Hoenstine leads Dragons to 40-14 romp over Mounties

Tagged under: District 6, Gameday Hub, News

Ron Bracken | September 26, 2020

PHILIPSBURG – It was only a matter of time before Central quarterback Jeff Hoenstine found the range with his rifle arm. Then he began shooting holes in the Philipsburg-Osceola secondary.
The sophomore completed 12 of 20 passes for an even 300 yards and five touchdowns as the Scarlet Dragons improved to 3-0 with a 40-14 romp over the Mounties.

Central had driven to the P-O13 on its first possession but stalled out when Hoenstine’s fourth-down pass fell incomplete. But when the Mounties were forced to punt, giving Central the ball on its own 39, Hoenstine found Hunter Klotz running free down the middle on the first snap and connected with him for a 69-yard score. Austin Keith missed the PAT but the Dragons were in the lead with 2:05 to go in the first quarter.

That was just a warmup as Hoenstine threw three more TD passes in the second quarter to break the game open. The first was a 27-yard strike to Devon Boyles. That was followed by a 6-yard throw to Boyles and then Hoenstine found Klotz again, this time from 50 yards out. Keith’s PAT made it 26-0 with 2:28 to go in the half.

“We have other good players too,’’ said Central coach Dave Baker, trying to deflect praise away from Hoenstine. “But he played real well tonight. They made him run some but our guys ran until they were open and he was able to hit them downfield.

“They (P-O) are not a bad ball team. They ran the ball well and when their quarterback (Ryan Whitehead) started to run we couldn’t catch him. This was not an easy game. They are not a bad team. They’ll win some games in this league.’’

The Mounties were on the verge of falling under the Mercy Rule when Hoenstine hit Josh Biesinger for a 62-yard score to start the second half to make it 33-0 but P-O’s Hunter Weitoish returned the subsequent kickoff 80 yards for a score. And the Mounties scored again on a 35-yard run by Kaleb Stamm with 31 seconds gone in the fourth quarter.
“We were competitive,’’ said P-O coach Jeff Vroman. “We didn’t get steam-rolled. We played well in spurts but we weren’t consistent and that’s what we’re striving for, consistency.

“Their quarterback scrambled out of the pocket and their receivers were running around. Our kids covered them at times and at other times they ran past us. It was backyard football.’’
Stamm led the P-O offense with 103 yards on 16 carries.

P-O is now 1-1 and will visit Clearfield Friday while Central, now 3-0, goes to Huntingdon.

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