SHICKSHINNY – In last year’s abbreviated season, Northwest relied heavily on a single feature back, as its offense centered around its big senior running back in George May. If Saturday night was any indication, the Rangers will be spreading the ball around much more this season.
Six different players saw first half carries, and for the game, the Rangers put up 330 rushing yards and 429 overall, yet no individual player had more than 100 yards of any type, and the most carries any one player had was just six, as Northwest scored on all seven of its first half possessions and racked up 320 yards before halftime as the Rangers easily topped Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 61-6 in their first official game as a member of District 4. The school district officially made the move to District 4 from District 2 over the summer.
“We were excited to get out here tonight. It was great to see a full house on our side and nice to have a little normalcy back with high school football,” said Northwest coach Lon Hazlet. “We were able to start fast, which was our goal. I think today showed a bit of our weight training and speed training from throughout our offseason process.”
Making it all the more impressive, was that one of the Rangers’ best skill players, halfback Landon Hufford, didn’t play.
“We really think we can spread the ball around,” said Hazlet. “Landon adds a whole new element. But we like the kids we have, and they’re young. We don’t have a single senior skill guy. We felt that we wanted to be a bit more diversified in our offensive look and we were able to accomplish that.”
Northwest’s eight first half touchdowns were scored by six different players. Adam Chonko had both a 46-yard run and a 60-yard punt return, while Andrew Bonczewski hauled in a pair of touchdown passes from Carter Hontz. With the exception of a 10-play drive in the second half with a running clock, none of Northwest’s scoring drives lasted longer than five plays.
It was Hontz that started the barrage of touchdowns on the Rangers’ first drive as he capped a five-play drive – which turned out to be Northwest’s longest in terms of plays of the first half – with a seven-yard run after CMVT went for it on a fourth-and-1 from their own 35 and failed to convert on their opening drive.
Chonko’s 46-yard score capped a two-play drive to make it 14-0, and then the Rangers got a sack and fumble recovery on the first play of CMVT’s next drive. One play later, Hontz found Bonczewski for a 30-yard touchdown pass. Then, just before the end of the first quarter, Jake Bobersky burst loose for a 38-yard touchdown run to make it 28-0.
Chonko then gave the Northwest crowd another electric play as he returned a punt 60 yards following CMVT’s next drive. Following another forced punt, Hunter Gmiter made it a second one-play drive as he found a hole for a 37-yard touchdown run.
Chase Biller and Bonczewski added late second quarter touchdown receptions to make it a 55-0 game at the half.
“They run a good misdirection offense, so I think our eyes got us in trouble,” said CMVT coach Mark Varner. “We were looking for the ball carrier instead of maintaining our gap responsibility.”
For CMVT, the Rams were held to just 29 yards in the first half, all on the ground, as the Rangers crowded the box with 10 and sometimes all 11 and dared CMVT to throw, which they only did six times, all unsuccessfully.
“You’ve got to give Northwest a lot of credit. They slanted well on the defensive side of the ball and stopped everything we wanted to do,” said Varner. “But we continued to battle and move forward. I thought in the second half, our young kids played really well.”
One of those younger players, freshman Mason Haught, carried the ball 10 times for 90 yards in the second half, and his running helped the Rams to their only score of the game, as Dante DiAgostino capped an 11-play drive midway through the fourth quarter with a two-yard touchdown run.
Northwest 61, Columbia-Montour Vo-Tech 6
CMVT (0-1) 0 0 0 6 – 6
Northwest (1-0) 28 27 6 0 – 61
First quarter
8:18 – (NW) Carter Hontz 7-yard run (Foley kick), 5-35, 1:38
3:40 – (NW) Adam Chonko 46-yard run (Foley kick), 2-58, :32
3:26 – (NW) Andrew Bonczewski 30-yard pass from Carter Hontz (Foley kick), 1-30, :05
:14 – (NW) Jake Bobersky 38-yard run (Foley kick), 3-55, 1:28
Second quarter
8:50 – (NW) Adam Chonko 60-yard punt return (kick failed)
6:35 – (NW) Hunter Gmiter 37-yard run (Foley kick), 1-37, :11
3:01 – (NW) Chase Biller 9-yard pass from Carter Hontz (Foley kick), 4-27, 1:26
:44 – (NW) Andrew Bonczewski 15-yard pass from Carter Hontz (Foley kick), 3-68, :38
Third quarter
5:19 – (NW) Derek Dietz 5-yard run (run failed), 10-69, 6:41
Fourth quarter
11:36 – (VT) Dante DiAgostino 2-yard run (pass failed), 11-62, 5:45
Statistics
NW VT
First downs 11 18
Rushes-net yards 37-140 33-330
Passing yardage 0 99
Passing 0-6-0-1 7-12-2-0
Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-0
Penalties-yards 3-36 5-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING — CMVT: Toby Zajac (13-15), Mason Haught (11-90), Dante DiAgostino (8-28-1), Shane Tomlinson (2-14), Hunter Trometter (1-2), TEAM (1-(-3)), Caden Long (1-(-6)); Northwest: Trevor Dietz (6-33), RJ Moyer (6-6), Derek Dietz (5-24-1), Jake Bobersky (4-58-1), Carter Hontz (3-25-1), Adam Chonko (2-99-1), Hunter Gmiter (2-43-1), Jace McCoy (2-33), Ben Foley (2-3), Andrew Bonczewski (1-6)
PASSING — CMVT: Caden Long (0-6-0-0-1); Northwest: Carter Hontz (5-7-85-2-0), Andrew Bonczewski (1-3-5-0-0); RJ Moyer (1-2-9-0-0)
RECEIVING — CMVT: None; Northwest: Andrew Bonczewski (2-45-2), Jace McCoy (2-14), Jordan Lindbuchler (2-19), Adam Chonko (1-12), Chase Biller (1-9-1)
