WEST SENECA, N.Y. (WIVB) — Further elevating his stature among Western New York’s all-time great football players, Elijah Kimble has galloped into the Canisius High School record books among his repeated crusades to the end zone.
Kimble became Canisius’ all-time leading rusher during the fourth game of his junior season, Saturday’s conquest of rival St. Joe’s at sun-kissed Stransky Field. The four-star recruit with more than two dozen major college scholarship offers, Kimble gained 254 yards on 12 carries with scoring runs covering 83, 73 and 65 yards in the 45-28 victory, the Crusaders’ 12th straight in the 103rd meeting between Buffalo’s Catholic schools that was recognized this year by the Great American Rivalry Series.
“I’m very blessed,” said Kimble, who wore a custom-printed t-shirt with his picture on the front and “ALL-TIME RUSHING LEADER” on the back along with the Great American Rivalry Series MVP medal during the postgame celebration. “Coming into high school, I didn’t think I would do all that. I had great guys to motivate me.”
With 4,283 yards and 61 touchdowns in his career thus far, Kimble broke records set in 2013 by Qadree Ollison, who went on to rush for 2,859 more yards at University of Pittsburgh, and play five NFL seasons after being a fifth-round draft pick of the Atlanta Falcons.
“It validates what we’re doing as a program, it validates Elijah’s career,” said Crusaders coach Kraig Kurzanzki , a 1984 Canisius graduate . “Qadree was great. But we’ve been playing football a long time here at Canisius High School. And that young boy has the record. I would say it’s a pretty impressive record because before 1975 or 1980, we didn’t really throw the ball. So a lot of guys had the chance to get a lot of yards on the ground. And he’s surpassed them all. So I’m proud of who he is, and I’m proud of who he is becoming.”
Still not halfway through his junior season, Kimble is now within a dozen yards of the top 20 on WNY’s career rushing list, 701 yards from the Monsignor Martin league record set by Cardinal O’Hara’s Reggie Garner in 2007, and 2,276 yards behind the all-time standard Clymer’s Jehuu Caulcrick has held since 2002. In Saturday’s game, Kimble surpassed nine career rushing totals from a who’s who of record-setters and NFL players : Zak Kedron (St. Francis), Joe Cerminera (Lew-Port), Ray Braxton (Lackawanna), Joe Kuzmierski (Tonawanda), Eric Everett (Cleveland-Hill), Jaylen Butera (Jamestown), David Fluellen (Lockport), Aaron Leeper (Jamestown), and Ollison.
Kimble’s astonishing rushing totals have come alongside another outstanding runner in Amir Hernandez, who had 139 yards and four touchdowns on his 12 carries in Saturday’s win. Often deployed in wildcat formations alongside Kimble, the shifty Hernandez is being recruited by lower Division I colleges.
“It’s a lot of stress on the defense when they don’t know who is going to get the ball,” Kimble said. “We’re two unselfish players. I’m going to block for him, he’s going to block for me. We’re going to get it done.”
Among the Power 5 programs coveting Kimble, who is rated as the top running back in New York State and top 10 nationally in his recruiting class by 247Sports, include the past three national champions: Georgia, Michigan and Ohio State.
“I like the Buckeyes a lot,” a grinning Kimble said while wearing an Ohio State headband beneath his helmet. In last year’s win at St. Joe’s, he wore Buckeyes gloves.
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Jonah Bronstein joined the WIVB squad in 2022 as a digital sports reporter. The Buffalonian has covered the Bills, Sabres, Bandits, Bisons, colleges, high schools and other notable sporting events in Western New York since 2005, for publications including The Associated Press, The Buffalo News, and Niagara Gazette. Read more of his work here.
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