The Portville/Cuba-Rushford coaching staff likes to play an aggressive brand of defense. Where the rules allow, they’d like to bring that mentality to the spotlight of the Big 30 All-Star Charities Classic.
Game rules mandate the type of formation teams can use on defense, along with restricting blitzes or stunts. The Portville/C-R staff still sees an opportunity to play within the rules, however, and see their players make an impact Saturday night, Aug. 3.
“We like to be pretty aggressive even within the rules,” assistant coach Jarrod Bell said. “This game’s set up for offense, we understand that. Within the rules, how can we stick to our philosophy as a coaching staff? We like to be aggressive, we like the kids to play as fast as possible.”
Head coach Josh Brooks tapped Bell and Jason Luther to handle the defense over the two-week stretch of practices leading up to kickoff.
“We don’t want kids to be trying to do too many things,” Bell said. “Jason said this best, I think his quote is ‘paralysis by analysis.’ We don’t need kids thinking about what they’re supposed to be doing, we just want them to go out there and have fun because of the event that it is, but at the same time, play fast, be aggressive.”
The last time Luther coached in the game, he called plays on offense for Pennsylvania as part of the Port Allegany coaching staff. That time, Luther’s side — led by Port star quarterback Matt Bodamer (now the head coach at Kane) — helped Pennsy run away with a 53-12 victory.
But Luther’s on both the other side of the ball and the state border now, helping Bell prepare to call plays in Bradford.
Typically in the Portville/C-R regular season, Luther calls the plays and works with linebackers while Bell works with ends. Those roles have flipped out of necessity in the summer for this game.
“Jason’s kind of mentoring me,” Bell said. “We knew he was going to miss some time, he has some other obligations with his family, so he was going to miss some practices and we discussed as a staff, ‘Jarrod, how about you call the defense?’ I’ll be at all the practices.
“He’s working with the defensive ends, I’ve kind of taken the linebackers and I’ll be making the calls on game night. I still go to him and he’s such a resource as far as knowledge. He’s coached in this game before on the offensive side but he’s been in the game, he’s been D-coordinator at Portville for at least five years now.”
Bell played in the 1999 game for New York and it was the last time he put football pads on. He’s hoping New York can get back on the winning side for the first time since 2015.
“There’s something special about this game so I want them to go out there, have fun, embrace the moment and take it in, but at the same time we’re going there with the mission of breaking the streak,” Bell said.
At defensive end for Bell and Luther’s New York unit are: Perry Snyder (Cattaraugus-Little Valley), Owen Chudy (Franklinville/Ellicottville), Sam Eaton (Allegany-Limestone) and Cody Barton (Hinsdale).
Lining up at tackle on the defensive line are: Keegan Hardy (Salamanca), Dayton Shaw (Portville), Devon Bish (A-L) and Brody Heaney (Wellsville).
New York’s 2024 linebackers include: Zachary Mitchell (Bolivar-Richburg), Bohdan Wendel (Southwestern), Caden Allen (Bolivar-Richburg), Peter Conley (Southwestern) and Jake Kopinski (Pioneer).
In the secondary, Connor Elliott (Gowanda/Pine Valley), Gabriel Kempt (Pioneer, also New York’s kicker), Joshua Auman (Salamanca) and Noah Shenk (F/E) are set to play cornerback. Safeties include Ryan Isenberg (Olean), Lane Dzienkonski (Pioneer) and Trey Buchholz (B-R).
“I see a lot of kids that have a lot of grit in them,” Bell said of the defensive players. “They’re good kids, good hard-nosed almost old-school football players in an era that you see a lot of that spread game. The kids that I’ve seen, the kids that we have on defense, they just like to get after it.”
That grit may be exactly what New York needs, especially if it matches up against a bigger offensive line across the border.
“We have some decent size in our front seven. But … My guess is that Pennsylvania has more size up front from what we’ve heard, they have some big kids up front which is typical of teams that I have seen from Pennsylvania for years in the Big 30 game. Our O-line has some decent size too, but the last couple nights, our grit stands out because our front seven has done a really good job of getting after our offense.
“You can just tell those kids are flying around and they’ll make a mistake here or there, maybe playing a little too fast, but then we coach them up and get them to understand how to play with a little bit more control as you’re playing fast.”
Bell was particularly excited to learn a number of his defenders are also wrestlers.
“That goes a long way,” he said. “Everyone knows the relationship that football and wrestling has. Wrestlers, they understand body leverage. It’s a tough, gritty sport to be a wrestler and I like those type of kids on defense for that reason. They might be undersized — and I’m not saying that we are — but sometimes you get a kid who might be a little undersized but they play tough, they play hard and that’s just their mentality.”
