The Tigers improved to 3-0 heading into conference play.

By DOUG CHAPIN

VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT

HOWLAND — Junior fullback Soloman Jackson rushed for 142 yards on 14 carries and scored twice to lead Howland High’s punishing ground game in a 35-14 non-conference victory Friday night over Hubbard at Richard Lombardo Stadium.

“From a coaching standpoint our goal was to be 3-0 heading into [Metro Athletic Conference] play, but our players are talking about one game at a time,” said Howland coach Dick Angle, whose team plays Canfield next week. “Next week’s game should be a great battle. Canfield has become a rival of ours. They are Division II like we are and we’ve played them several times with conference positions on the line. We got them a few times and they got us a few times.

“Next week isn’t going to be the season, but the winner will have an early edge in the MAC.”

The Tigers started Friday’s game as quickly as they have started this season, scoring on their first two possessions. Jackson capped a 10-play, 53-yard drive with a 7-yard touchdown run with 6:09 left in the first quarter. After sophomore Trevor Russell recovered a Hubbard fumble, junior tailback Dante Marsh (17 carries, 96 yards) raced 30 yards for a score, bouncing off a would-be tackler near the line of scrimmage.

Hubbard threatened on the ensuing drive, but Vince Peterson intercepted Eagles quarterback Marc Kanetsky in the end zone. Hubbard (1-2) put together another drive in the final 2:35 of the first half. A pass interference call against Howland on fourth down kept the drive alive, and Kanetsky connected down the middle with Marcus Coonce for a 23-yard touchdown with 36 seconds left in the half.

“Going into halftime I felt our team was coming around,” Hubbard coach Brian Hoffman said. “We had made a few big plays and I thought we had a chance to come out in the second half and compete.”

Couldn’t take advantage

Hubbard was unable to take advantage of its defense’s good play early in the third quarter. An interception by the Tigers’ Josh Kostraba halted one Hubbard drive and a high snap on a punt forced the Eagles’ Mike Carnahan to run. He was stopped by Greg Ryan and

Howland took over on the Hubbard 45.

Six straight running plays put the ball on the 17 and from there quarterback Matt Preston found Adam Rubesich in the front corner of the end zone for a touchdown with 27 seconds remaining in the quarter.

On its next possession, Howland ran five times for 20 yards and two first downs, then Jackson busted off a 44-yard touchdown run to put the Tigers ahead 28-7 with 8:12 remaining in the game.

“I thought after the first quarter we got out of our routine offensively,” Angle said. “Sometimes you have to go back to your roots and our roots are being a physical football team. So we got in the stack with our big strong backs and our big strong linemen and came out and rolled off the blocks and battered them.”

Kanetsky (13-of-26, 179 yards) threw a 6-yard touchdown pass to Bobby Thompson with 2:10 left in the game. Preston then scored on a 2-yard sneak at the 1:04 mark after Jackson set up the TD with a 43-yard run.