Pennsylvania’s defensive unit is ready for Saturday, relying on speed and aggressiveness to achieve its goals.

The Defensive Line consists of Landon Ferren (Cameron County), Jayden Chase (Eisenhower), and Boe Kinner (Smethport).

PA’s Defensive tackles are Aiden Heubach (Eisenhower), Cole Yurchisin (Eisenhower) and Andrew Kyler (Sheffield).

“Those are the guys we’ve been working up front. It’s a really good group, and the group is led by Ferren, who is definitely the vocal leader of the group. He’s pretty relentless, a great motor, and we get constant energy from him,” said PA Coach Troy Cook. “He is very aggressive and sets the tone up front. The rest of the guys are pretty quiet; they do the job as we ask.

“Bo Kinner is playing a bit out of position in this game. He is more defensive tackle and was moved to defensive end for this game. We are looking forward to seeing what he can do in the game tomorrow.”

Moving on to PA’s linebackers, the players in these positions include: Evan Whitmore (Bradford), John Wright (Coudersport), Alex Marfink (Sheffield) Levi Wilson (Kane), and Alex Yeager (Smethport).

“Whitmore and Wright will be the middle linebackers; the other three will be rotating at outside linebacker,” Cook explained. “With Whitmore and Wright at middle, Whitmore is the more vocal of the two, while Wright is more of the bigger body. Both have been doing a really good job in practice. Whitmore especially, as he uses speed sideline to sideline, while Wright operates more straight downhill. They bring different elements, but they have both been doing great in practice.

“Yeager moved from outside back to defensive linebacker for this game; we think he’ll do well there for us. Wilson and Marfink have a lot of speed, aggressiveness and are natural outside linebackers. Those guys will do really well.”

Finally, taking a look at the PA Defensive Backs:
At Safety are Owen Rounsville (Smethport) and Austin Campbell (Kane); at Corner are Jake Narby (Cameron County), Connor Vanwagenen (Coudersport) and Ryder Brown (Cameron County).

“This group, more so than the other group, has a couple guys playing out of position for sure. They have come a long way; they are the most improved of any group we have,” Cook stated. “Rounsville and Campbell at safety look really great. Their speed makes a difference in the back end of the defense. Both are really good tacklers, so we are looking for good things from them to shut down or at least limit passing plays.

“With the guys at defensive back: Narby is a former All-State corner, so his accomplishments speak for themselves. Vanwagenen is a solid player at corner; he is a smart kid able to reroute concepts and stay with his receiver,” Cook said. “Ryder Brown moved to defensive back from the linebacker spot. We weren’t sure how it would go, but he is a smart kid and knows football. He was a QB Cameron County, so he knows route concepts and how the pass game is supposed to look. That helped the transition go smoother.”

For the defense as a whole, Boyd Fitzsimmons has been coordinating, while Chris Schwab has been coaching the defensive line and Josh Rounsville has been coaching the defensive backs.

“They started out a little shaky when we started practice last week. Defense is a lot about communication and having guys out of position made it tough at the beginning,” Cook said. “However, by the time we got to end of practice last week, they were really firing on on all cylinders and working really well together. We had an intersquad scrimmage Tuesday, and the defense held their own. They are a group that’s smaller in size but hopefully they make up for that with speed, tackling and aggressiveness.”