After introducing a spread offense to his team three years ago, Quaker Valley coach Jeff Besong has tried seven players at quarterback.

The one constant has been his running back. Senior Kortezz Martin has been starting since his freshman season when Besong was the offensive coordinator. Martin led the team in rushing the past two seasons and is well on his way to doing so again.

He has emerged as one of the top running backs in the Class AA Century Conference and has helped Quaker Valley to consecutive victories and a 3-3 overall and conference record.

That record marks a significant turnaround, considering the Quakers have averaged only one win a season over the past five years. When Besong took the job, he told people he would need three years to turn things around and this year -- his third season at the helm -- Besong's team finds itself in the thick of the WPIAL playoff race in the Century Conference.

"I was disappointed at the beginning of the season [after QV started 1-3]," Martin said. "I thought we should have won some of those games.

"People do not believe me when I say this, but I go into every game thinking we are going to win. When we were 1-3, I kept saying that we would turn it around. This is our last chance as seniors and we just pulled together."

Quaker Valley is tied with Steel Valley for fourth place behind a pair of undefeated 6-0 teams in Keystone Oaks and Sto-Rox and 5-1 Seton-LaSalle. It faces conference co-leader Keystone Oaks (6-0) tomorrow night, but then closes the season against two teams at the bottom of the conference standings, Northgate (1-5) and Cornell (0-6).

"Our team has played extremely well and I am real proud of the boys," Besong said.

"They are starting to show that they can compete. This is the year we said we are going to turn it around. I honestly think we could easily be 5-1 right now. The boys have played really well.

"We are trying to create a whole atmosphere of winning around here and the players need to start believing in themselves."

Martin had a big game Friday night against South Park in a critical win. He ran for 261 yards on 24 carries and scored the winning touchdown on a 45-yard run with less than two minutes to play in the 31-28 win. That was certainly not his only long run of the game. Martin also broke free for touchdown runs of 63 and 60 yards.

In a crucial 9-6 win against Steel Valley the week before, Martin once again scored the winning touchdown on a 14-yard run in the third quarter. He ran for 976 yards last season and is poised to surpass the 1,000 yard milestone this season. He already has 779 yards after six games.

"Kortezz has been a vital part of the team," Besong said. "He is the leader not just on Friday nights, but Monday through Thursday, too. He has God-given talents and his attitude since last year has really come around. He is our team leader and the kids like being around him."

During the past four seasons, Martin has seen a virtual revolving door at quarterback, but now sophomore Patrick Conlan has emerged as the starter and has really adapted well to the wide-open offensive system. The quarterback play has also helped a Quakers offense that routinely sees defenses putting nine players in the box to slow down Martin.

"It has helped so much having [Conlan] at quarterback," Martin said. "He will scramble and make things happen. He is not scared of contact. I have seen him try to run some people over."

Besong has coached most of the players, including Martin, since youth league football. Martin left the school district for three years and moved to the Sto-Rox School District, but returned before starting high school.

"He has matured as a person and he has really become a very nice young man," Besong said.

"I have had the pleasure of watching him the last seven or eight years and Friday night was a big break-out game for him.

"They had eight or nine guys in the box and it was tough to run against, but he found a way to stretch it out."