PORT ALLEGANY — Cole Sebastian would not be denied.
After his team fell behind 14 points while he began the game 5-for-12 for just 49 yards, Otto-Eldred’s quarterback flipped the switch.
Sebastian finished the day 18-for-31 passing for 257 yards and three touchdowns, ran for 80 yards and a score and added a 69-yard receiving touchdown on a trick play and an 80-yard pick-six — six touchdowns in all — to power the Terrors to a 40-30 win over rival Port Allegany on Saturday afternoon at Gator Stadium.
“I don’t know if you can say enough about (Sebastian), honestly,” O-E coach Troy Cook said. “Everybody knows what type of athlete Cole is, and he’s very reserved. But there’s just something that comes out competitor-wise, and we’ve been waiting. We’ve seen flashes of it at points in time the last four years with him, but we were really waiting on him to just kind of take a game over, and I think we saw that out here today.”
Port (0-2) jumped out to a quick 14-0 lead as O-E’s offense struggled to begin the game. Blaine Moses hit paydirt from a yard out for the first of his two touchdowns early on, and Drew Evens hit Trey Ayers deep for a 67-yard bomb to cap off a 97-yard drive that put the Gators up two scores. That 97-yard march began after a goal line stand by the Port defense.
But from there, the Gators began to sputter. Port scored only once more offensively on Moses’ second one-yard touchdown run, and in the meantime, the turnovers began to pile up.
Evens was picked off three times — twice by Ethan Smith — on the afternoon, and Port also lost a trio of fumbles.
“This is what you call a young, inexperienced team,” Gators coach Justin Bienkowski said. “We coach situational football more than I’ve ever coached in my career … we have guys still trying to learn their positions. But I’m so proud of this team and proud of our guys. (Our) coaches made some screw-up calls — we all screwed up — but the kids are so coachable, teachable, and they want to work. Credit to Troy Cook and Otto-Eldred. Good for them; they deserved to win.”
As Port began to struggle, Sebastian found a groove. The senior quarterback connected with Josh Rhinehart on a 54-yard touchdown pass to draw O-E (1-1) to within 14-6 with 9:59 left in the first half and then found Jake Merry for a 10-yard score with 32 second left in the half to draw the Terrors even.
The teams played an even third quarter, as Seastian connected with Smith for a 22-yard score and Moses scored his second touchdown of the day for Port. And then, Sebastian completely took the game over.
O-E began the fourth quarter with the “Terror special” — a receiver reverse pass from Smith to Sebastian, who had gotten loose behind the Port secondary — which culminated in a 69-yard touchdown and a 28-22 Terror lead.
Then, as Port was driving later in the fourth, Sebastian intercepted an Evens pass and ran it back 80 yards to extend that advantage to 34-22.
“We’ve been preaching to the guys a lot, especially, about the turnover battle,” Cook said. “It’s something we’ve switched (at practice). Usually, we were going over turnovers just on defensive days. This year, it’s something we’re doing every day to make sure it’s more of an emphasis, and the guys did a very good job with it today.”
Port, though, wasn’t ready to throw in the towel. After Sebastian’s pick-six, Noah Archer returned the ensuing kickoff 85 yards for the Gators’ final score.
However, Sebastian wasn’t going to let the Terrors give the game away, as he bolted for a 33-yard rushing touchdown that was set up by a 45-yard run earlier in the drive. The score capped the game’s scoring and gave O-E its final 40-30 advantage.
Said Bienkowski, “First and foremost, forget football, what a great kid … but our thing with him was we wanted him to beat us with his arm. He got loose at the end, but I was proud with how we defended him in the first half because, man, is he dynamic.
“That was our plan was to make him beat us through the air, and credit to Otto-Eldred and to him and his line. They found ways to beat us with his arm. He’s a hell of an athlete and, more importantly, a hell of a good kid.”
Cook added, “When the chips were down, and it got tightened up again you could see he flipped a switch and wasn’t going to allow these guys to lose. Everybody else saw that and rode along with him.”
The Terrors will host Cameron County (0-2) next weekend, while Port Allegany travels to Smethport (2-0).
AT PORT ALLEGANY
BY QUARTERS
Otto-Eldred 0 14 8 18—40
Port Allegany 14 0 8 8—30
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: O-E: 13, PA: 16; Rushes/Yards Rushing: O-E: 24-107, PA: 32-109; Yards Passing: O-E: 326, PA: 232; Comp-Att-Int: O-E: 19-32-1, PA: 17-31-3; Penalties: O-E: 6-70, PA: 7-45; Fumbles-Lost: O-E: 0-0, PA: 3-3; Total Yards: O-E: 433, PA: 341; Offensive Plays: O-E: 56, PA: 63
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: O-E: Cole Sebastian 18-31-257-3-1, Ethan Smith 1-1-69-1-0; PA: Drew Evens 17-31-232-1-3
Rushing: O-E: Sebastian 8-80-1 T.J. VanScoter 12-22, Smith 4-5; PA: Blaine Moses 18-68-2, Taro Tanaka 6-23, Noah Archer 3-20, Evens 4-0, Trey Ayers 1-(-2)
Receiving: O-E: Josh Rhinehart 5-97-1, VanScoter 3-81, Sebastian 1-69-1, Smith 6-62-1, Jake Merry 4-17-1; PA: Ayers 7-138-1, Peyton Stiles 4-56, Archer 5-33, Tanaka 1-5
Scoring summary
First quarter
PA: Blaine Moses, 1-yard run (Taro Tanaka 2-point pass from Drew Evens), 8:35
PA: Trey Ayers, 67-yard pass from Evens (2-point pass failed), 0:12
Second quarter
O-E: Josh Rhinehart, 54-yard pass from Cole Sebastian (2-point pass failed), 9:59
O-E: Jake Merry, 10-yard pass from Sebastian (Ethan Smith 2-point pass from Sebastian), 0:32
Third quarter
O-E: Smith, 22-yard pass from Sebastian (Merry 2-point pass from Sebastian), 7:35
PA: Moses, 1-yard run (Noah Archer 2-point run), 0:44
Fourth quarter
O-E: Sebastian, 69-yard pass from Smith (2-point pass failed), 11:42
O-E: Sebastian, 80-yard interception return (2-point pass failed), 4:27
PA: Noah Archer, 85-yard kickoff return (Tanaka 2-point pass from Evens), 4:11
O-E: Sebastian, 33-yard run (2-point pass failed), 2:07
