Kentucky QB commit Stone Saunders sets Pennsylvania passing touchdown record

Harrisburg (Pa.) Bishop McDevitt three-star quarterback Stone Saunders has etched his name into Pennsylvania high school football history.

In the first quarter of McDevitt’s game against Altoona, Saunders, a Kentucky commit, hurled a 38-yard touchdown pass to Dom Diaz-Ellis. With the score, Saunders set the state’s all-time record for passing touchdowns with 177 for his career.

Q1, 11:35 — 🚨 RECORD BREAKER 🚨

With this 38-yard pass to Dom Diaz-Ellis, Stone Saunders resets Pennsylvania’s all-time passing touchdown record with No. 177 of the Kentucky recruit’s career.

Bishop McDevitt 7, Altoona 0 pic.twitter.com/u8qQ28KDnZ

— Evan Wheaton (@EvanWheaton) September 27, 2024

Entering Friday night, Saunders had already thrown for over 1,200 yards and 20 TDs in his senior season. He’s eclipsed 3,000 yards through the air in each of his first three seasons under center for the Crusaders. As a junior, he threw for a career-high 56 scores, completing 329 passes.

Saunders committed to Kentucky over a year ago on Aug. 4, 2023. Despite another offensive coordinator change in Lexington this offseason, Saunders maintained that he was locked in with the Wildcats in an interview with KSR back in April.

“Yeah, definitely,” Saunders told Zack Geoghegan when asked if he feels even more confident about being committed to Kentucky after meeting new OC Bush Hamdan. “I sat down with him for like an hour and a half in the beginning of the day, just sat down and talked about me and the offense and talked about him and how he got here. What his goals are for the next couple of seasons and about the offense in general. I feel very comfortable.”

Saunders is the No. 696 overall prospect and No. 41 QB in the 2025 cycle, according to the On3 Industry Ranking, a weighted average that utilizes all four major recruiting media companies. He’s also the No. 19 player in Pennsylvania.

Bishop McDevitt entered Friday with a 4-1 record this season, averaging 46 points per game. The Crusaders entered the week as the No. 13 team in the state, per the On3 Massey Ratings. The On3 Massey Ratings — officially used during the BCS era and generated college high school sports team rankings since 1995 — rank sports teams by analyzing game outcomes, strength of schedule, and margin of victory.