(EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the third of a four-part series on the units for Saturday’s 45th annual Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic at Bradford’s Parkway Field. Today, the Pennsylvania offense.)

When the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic committee first put together the Pennsylvania roster for Saturday night’s 45th annual game, it numbered 43 players.

But as defections – injury, college conflicts and military commitments – took place, Pennsy’s roster shrunk to 38. And the major victim was the offense.

That forced the coordinator, Kane’s Tyler Smith, to do some major juggling on a unit that was left with one center and no true tight ends.

But with only a walk-through to go before kickoff, Smith, who has resigned his post at Kane along with head coach Todd Silfies and fellow assistants Royce Novosel-Johnson, Christopher Barber and Jim Sirianni for family considerations, still feels confident in his platoon.

“WE’RE GOING to run a pro-style offense,” he said. “But it won’t be fully spread. We’ll keep two backs in and work on a downhill running game … that’s still the key to winning in football.

“And, we’ve got an excellent group of running backs.”

That group includes Bradford’s 240-pound John Eakin, Erik DeLong (Kane), Tim Beimel (St. Marys) and Noah Myers (Warren).

There’s also a sparkling tandem at quarterback – Kane’s Reed Williams (6-foot-1, 185) and Otto-Eldred’s Sawyer Drummond (6-1, 205) – who bring different skills.

Williams, fresh from leading the Allegheny Mountain League team to victory over the Keystone-Shortway Athletic Conference in June’s Frank Varischetti All-Star Game, is an accomplished passer who led the Wolves to a 36-3 record the past three seasons.

“He knows the system and is like having an assistant coach on the field,” Smith said of Williams. “He’s been coaching (Drummond) every practice. Reed is a talented player and good passer and Sawyer is a big, strong, excellent athlete who’s great on the run.”

The situation at wide receiver/tight end is interesting.

“We didn’t have tight ends, per se, at least not size-wise,” Smith said. “They’re not guys you’d put on the end of the line to block for the running game. And, we wouldn’t do that anyway … our tight ends (in Kane’s offense) are split out a bit and take a wide receiver’s stance.”

Thus, Pennsy’s tight ends are St. Marys’ Carter Julian and Coudersport’s David Burd, both 160 pounds. The three wideouts are Neil MacDonald (Ridgway), Raymond Maze (Kane) and Dylan Close (Otto-Eldred).

BUT IT’S on the line where Smith had to do some juggling.

The lone center is Kane’s Tyler Snyder while the guards are Smethport’s Matthew Stratton, Ridgway’s Devin Gilmore and Otto-Eldred’s Michael Motya. Pennsy’s tackles are Jordan Sherwood (Otto-Eldred), Dalton Feiro (Bradford) and Cyrus Novosel (Kane).

“We had to talk to the committee about our situation at center,” Smith said. “They didn’t like the idea of a player going the whole game, but we pointed out that if we made a guard or tackle a second center, then either the guards, or tackles would play the whole game. We felt it was better to have one position affected, rather than two.”

But Smith also has a key advantage. Nine Kane players are on Pennsy’s 38-man unit, five on offense.

With Snyder always on the field, when Williams is at QB with DeLong at running back and Maze at wideout, he can have four Wolves, intimately familiar with the scheme, on the field at the same time.

“That knowledge helps,” Smith admitted, “but all these kids have picked things up really well. By Monday’s practice we had 85 percent of the offense – which was three full pages of plays – put in … and they understood it.”

Smith, who has five children, opted to temporarily step away from coaching along with Silfies and the other three assistants, with all being fathers of young offspring.

“I was pretty mentally prepared for this when last season ended,” he said of resigning. “Then I had a chance to help Todd coach in the Varischetti Game. And when the offer came for the Big 30 Game, I was through the roof, so excited to coach.

“It will be sad when it’s over, but we got these two extra weeks, which was great. And though I don’t know when at this point, we’ll be back eventually.”

(TOMORROW: The New York defense)