CURWENSVILLE – One team is coming off its first loss while the other posted its first win of the season as the Curwensville Area High School football team travels to Otto-Eldred Friday night. The Golden Tide ran into a hot Port Allegany team last week dropping a 35-13 contest. The Terrors put their offense together and defeated Johnsonburg 26-13.
O-E won only two games last season beating Sheffield (10-8) in week five and dropping Cowenesque Valley (28-14) in the final week of the regular season. The difference in the early season this year may be a better understanding of second year coach Virgil Graham’s offense. The Terrors had lost to Kane 53-20 and Elk County Catholic 48-0 before recording the win over the Rams.
“Coach Graham was a late arrival last year and it was difficult for the kids to get comfortable with his program,” noted Tide head coach Andy Evanko. “Right now he has a pretty good team in place. They’re more organized and physical. We will have our hands full Friday night.”
In last week’s win, sophomore quarterback Dakota Vaughn passed for 156 yards on a 6-for-13 effert. He converted four short touchdowns on the ground and ended the game with 90 yards on 16 carries. Vaughn’s key target in the game was sophomore Coy Hoffman who grabbed three receptions for 105 yards, and senior Luke Kerr aided the ground attack with 14 carries for 86 yards.
“The Vaughn kid can throw the ball fairly well,” said Evanko, “but he is a real threat as a runner. I would compare him with the Lightner kid from Smethport. He finds the holes well and can fly in the open field.”
Vaughn has thrown just one TD pass on the season, and his 14-for-39 effort has yielded 198 yards on the season. He does have five rushing scores among his 30 carries with a total of 137 ground yards. Kerr has a total of 224 yards on the season on 35 carries and one touchdown. Hoffman is the team’s leading receiver with six receptions for 121 total yards.
“Right now we’ve got to become a better team,” Evanko admitted. “We’ve gone back to fundamentals this week and are looking for a better outcome.”
The high point for the Tide last week was senior running back Alex Holland’s 289 yards that sent him over the 4,000 yard mark in his career. However, the defense was not able to stifle the Gators who moved the ball with a combination of pass and run.
“We need to put a complete game together starting this week,” said Evanko. “We need to play for 48 minutes with no let downs and no mistakes.”
Holland’s effort last week gives him 757 yards on 88 carries in three games. His career total now stands at 4,177 yards. Backing Holland’s ground effort this season, Josh Greslick and Brad Coudriet both have 36 yards on 10 and nine carries respectively.
The Tide passing game couldn’t get connected a week ago as junior quarterback Hunter McCracken was credited with a 2-for-16 afternoon for 19 yards. He now has connected on 11 of 34 passes for 247 yards. Jesse Zorger remains the top receiver on the team with seven grabs for 219 yards.
The Tide is looking to play well to stay among the Alleghany Mountain League South Division leaders. Going into Friday Night’s game, Curwensville is in a three-way tie for first place with Brockway and Elk County. All three teams will have to win on the road to keep their spots as Brockway visits Coudersport and ECC will be at Port Allegany on Saturday.
The Tide and the Terrors will tee it up for a 7:00 p.m. start.