AMHERST – Forget that Amherst’s spread offense scored three touchdowns and gained 168 yards in the first quarter. Defense is still the Comets’ pride and joy.

“The defense has played pretty well for two weeks,” Amherst coach Kevin Fell said after the Comets rolled to a 34-7 victory over Midview on Friday night. “Except for maybe two drives in the second quarter, our defense played as well as any defense can play. When you have a defense like that, you don’t have to have too much offense.”

Amherst (2-0) had enough offense. Junior quarterback Brennan Hosier completed 26 of 45 passes for 290 yards and two touchdowns. But the Comets’ first-team defense was marvelous. It allowed Midview (0-2) a scant 120 yards of total offense and seven first downs (one by penalty) for 3½ quarters.

“Our front five just dominated,” said Marty Thomas, the middle linebacker. “They filled up all the holes. They let the linebackers make all the tackles. The defensive backs never let anyone get behind them.”

It helps to have a big lead early. Hosier completed 10 of 16 passes for 113 yards in the first quarter. After throwing an interception on his first attempt, he led the Comets on a short drive to their first touchdown after Jacob Pena recovered a fumble at the Midview 34-yard line.

Jordan Irvin caught a 17-yard pass and Brad Block had a 6-yard reception on a fourth-and-5 play to get to the Middies’ 6-yard line. A 6-yard TD run by Zach Kelley, his first of two touchdowns, gave Amherst a 7-0 lead.

Hosier went 5-for-6 on the next drive, finishing it with a 10-yard touchdown pass to Irvin. He completed passes of 13 and 10 yards to Block and a pass for 15 yards to Tyler Parrish on the following drive before Jason Stump made the score 21-0 with a 32-yard TD run around the right end.

But the second quarter was nothing like the first for Amherst.  Hosier completed only four of 12 passes for 35 yards in the period and the Comets had just 29 yards of total offense. Midview scored its touchdown after a high snap on a punt attempt was recovered at the Amherst 7-yard line. Tate Smith pushed his way into the end zone one play later.

The Middies mounted their only sustained drive in the second quarter, moving 51 yards on 12 plays before stalling at the 17. Coach Bill Albright had praise for the way the Middies stiffened in the second period and kept the game from becoming a runaway.

“Our kids didn’t have any quit in them,” Albright said. “They kept hitting them. Even though we lost two very good football players (injuries to Smith and Johnny Walsh) they kept battling. I give them credit for that.”

“Midview played good defense, too,” Fell said. “They had a good scheme against us and took away a lot of what we wanted to do. We had to make a few adjustments. This will be hard to believe, but I think our offense played better in the second half. It moved the ball with more consistency.”

It took a daring fourth-down play by Stump to keep the Comets’ first scoring drive of the second half going. Faced with a fourth-and-2, Stump went back to punt and ran 6 yards off tackle to get the first down. Hosier threw 23 yards to Stump for the touchdown with 8:49 to go in the third period.

The Comets sacked Midview’s Ryan Mains three times. Andy Dito of Amherst and Brendan Large of Midview had interceptions.

FROZEN IN TIME: As if a game with 62 pass plays wouldn’t be long enough. The scoreboard stopped working with 10:43 to play in the third quarter, halting play. Fortunately, the problem was fixed after a delay of only about 10 minutes.

Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

Amherst 34, Midview 7

Midview          0              7              0              0              -           7
Amherst         21            0              6              7              -           34

Scoring

A – Zach Kelley, 6 run (Tyler Bires kick)
A – Jordan Irvin, 10 pass from Brennan Hosier (Bires kick)
A – Jason Stump 32 run (Bires kick)
M – Tate Smith, 7 run (Patrick Geyser kick)
A – Stump, 23 pass from Hosier (kick failed)
A – Kelley, 1 run (Bires kick)

Team statistics

M                             A
First downs                        10                            19
- by rushing                         7                              5
- by passing                         2                              14
- by penalty                         1                              0
Yards rushing                 125                          298
Yards passing                   39                            87
Total offense                    164                          385
Passes att./comp.         16/4                        46/27
Intercepted by               1                              1
Fumbles/lost                  2/1                          3/1
Penalties/yards            1/10                        5/45

Individual statistics

RUSHING – (M) Tate Smith 8-32, Zach Albright 4-31, Jacob Bennett 11-27, Brett Bartone 3-24, Elijh Radosevich 3-7, Brendan Costa 1-5, Bobby Vibonese 1-5, Tyler Colangelo 1-0, Brad Nagy 1-0, Ryan Mains 5-(-8). (A) Jason Stump 7-58, Zach Kelley 6-23, Jordan Irvin 5-6, Justin Silva 1-4, Brennan Hosier 2-2, Eric Lamb 1-(-6).

PASSING – (M) Mains 4-16-39-0-1. (A) Hosier 26-45-290-2-1, Eric Lamb 1-1-8-0-0.

RECEIVING – (M) Albright 2-31, Patick Linn 1-5, Bennett 1-3. (A) Tyler Parrish 7-109, Stump 6-55, Brad Block 5-45, Jeremy Sanchez 4-39, Irvin 3-36, Zack Fortin 1-8, Kelley 1-6.

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