Hubbard shuts down Salem
Salem Vs. Hubbard
SALEM — Midway through the first quarter, Hubbard High quarterback Matt Shelton had a feeling the Eagles were going to have a good night against Salem.
Shelton tossed a 37-yard touchdown pass to Andre Givens on the Eagles’ first possession of the game and Hubbard went on to defeat the Quakers 42-0 in an All-American Conference White Tier contest at Reilly Stadium.
Shelton connected on 10 of 13 passes for 207 yards and three touchdowns while Givens scored touchdowns on runs of 2and 68 yards to lead the Eagles.
“Once we got that first touchdown, I mean [Givens] walked into the end zone,” Shelton said, “and then the defense came right out and got us the ball back, I knew that we were going to have a good night.”
Two plays later Shelton found Danny Duvall open behind the defense and placed a perfect pass in his hands for an 84-yard scoring play that put Hubbard (3-1, 1-0) up 14-0.
“It’s all in the hands,” said Shelton about the accuracy he displayed. “All I need to do is get the ball to those guys and they’ll catch it.”
Salem coach Mike Kopachy said Hubbard’s big-play offense took its toll.
“Offensively, Hubbard makes big plays,” Kopachy said. “All year they have been making big plays and we were wary of that but they continued to make big plays.
“How many times did we have them third and forever or fourth and forever and what was their conversion rate? I think it was a hundred percent. You won’t win a game with a [defensive] conversion rate of a hundred percent on third and fourth down.”
Hubbard rolled up 468 yards and had 18 first downs.
Salem (2-2, 0-1) came into the game with one of the area’s best offenses and the Eagles defense was equally impressive.
“I want to commend our players for the way they responded tonight,” said Hubbard coach Brian Hoffman. “We took this game as a personal challenge. Salem is a team that is definitely on the rise and we knew we had to come out and set the tempo early.
“I want to congratulate the way our players played tonight and my coaching staff on the defensive side of the ball for the way we were able to shut down a good Salem offense.”
Hubbard limited Salem to 105 yards passing yards and defensive back Chase Myers picked off two Trent Toothman passes.
“The defense did a great job,” said Givens who plays defense while also rushing for 159 yards and scoring three touchdowns. “Our linebackers really stepped up and so did the line. Everybody really stepped up their games tonight.”
Givens tacked on a 2-yard touchdown run midway through the second quarter that gave the Eagles a 21-0 lead at halftime.
In the third quarter, Givens who will play at Pittsburgh next fall, broke off a 68-yard run for a 28-0 lead.
Shelton finished up the scoring by the varsity players by tossing a 26-yard touchdown pass to Kory Hopkinson with 5:30 left in the third quarter.
Blake Novotny scored Hubbard’s final points on a 2-yard run.
Kopachy said he was disappointed in his team’s offensive effort.
“We couldn’t get anything going,” Kopachy said. “That’s a credit to [Hubbard’s] defense.
“They have great athletes who bottled up our athletes all night long.”
Salem had a couple of nice drives and got inside the Hubbard 40 twice but could not sustain the attacks.
One drive ended on downs on the Hubbard 35 and another drive ended up with a Toothman passed picked off by Myers.