Seneca Valley's Corbin Kessler (15) has opted to continue his academuic and football career at Mercyhurst University. He spurned a baseball offer from Eastern Michigan to stay with football.

JACKSON TWP — Corbin Kessler and Cody Boozel both proved their worth on the gridiron in high school.

Now they are looking forward to the challenge of doing the same in college.

The Seneca Valley seniors and Harmony residents signed letters of intent recently to attend and play football at Mercyhurst University and West Chester, respectively.

Mercyhurst benefitted from Kessler’s change of heart.

A star infielder for the Seneca Valley baseball team, Kessler made a verbal commitment last summer to play the sport at Eastern Michigan. But in the middle of the football season last fall, he decided that he wanted his athletic future to be on the football field. He will play safety at Mercyhurst.

“I always knew I wanted to play football in college,” said Kessler, “but baseball recruiting comes a lot earlier than football. It was a tricky situation. I actually wanted to play both sports, but it’s a lot harder to do (in college) with the workload.”

Kessler (6-foot-1, 190 pounds) played quarterback, halfback and receiver at Seneca Valley, but also showed his big-play ability on defense. In his three years of starting in SV’s secondary, he totaled nearly 150 tackles and eight interceptions.

“Corbin has a very good blend of physicalness and ability to run,” replied Mercyhurst coach Marty Schaetzle in an emailed interview. “We also like his overall football knowledge.”

Kessler returned a kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown last season against Norwin.

“His ability to run increases his chances of not only playing defensively, but also on special teams,” wrote Schaetzle. “Special teams is often a great way to prove yourself when you reach a new level. Corbin will be evaluated on kickoff returns.”

Kessler welcomes any opportunity to get on the field as a true freshman next fall.

“I’ve been returning kicks for a while and am looking forward to that challenge,” he said.

From his junior year to his senior season, Boozel made an impressive jump at tight end. He caught 13 passes for 196 yards and a pair of touchdowns in 2014. This past season, he was one of junior quarterback Jack Cook’s favorite targets, grabbing 29 passes for 398 yards and four scores, helping SV return to the WPIAL Quad A playoffs after going 2-7 in 2014.

“We lost a lot of seniors from the year before,” said Boozel. “I think last season went better than we expected and I was happy with how I was able to help the team.”

West Chester coach Bill Zwaan believes Boozel is a good fit for the team’s spread Wing-T offense.

“We love his size (6-4, 220) and speed at tight end,” he wrote. “He is a great route runner and fits well in our offense that has had some good tight ends. We will use him as a receiving tight end early in his career with the idea that he will become a good blocker as he gains strength and weight.”

Boozel has several close family members in the Philadelphia area, which helped in his college decision, but he took other factors into account.

“It’s PSAC football, which is good football,” he said. “West Chester has between 15,000-16,000 students and that’s the size of school I was looking for.”

Kessler (defense) and Boozel (offense) both made the Butler Eagle’s Sweet 16 All-Star Team last fall. Now that they will be playing in the Western and Eastern division of the PSAC, respectively, there’s a chance they could face each other on the field.

“We’ve talked about that,” said Boozel. “That would be awesome.”