CURWENSVILLE — Curwensville Area High School head football coach Andy Evanko consistently comments that he hopes his team is better this week than last. Seemingly, the only way for the Golden Tide to prove they are a better team than their 4-0 start would suggest is to remain unbeaten after Friday night’s trip to Kane.
Curwensville (55-0 over Otto-Eldred) and Kane (19-15 over Smethport) were both winners in last week’s contests which featured the two teams in a trade of week one foes. The Tide beat the Hubbers 49-26 while Kane handled the Terrors 41-0 in both team’s season openers.
The Tide has been able to brush off opponents thus far and have little thoughts of changing that this week against the Wolves. Curwensville has outscored its opponents 211-50 in the first four games – a testimony to both sides of the ball.
“We’re just trying to do our job on the field,” Evanko said. “The defense is trying to keep people out of the end zone. We’ll find out this week if we can compete against teams bigger than us.”
Last week against Smethport, the Wolves used a strong aerial attack to gain most of their yardage. Quarterback Alex Anderson threw for 190 yards on the night. The senior signal-caller hit on nine of 17 passes including two touchdowns and one interception.
The Tide defense will undoubtedly be focused on senior wide-out Bruce Waters who caught four passes for 141 yards and the two scores in the win over the Hubbers.
“They spread it around quite a bit on offense,” said Evanko. “There’s not just one person getting the ball. They try to confuse you with different looks, so you have to stay focused and on your toes.”
Anderson’s passing attack has posted 330 yards on the season connecting on 19 of 46 passes. The senior has also tucked the ball 21 times for 87 yards on the ground. Kane has used a fleet of ground carriers so far with senior running back Dylan Eckstrom leading the way with 198 yards on 23 carries. Senior Evan Depto has handled the ball on the ground 44 times for 179 yards, and Pat Anderson, with 25 touches, has amassed 167 yards. Depto and Eckstrom have also been part of the oncoming passing attack.
“They didn’t seem to throw the ball in the first two games,” Evanko pointed out. “I don’t know whether that’s because they didn’t need to, or that their confidence has been growing in the passing game over the last two weeks. Either way, the added threat makes it harder to read all the different formations they show at the line.”
Kane’s defense over the first four weeks has yielded just 48 points including allowing Coudersport only nine points in a 9-6 loss in week two. The Wolves have shown they are not afraid to send pressure and the result is 15 sacks on the season. Senior Marty Niklas has eased quarterbacks to the turf five-and-a-half times this season while junior Josh Kibbie has posted four sacks.
“Kane has always had a rich tradition of great defenses,” said Evanko. “They have an attacking defense that puts pressure on you with their great size up front.
“We’re going up there, and it’s Homecoming, and they’ll be pumped. It’s going to be a tough game, and we have to be ready to play.”
Curwensville’s defense has been very stingy thus far as well including allowing just 65 yards of total offense for Otto-Eldred last week. The Tide defense has recovered 10 fumbles by opponents this season to set the offense in motion. Passing teams have been frustrated by defensive deflections from Shae Best and Hunter McCracken. The defensive line has supplied plenty of pressure on opposing quarterbacks with Kyle Kyler, Kyle Barrett and Jesse Zorger all recording sacks on the year. Senior Zack Dimmick continues to lead all tackles with 15 while Zorger has been on the bottom of the pile 14 times and Best, Garrett LaBorde, Alex Holland, Barrett, Chad Desmett and Shelby McGarry all in double digits for tackles.
Reaping the benefits from the solid defense has been a potent offensive attack. Last week six first half touchdowns helped the Golden Tide to breeze to the shutout victory. Curwensville’s scoring drives continue to find new weapons each week as more players get involved in the action. Junior running back Alex Holland has found the end zone nine times (7 rushing, 1 receiving and 1 kick-off return) to pace the team in scoring. Shae Best and Shane Hoover have scored six times each – Best with five receptions and a kick-off, and Hoover three catches and three punt returns. Five other members of the Black and Gold have crossed the end line including Dimmick (four rushes), Hunter McCracken (two rushes), Jed Greslick (one rush), Kyle Johns (one rush) and Lewis Rhine (one catch).
Holland leads the rushing attack with 663 yards on 80 attempts while Dimmick and Greslick have each taken handoffs 29 times for 194 yards. McCracken and Alex Starr have shared time at quarterback on the year and have combined for 367 total passing yards. McCracken has connected on 13 of 25 attempts for seven touchdowns and one interception. Starr is 8 of 15 on the year and has tossed two TD passes with two interceptions
Best and Hoover pace the receiving corps with six grabs each. Best’s catches have measured 195 yards while Hoover has covered 101 yards on the season. Curwensville has five other receivers with catches in the first four weeks for an additional 71 yards.
Looking at the two teams against mutual opponents, both teams were winners. Both teams seem to be adding weapons to the offense. Throw in the stingy defenses from both schools and fans are in for a tough clash in Kane on Friday night.
Last year Curwensville defeated the Wolves 15-0 in a key game on its AML Championship run.
