By BOB ETTINGER

sports @vindy.com

HUBBARD

It might have appeared things were just not going Hubbard’s way during the first 12 minutes of an All-American Conference White Tier battle with Struthers.

Eagles coach Brian Hoffman knew better and stuck with the plan. That persistence paid off in a 41-0 win over the Wildcats on Friday night at Alumni Field at Hubbard Memorial Stadium in the 84th meeting between the teams.

Hoffman reached 100 victories in the triumph and the Eagles shut out an opponent for the third consecutive week.

“I haven’t changed much with my coaching staff,” Hoffman said. “To get to share a lot of times with them and a lot of times with their kids and having them play for me, it’s been a rewarding 12 years. It’s gone by like the blink of an eye. I’m just very thankful.”

Hoffman was happy to share the rewards with the Eagles (8-0, 5-0), though they may not have left him a chance in cleaning off the table.

“I’m not big into sweets,” Hoffman said. “They can have them all. They earned it tonight. They played really well tonight.”

The Wildcats (5-3, 3-1) spent the entire first 12 minutes with their backs to the end zone after a punt deep in Struthers territory, but managed to hold the Eagles scoreless through the end of the first period.

“The defense played well in the first quarter,” Struthers coach Curt Kuntz said. “We just couldn’t switch the field, so we kept our defense in bad situations. Unless you exchange field position, it’s not going to hold up. The offense didn’t get the couple first downs we needed and get it out.”

The Eagles downed a punt at the Struthers 4 to pin the Wildcats.

“It really did turn the tide for us,” Hoffman said. “It gave us some confidence. End of the second quarter, we saw some things we could capitalize on offensively. When we came in at halftime we had the momentum in our corner.”

Hubbard finally broke through to score with 11:04 remaining in the first half as Davion Daniels connected with JayQuan Odem in the back of the end zone on fourth-and-goal from the Struthers 7.

“Fumbles, penalties ... we could’ve got frustrated, but we did see there were some plays were being made,” Hoffman said. “We felt good about the formations we had and where we were trying to attack and felt if we were going to continue to do so, we were going to be all right.”

The Eagles scored again four minutes later when Rafael Morales fell on a fumble in the end zone as Hubbard led, 14-0, with 3:16 to play in the half.

Daniels hit Dean Thomas on a 58-yard scoring pass to put the Eagles up, 21-0, with :48 remaining in the half.

That barrage came on the heels of the Wildcats losing defensive captain Joe Macciomei, who was carted off the field and taken to a nearby hospital with an undisclosed injury midway through the first quarter.

“We’ll see [if Macciomei is OK],” Kuntz said. “We lost our defensive leader. The communication aspect of it [hurt us]. A couple guys weren’t in the right spot because of the calls. The quarterback on defense makes a lot of checks for us and puts the guys in the right spots. [Hubbard has] five guys who can take it to the house every play.”

Morales scored on a 22-yard run on Hubbard’s opening possession of the second half to make it 28-0 with 8:37 to play in the third. Six minutes later, Lukas Mosora, who also recovered a fumble earlier, pounded the ball in from the 4 to make it 35-0.

“[Mosora] is probably the most valuable player on any team in the area,” Kunts said. “He goes unnoticed on offense.”

Morales closed the scoring with an 8-yard run in the fourth.