SHEFFIELD — One of the biggest reasons why Smethport was seen as a favorite to win the District 9 Small School North Division heading into this season was the fact that the Hubbers were returning many of their key playmakers from a season ago.
Those players showed up on Saturday and put on a show against Sheffield as the Hubbers rolled to a 54-6 season-opening victory.
“It’s a good feeling to get that first win of the season right out of the gate,” Smethport coach Adam Jack said after the game.
The contest was essentially over before it started, as Smethport scored 28 points in the first quarter and 48 in the first half.
For as lopsided as the scoreline was, the Hubbers only recorded 299 yards of offense and six first downs. This was because they were scoring so quickly so often that they never held on to the ball for very long.
Making some of the biggest plays for Smethport were the senior duo of Grant Ognen and Blake Kinner.
Ognen needed only four completions to rack up 126 yards through the air, with three of those passes going for touchdowns.
Kinner, meanwhile, was a monster in all aspects of the game: the 6’3”, 215-pound senior scored four touchdowns, with two coming on the ground (16 and 41 yards), one coming through the air (49 yards), and another one coming on defense via a fumble recovery.
All told, Kinner finished with 123 yards from scrimmage (74 rushing, 49 receiving).
But the reason why Smethport was so dominant on Saturday, and why they figure to be a serious contender amongst the small schools in 2018, is the collection of talent they have on offense.
Nathan Hollowell, the other returning senior from last year’s starting backfield, racked up 54 yards on just six carries.
The diminutive but speedy Johnson brothers — junior Bryent and sophomore Braedon — both had their share of big plays. Bryent finished as the game’s leading receiver with three catches for 81 yards and two touchdowns. Braedon, meanwhile, had four carries for 22 yards in addition to a couple of long punt returns that gave Smethport great field position.
Trying to spread the ball around to so many great playmakers is a problem many coaches would love to have.
“We tried to spread the ball around a little bit and we did well in the first half passing the ball,” Jack said. “I wasn’t real happy with our running game in the first half. But everybody got a lot of touches today and we tried to utilize our skill players the best way we could.”
Another name to keep an eye on is freshman Noah Lent, who had been challenging Ognen for the starting quarterback job and threw a five-yard touchdown pass to Richard McDowell on Saturday.
“I thought both quarterbacks played well,” Jack said. “Grant has a good command of the offense and he threw some nice balls today. Noah as a freshman… has a different set of strengths versus Grant. We tried to utilize those today and I thought he did a nice job for a freshman.”
Sheffield, meanwhile, simply couldn’t get any rhythm going offensively, as they were held to negative yardage in the first half before finally scrounging some production together in garbage time.
Kevin Marfink, who finished with 60 yards on 10 carries, scored from one yard out late in the game to finally get the Wolverines on the scoreboard.
Sheffield’s ugly first half was made even worse by the loss of starting quarterback Matt Dunham, who went down in the first quarter with what appeared to be a serious leg injury.
But coach Jack lauded the Wolverines’ effort throughout the game, especially on the defensive side of the ball.
“I thought Sheffield did a good job of making some stops against us in the run game,” he said.
Saturday’s win had to feel especially nice for Smethport to be on the other end of an early-season rout for a change.
Like so many fellow AML North teams in years past, the Hubbers’ opening slate of games a year ago was an ugly one: Smethport lost its first four contests against AML South teams in 2017 by a combined score of 187-6.
But the new alignment in District 9 this year allowed the Hubbers to get off to the kind of start that can actually help set a tone for a successful season from the word ‘go’.
Smethport (1-0 division, 1-0 overall) will face a stern test next week when they host Clarion-Limestone for their home opener this coming Friday. C-L is coming off a big season-opening win of its own after blanking Union/A-C Valley 40-0 on Friday.
“We’ve been talking a lot about just one game at a time and not looking forward,” Jack said. “But Clarion-Limestone’s a good team; I’ve already seen them on film and they’ve seen us. They have some talented backs in the backfield, a quarterback that can move, and the line looks like they can move as well. We’re going to have our work cut out for us next week.”
Sheffield (0-1, 0-1) will be at Union/A-C Valley on Friday.
BY QUARTERS
Smethport 28 20 6 0—54
Sheffield 0 0 0 6—6
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: Smeth 6, Sheff 3; Rushes/Yards Rushing: Smeth 29-162, Sheff 31-67; Yards Passing: Smeth 137, Sheff 6; Comp-Att-Int: Smeth 6-7-0, Sheff 1-7-1; Penalties: Smeth 5-33, Sheff 4-30; Fumbles-Lost: Smeth 0-0, Sheff 4-2; Total Yards: Smeth 299, Sheff 73; Offensive Plays: Smeth 36, Sheff 38
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Smeth: Grant Ognen 4-5-126-3-0, Noah Lent 2-2-11-1-0; Sheff: Steve Lojewski 1-6-6-0-0, Matt Dunham 0-1-0-0-1
Rushing: Smeth: Nathan Hollowell 6-54, Blake Kinner 4-74-2, Grant Ognen 3-0, Noah Lent 4-8, Braedon Johnson 4-22, Kameron Rounsville 7-9, Lucas Fowler 1- -5; Sheff: Matt Dunham 1-0, Kevin Marfink 10-60-1, Steve Lojewski 6- -20, Walker Kyler 1- -2, Christian Richetti 4-3, Tyler Ordiway 9-26
Receiving: Smeth: Bryent Johnson 3-81-2, Nathan Hollowell 1-2, Blake Kinner 1-49-1, Richard McDowell 1-5-1; Sheff: Jakob Vinopal 1-6
Scoring summary
First quarter
Smeth: Bryent Johnson 45-yard pass from Grant Ognen (PAT by Noah Costa), 9:33
Smeth: Blake Kinner 16-yard run (PAT by Noah Costa), 8:02
Smeth: Travis Cooney blocked punt recovered in end zone (PAT by Noah Costa), 6:23
Smeth: Bryent Johnson 30-yard pass from Grant Ognen (PAT by Noah Costa), 2:04
Second quarter
Smeth: Blake Kinner 49-yard pass from Grant Ognen (PAT by Kylar Carpenter), 9:26
Smeth: Richard McDowell 5-yard pass from Noah Lent (PAT no good), 4:39
Smeth: Blake Kinner 15-yard fumble recovery (PAT by Noah Lent), 2:47
Third quarter
Smeth: Blake Kinner 41-yard run (PAT blocked), 9:20
Fourth quarter
Sheff: Kevin Marfink 1-yard run (PAT no good), 4:43
