I had cousins who played for New Castle, Pa. and they were the ones that first told me about Mr. Dorsett as the Hurricanes played Hopewell every year then. I saw TD twice but the first time really can't be counted because he got hurt early in the game. It was in his junior season at Sharon, Pa. Hopewell came into the game undefeated, I think they were 8-0, and Sharon only had two wins. When Sharon scored first to take a 7-0 lead it was reported that was the first time all season that the Vikings trailed in a game.
Unfortunately, Mr. Dorsett suffered a concussion early in the 2nd quarter, playing defense, and didn't play the rest of the game so I didn't really see enough of him in that game to have much of an impression about how good he was or would be. Sharon went on to beat Hopewell 19-6 to give the Vikings their only loss of the year. IIRC without Mr. Dorsett Hopewell scored late in the game on about a 75 to 80-yard pass play. They couldn't generate much offense without him.
The next year I saw him at New Castle. The Hurricanes held him in check in the first half and they led Hopewell 12-0 at halftime. The Vikings took the 2nd half KO and led by Tony D, he had about a 35-40 yard run on the first play from scrimmage and then scored their first TD on a 15-yard run a few plays later, they cut the NC lead to 12-7.
The play I remember the most happened on NC's next possession. The Hurricanes were at about midfield when their QB tried to go deep and Mr. Dorsett intercepted the pass at about his own 20-yard line. You could see within about two steps that he was going to take it to the house. He went pretty much straight up the middle of the field 80 yards for the go ahead score. He just pulled away from everybody on the way to the end zone. At the very least one knew he definitely had D1 speed just watching that play. Hopewell added another TD and beat New Castle, 21-12. My cousin told me that New Castle's HC at the time, Lindy Lauro, said that Mr. Dorsett was a great RB but Lauro thought he was an even better DB. He did make a lot of tackles as he was all over the field defensively in that game. However, T.D. was a Parade All-American RB that season.
I think Hopewell played Sharon the week after the New Castle game. I didn't see that one but I do remember reading that T.D. set a Hopewell single game rushing record of 250 yards against the Tigers to avenge the prior year's only loss. Hopewell had one loss again in Mr. Dorsett's senior season. I'm pretty sure the loss was to Butler but in any case the Vikings were not eligible for the WPIAL championship either season as, IIRC, at that time in the WPIAL a team had to be undefeated to be eligible for the playoffs. Maybe Irwin20 can verify that. Also, as Irwin20 said how can one predict a Heisman Trophy and NFL HOF career for a HS player, no matter how good he looks at that level?
