By JOE SCALZO

VINDICATOR SPORTS STAFF

VIENNA — A week before the Mathews High football team was going to play its first playoff game in school history against Columbiana in 2005, then-sophomore running back Brad Hughes broke his collarbone and had to sit out.

“Oh, it was killing me to watch,” he said. “I wanted to be out there.”

“Yeah,” said running back Brent Jackson, “but I got to start as a freshman.”

Said Hughes: “Then you got a concussion.”

Jackson: “But I went back out there.”

Eric Ocheltree, a sophomore center on that team, smiled and said, “I played the whole time. I was the smallest lineman ever.”

If you’re getting the impression that game didn’t go well, you’re right. After Mathews took a 3-0 lead in the first quarter, the Clippers scored 28 straight points en route to a 49-9 victory.

But after years of struggling to be competitive in the Inter-County League, the Mustangs were just happy to be in the postseason. And good things were ahead.

When Hughes and Ocheltree were in sixth grade, they played on the first Little Mustangs team in school history. Before that, the school didn’t have a youth program, putting them years behind other schools once they reached the varsity level. The youth program, combined with a move to the East Suburban Conference, gave the Mustangs a chance to be competitive.

Three years later, Mathews went 7-3 to win the ESC title. The following year, they made the playoffs. Even a disappointing 2006, in which Mathews went 5-5, wasn’t as bad as it seemed.

“The league change helped that,” said Mathews coach Jim Parry. “Last season we might have gone 1-9 in the ICL and been discouraged to the point where we had 20 kids again. Now we’re competitive week in and week out.”

At 7-0, with impressive wins over Leetonia and Western Reserve, the Mustangs are off to their best start in school history and sit fourth in the Division V, Region 17 standings.

Hughes (704 yards, 6 TDs), Jackson (681 yards, 10 TDs) and Ocheltree (612 yards, 10 TDs) form a three-headed monster that leads the Mustangs’ running game, which is averaging 319 yards per game. The three have different styles. Ocheltree, who now plays fullback, runs inside.

“Eric just bulls people over,” Hughes said.

“And gets caught from behind,” Ocheltree added.

Hughes looks to go outside and Jackson is a cutback runner.

“They’re really very different, but the common thing is they’re running behind the same offensive line,” said Parry.

Tackle and four-year starter Carmen Lamancusa (6-3, 270) is the only senior on a line that returned all five starters from last year, joining junior tackle Elliot Marsh, junior guards Mike Gibbs and Ben Kaiser and junior center Mike Swesey. Quarterback Lucas Buckner, also a four-year starter, gives the Mustangs a potent passing threat.

“This is the class we’ve been waiting for,” said Jackson.

“People ask me if I think this year’s team could compete in the ICL,” added Parry. “And I say, ‘Well, yeah, but I don’t know if we could do that every year.’ ”

Mathews should be 9-0 heading into its final game against Pymatuning Valley in two weeks, which could decide the ESC title and whether Mathews gets a home playoff game.

Regardless, the school’s resurgence continues and the community has fallen in love with this team the past four years.

“You see a lot more people at every game,” said Hughes. “You never saw that before.”

scalzo@vindy.com