PASSING ALONG SOME city high school football tidbits...

Disobeying orders sometimes works out great. For verification, check with Brandon Hollomon, who's just now catching his breath.

Forever, coaches have told punt returners to not touch balls inside the 10-yard line. But in West Catholic's 44-0 win over Dougherty in a Catholic AA semifinal Friday night at Truman High in Levittown, Hollomon scored one of his four touchdowns on a 99-yard return.

That effort broke the oldest (by far) city playoff record: Roman's Charlie McKinney uncorked a 95-yard, punt-return TD vs. long-gone Villanova Prep in the 1922 CL final. That game was played at Baker Bowl, then the Phillies' home.

"If I'd gotten tackled, I know the coaches would have been mad at me," Hollomon said, laughing. "But they were happy with the end result."

Hollomon said the ball bounced a couple times and that he was facing West's sideline when he picked it up.

"I never thought to pick up a ball that close to the goal line before," he noted. "Although I saw Dougherty guys coming at me, I also saw two blockers. One guy tried to grab me when I first picked it up, but Raymond Manuel gave me a good block and I put a move on somebody else. After that it was nothing. Running down our sideline, I just heard lots of cheering."

Incredibly, Brandon's return TD is not the longest in family history. His brother, Rob, scooted 100 yards with an interception in a 2007 regular-season game, also vs. Dougherty. (He actually covered 106, but scoring rules allow for only 100.)

Rob, also a running back, is now starring for Cushing Academy in Massachusetts, and drawing Division I interest.

Can we assume Brandon's first postgame call was to Rob?

"He was talking to my mom [Velvet] during the game," he said. "I think she was giving him play by play."

Two more members of the mixed dominance club: Quarterbacks Joe McCausland (Lincoln) and Drew Siegfried (McDevitt) throw righthanded, but punt leftfooted. So did ex-NFLer Rich Gannon when he starred for St. Joseph's Prep...O'Hara's Corey Brown, bound for Ohio State, now boasts 1,380 yards of rushing/receiving this season and 3,715 for his career. Breakdown: 2,880 rushing and 835 receiving...Both teams showed up wearing white jerseys for West Philly at Franklin. The latter changed into blue and Marquis White ran for a school record 298 yards (Maurice Dantzler had 254 in '05)... Kudos to La Salle University for agreeing to host the final North CatholicFrankford Thanksgiving meeting...In a Catholic AA semi, Carroll needed 15 plays to march 59 yards from its 20 to McDevitt's 21. The drive then fizzled. The teams combined for one pass (Carroll's Chris Shuster, incomplete) in a 40-minute first half ... Bartram's 21-7 AAAA quarterfinal win over Central was the first Pub playoff since '04, with both teams scoring, to feature successful kicks after all touchdowns. Bartram's Teah Wesseh and Central's Joe Guarnieri did the honors... After Bartram QB Al-Hajj Shabazz ripped off a few successful early runs, Central coach Rich Drayton bellowed, "Will someone please hit that guy!? Is he Superman!? I don't think so!!" ...West Catholic's Tim Carroll (152) needs six PATs to wrest the city career record from '03 SJ Prep grad Pat Kaiser (157)...Nafi Lyles, listed at 5-3, 125, made two interceptions for Gratz vs. Penn. He's just a liiiiiittle smaller than Germantown's Kwame Miller, who's listed at 6-4, 430...Box-score readers love the fact that Fels' new kicker is named Charles Quick... The 89-yarder from Del-Val's Sean Williams to Brad Wilson is the longest TD pass play in city playoff history, breaking an 86-yarder from Roxborough's Bradford Jenkins to Roger Hillanbrand in a '92 Pub semi... Trying to assure he wouldn't get doused, D-V coach Barry Thomas emptied the jug of water and ice cubes late in the 34-20 win over Future. Players scooped the ice cubes off the ground and put them back in the jug and others filled it with water from bottles. Star linebacker Ameer Selden got him as time expired.i

Send e-mail to silaryt@phillynews.com