time passing list.If Dailey were to continue to average that many yards a game through five more games this season, and 10 in 2016, he would breeze past Perry&#8217;s numbers by more than 500 yards. Even if he averages just 234 yards per game, which is his career average, the rest of the way, he would still become the first QB in school history to reach 7,000 career passing yards. His 1,345 yards this season are just 1,124 short of the Colonels&#8217; single-season passing yards mark, which was also set in the nineties.&#8220;I love throwing the ball 50 times a game,&#8221; Dailey said. &#8220;It&#8217;s much better than handing it off.&#8221;Still, Daily, who was recruited from the Lehigh Valley&#8217;s Wilson High School, would gladly exchange all those numbers for victories. Because in his year and a half as starter for the Colonels, the team has posted just a 3-12 mark.&#8220;I don&#8217;t really look into the numbers and yeah the numbers are nice and all that stuff, but I would take all the stats away (to not be) a 1-4 team right now,&#8221; said Dailey, who ran a similar offense at Wilson with shotgun formation, four receivers and a pass-heavy format. &#8220;If I only had 100 yards and we got the W that&#8217;s all that matters. I&#8217;m not really a personal guy with stats and stuff. I&#8217;d rather win more than anything.&#8221;Daily&#8217;s progressed vastly from his first day with Wilkes coach Trey Brown, who implemented the team&#8217;s current high-powered, quick-moving offense. But, Brown says, Dailey has yet to reach his ultimate potential, and has some work to do to get there, like improving his current touchdown-to-interception ratio which is 7-8.Both Brown and Dailey would also like the QB to get more consistent and make better decisions. Once he does those things, then the team could then be reeling off numerous consecutive victories. And with another season and half to reach his ceiling, there&#8217;s still plenty of time to achieve the ultimate goal of multiple straight wins.&#8220;I think at the QB position, you never really arrive in my opinion. The end is never really there,&#8221; said Brown, who has admitted to being critical about the position. &#8220;Has Ryan progressed? Absolutely. Am I pleased with some things he&#8217;s doing now than when I first worked with him? Absolutely. Is he close to arriving? No way. He&#8217;s got a lot of things he&#8217;s gotta keep working on and I&#8217;m excited to be working with him.&#8220;I think if you can get stability at that position then it gives you a chance to build around him a little bit,&#8221; Brown said. &#8220;And that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m so critical of that position right now because he has to keep performing and getting better at certain areas and continual growth has to happen.&#8221;Brown, Dailey and the rest of the Colonels (1-3 MAC, 1-4 overall) won&#8217;t have any type of advantage on Saturday when they face unbeaten Albright (3-0, 4-0), which is currently ranked No. 19 in the AFCA Division III poll. The Lions currently lead the MAC with 31.0 points per game. Defensively is where the Lions have been excelling the most allowing just 14.0 points a game, amassing eight interceptions and allowing just four passing TDs all season, while giving up an average of just 176.5 yards in the air per game.&#8220;They&#8217;re a hard physical team. They&#8217;re just hard-nosed, aggressive guys,&#8221; Dailey said. &#8220;They run a basic defense so they must be doing something right being 5-0.&#8221;Wilkes (1-3 MAC, 1-4 overall) at No. 19 Albright (3-0 MAC, 4-0 overall)When: 1 p.m. Saturday at Shirk Stadium, ReadingColonels team leaders: QB Ryan Dailey 1,345 yards, 7 TD, 8 INTs, 61.5 completion percentage; RB PJ Incremona 259 yards, 1TD; WR Storm Deemer 31 rec, 309 yards; WR Aaron Coyne 27 rec, 303 yards, 4TD; Jordan Stiles 2int; Tanner Stengel 62 tackles, 2 sacksLions team leaders: QB Mike Knight 673 yards, 5 TD, 5int, 59.8 completion percentage, 115 rush yards; RB Brian Wickkiser 200 rush yards, 4TD; WR Malik Jackson 26 rec, 191 yards, 1TD; WR Vinny Williams 19 rec, 188 yards, 2TD; Steve Barroso 3 int; Kevin Mason 30 tackles; Jamal Hayden 28 tackles, 2.5 sacksPregame Stat: Wilkes linebacker Tanner Stengel leads the MAC with 62 tackles, including 43 solo tackles. Both numbers are far more than anyone else in the conference. In total tackles, the next closest to Stengel is Stevenson&#8217;s Brady Kempa with 49. In solo tackles, FDU-Florham&#8217;s Chris Fitzgerald is second with 29. Colonels defensive end Jason Ugwu is tied for the MAC lead with two fumble recoveries.<style>
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<div class="neCaption">Wilkes quarterback Ryan Dailey scrambles during last week&#8217;s game against Widener. Dailey, a junior, is already climbing up the charts of many Colonels&#8217; passing records. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/10/web1_wilkeswidener021.jpg</photo0><caption0>Wilkes quarterback Ryan Dailey scrambles during last week&#8217;s game against Widener. Dailey, a junior, is already climbing up the charts of many Colonels&#8217; passing records. </caption0><photoCredit0></photoCredit0></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta>By Dave Rosengrantdrosengrant@www.timesleader.com</bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta>MAC Football StandingsSchool`MAC`OverallStevenson`4-0`5-0Albright`3-0`4-0Delaware Valley`3-1`4-1Widener`3-1`3-2Lebanon Valley`2-3`2-3FDU-Florham`1-2`2-2King&#8217;s`1-3`1-4Lycoming`1-3`1-4Wilkes`1-3`1-4Misericordia`0-4`0-5Last Week&#8217;s ResultsDelaware Valley 40, FDU-Florham 7Stevenson 13, King&#8217;s 7Widener 27, Wilkes 7Albright 41, Misericordia 13Lebanon Valley 41, Lycoming 38This Week&#8217;s GamesWilkes at AlbrightStevenson at Delaware ValleyFDU-Florham at Lebanon ValleyKing&#8217;s, Misericordia, Widener, Lycoming byeNext Week&#8217;s GamesLycoming at King&#8217;sMisericordia at WidenerAlbright at FDU-FlorhamWilkes, Lebanon Valley, Delaware Valley, Stevenson bye</factboxMeta></div>

Wilkes quarterback Dailey is on pace to rewrite record books