You know something special is happening when people show up at 4:30 for a high school football game that starts at 7 o’clock.

An appearance by a superstar athlete can make that happen.

Saquon Barkley was coming back to his alma mater to be feted at halftime of the Whitehall-Liberty game and become only the third Zephyrs football player to have his number retired.

In his high school career, Barkley rushed for 3,642 yards and scored 61 touchdowns, both school records. e went on to star at Penn State for three years setting school records for career rushing touchdowns (43) and most yards in a game (358 against Iowa). was the second overall pick in the 2018 NFL Draft and won the 2018 Offensive Rookie of the Year with the New York Giants.

Barkley recounted a story that set him on his path to NFL stardom

“There would be no Saquon Barkley without Whitehall and I mean that from the heart,” he said. “There was one point after my sophomore year, I think I had a 1.9 GPA. And this is when colleges started coming and knocking on the door. I remember I didn’t want to play college at some point. Coach (Brian) Gilbert told me about a Villanova camp, told me I should go to it. I said, ‘My grades aren’t too good; I don’t know if I want to play college football.’ And he told me I should change my mind. That kind of pushed me and made me work a lot harder. M sophomore year I went from about 5-7, 155 pounds to 5-9, 5-10, 190 pounds. That’s when I kind of made my mind up that I’m going to do this and I’m going to take it as far as I can.”

Barkley’s number-21 joins Matt Millen’s 83 and Dan Koppen’s 77 as numbers that will never be worn by another Zephyr. Saquon’s brother Ali was the last player to wear 21.

Head coach Matt Senneca described the impact of having players like Millen, Koppen, and Barkley to set the standard.

“As a program, to have alumni like that and for those kids to walk into the stadium every day for practice and see those jerseys hanging up and what they can accomplish and what’s in front of them, it’s really neat,” he said. “I don’t know too many other schools that have six Super Bowl rings and three retired jerseys with the NFL stats that they have.”

Wrapped around the Barkley celebration was the Zephyrs’ 30-6 win over Liberty that moved Whitehall to 3-0 on the season.

Nigel Linton had a monster game rushing for 114 yards on 15 carries with three touchdowns. He added 31 yards receiving for good measure.

Quinn Wentling was 13 of 20 passing for 144 yards and 2 interceptions, although one was on a Hail Mary at the end of the first half. He s team’s second leading rusher with 86 yards and a touchdown.

Tommy Buskirk hauled in 5 passes for 61 yards to lead the Zephyrs in both categories.

The Whitehall offense has been prolific this season and its skill players have received much deserved attention. After the game, Senneca spoke about his offensive line.

“I don’t think they get enough credit for what our skill guys are able to do,” he said. “Nothing goes without those guys up front. Without them, we’re not putting 30 points on the board. Joey H n, Jack Jacobus, Logan Headman, Carter Hudak, Anthony Saed, and Xander Wehbey, they deserve a lot of credit.”

The Zephyr defense deserves its fair share of credit too. Liberty lone score came on a 39-yard Hail Mary on 4th and 17 on their final possession of the game. Whitehall has given up a total of 20 points through 3 games while scoring 121.

On Friday Whitehall travels to Emmaus to take on the Hornets. After beating Freedom in week 2, some people considered Emmaus to be the best team in the area, but they were shut down by Central last week 21-0. Their call g card in the early season has been a stingy defense so it looks like a battle between the teams’ strongest units will decide the outcome.