CURWENSVILLE – Coming off their first loss of the season, the Curwensville Area High School football team will look to get back on track at home against Ridgway this week. The Golden Tide (5-1) fell to undefeated Brockway last week 56-34 while the Elkers (1-5) dropped a close 13-12 game to Johnsonburg.
Last week against the Rams, Ridgway jumped out to an early 12-0 first quarter lead, but was unable to find the end zone the rest of the game to allow Johnsonburg the comeback. The Elkers ended the game with more total yards of offense at 264-198, however, the Rams used a fumble return and an interception to take advantage in the contest.
Elkers’ quarterback Ben MacDonald was 7-for-17 on the night for 116 yards with a touchdown and an interception last week. He also ran the ball eight times for 18 yards and a 2-yard touchdown plunge. MacDonald’s TD toss covered 57 yards to Joe Jaques, who had three catches for 77 yards a week ago.
“(Zac) McKnight may be one of the strongest runners we will see all year, and is a very effective, hard runner,” said Tide head coach Andy Evanko. “MacDonald has the strongest arm I’ve seen all season, including the Brockway and Port Allegany kids. He can easily put the ball in the air for 50 yards. Those two components can make Ridgway a scary team to play.”
With 66 attempts from the tailback position, McKnight has totaled 639 yards to date with four touchdowns. MacDonald has 488 yards through the air this season in a 25-for-70 effort with four scoring passes and five interceptions.
Other runners to keep an eye on for the Elkers include Sam Delhunty and Logan Wicket. Delhunty has covered 232 yards on 67 carries while Wickett has 105 yards on 28 attempts. The receiving corps features Jaques as the team leader with eight grabs for 219 yards and two scores while McKnight has pulled in nine balls for 119 yards and two TD’s. Sophomore Cody Delhunty has also caught two passes for 103 yards.
“Ridgway is a better team than their 1-5 record shows,” said Evanko. “They have solid athletes that will test us throughout the game.”
The Golden Tide will focus on tightening up the defense this week after giving up 56 points to the Rovers. Brockway totaled 439 yards last week, and Curwensville can’t afford that kind of let down against Ridgway.
“I was very proud of our kids because they kept playing hard in a tough situation, but we talked about not getting into such a big hole at the beginning of the game,” said Evanko. “We spent time trying to get better, and I would love to see us put together a game this season where we played for a full 48 minutes.”
The Tide defense has depended on the second level to fill the holes for tackles as sophomore defensive back Jake Stiles continues to see most of the action with 33 total tackles. Seniors Brad Coudriet and Spencer Smeal have been active as well with 32 and 31 stops respectively while senior end Brad Stubbs has reached out and touched 22 passers-by. Smeal continues to lead the team with two sacks while seven others have cornered the opposing quarterback to date. Stiles and Stubbs each have two fumble recoveries on the squad, and seven different players have stepped in front of their foe’s passes.
The Tide’s offense did turn in over 400 total yards of its own last week after falling behind 35-0 in the first quarter. The spark for the attempted come-back came from the ground game of juniors Alex Olson and Zach Tibbens. Tibbens finished with 166 yards on 22 carries while Olson hauled the ball nine times for 112 yards.
“It just seemed like Alex wasn’t going to take it any more,” Evanko said of the deficit and the determination of his team. “He pounded out some strong runs that seemed to charge up the whole team through the middle of the game. Zach was able to grind out his yards as well to be the leading rusher in the game.”
On the season, Tibbens has piled up 826 yards on 114 carries with 12 touchdowns. Olson, mainly from the fullback slot, has punched through the line 36 times for 303 yards. Seniors Josh Greslick and Coudriet have helped carry the burden as well. Greslick, who has been dinged up a little in the past few weeks has 102 carries for 638 yards while Coudriet delivered 171 yards on 33 jaunts. Greslick has scored five times on the ground with Coudriet at four and Olson three.
The Tide’s air attack has been solid as well to date. Senior Hunter McCracken has thrown 67 times so far and connected on 38 of those for 559 yards with eight touchdowns and eight interceptions. His prime target remains classmate Jordan Russell who has caught 29 passes for 432 yards and all eight passing scores including one last week when he was already flat on his back.
Curwensville has shown signs of perfection all season, and, if coach Evanko gets his wish of turning in a full 48-minutes of play this week, one can only imagine the outcome. Kickoff will take place at Riverside Stadium at 7:00 PM on Friday.
Golden Tide Scoreboard:
| Date | Opponent | Score | Record |
| 08/31 | @ Coudersport | 34 – 26 | 1 – 0 |
| 09/07 | CAMERON COUNTY | 46 – 20 | 2 – 0 |
| 09/14 | SMETHPORT | 42 – 13 | 3 – 0 |
| 09/21 | @ Johnsonburg | 41 – 0 | 4 – 0 |
| 09/28 | KANE | 36 – 20 | 5 – 0 |
| 10/05 | @ Brockway | 34 – 56 | 5 – 1 |
| 10/12 | RIDGWAY | ||
| 10/19 | ELK COUNTY | ||
| 10/27 | @ Sheffield |