Aerial show could put Bearcats in playoffs
Ethan Tush led Bentworth in rushing attempts last season. The Bearcats’ offense averaged 20 points per game and returns almost all of its backs and receivers.
Matt McMillan prepares to return to the field during Bentworth’s preseason camp.
Ty Mitchell runs a drill during practice at Bentworth.
ELLSWORTH – When Ron Skiles came back for a third time to coach the Bentworth football program, he did so with a plan.
For the Bearcats to compete for a playoff berth, they needed to score more points than the 83 they put up in 2013. That total was deceiving because 43 came in Bentworth’s lone win, at Geibel Catholic, a team that no longer has a varsity football program.
Skiles, who had last coached Bentworth in 2007, was away from the game but he was paying attention. He saw more high school programs going to a spread offense and figured that was the way for the Bearcats to go.
“I was out of football, but I’ve always studied football, even when I wasn’t coaching,” Skiles said. “I could see the spread offense coming and the value of it. I thought, well, we’re going to do that. That’s all you need to say. Like President John F. Kennedy said, ‘We’re going to the moon.’ That’s all he had to say. Then it was, ‘Let’s figure out how we’re going to get there.’
“That’s how I was with the spread. I locked us into it. This is what we’re going to do. We’re going to put two (receivers) over there and two on the other side. There’s nobody flopping or moving. We’re just going to play. And we got good at it.”
How good?
After scoring just 41 points in 2013 against programs not named Geibel, the Bearcats became an offense opponents had to respect last year. They scored 180 points and earned a few more wins along the way, improving from 1-8 to 3-6.
Skiles hopes for continued improvement this season. And with such players as junior quarterback Josh Hughes, senior running backs Ethan Tush and Felix Hernandez and senior receiver Noah Peternal returning, the Bearcats should have the ability to score a lot of points.
“We throw the ball. We’re going to run a spread offense and we’re going to spread you 53 yards and make you cover all 53 yards,” Skiles said. “We’re going to throw the ball.”
Hughes completed 72 of 143 passes for 937 yards, eight touchdowns and eight interceptions last season despite splitting time with departed Angelo Rios-Lopez, who added another 661 passing yards and six scores.
The two accounted for nearly 1,600 passing yards and Skiles sees a lot of improvement in Hughes.
“The spread offense has given him opportunities to throw the ball and have a lot of completions,” Skiles said. “But he’s now getting the ability to push the ball down the field.”
Peternal (5-10, 165) was the Bearcats’ second-leading receiver last year and averaged a healthy 20.4 yards on his 22 receptions. He leads a receiving group that returns every player who caught a pass for Bentworth last season with the exception of leading receiver Phillip Stahlman, who was lost to graduation.
The Bearcats didn’t run the ball a lot, but when they did, it was Tush and Hernandez doing the damage. They combined for nearly 500 yards with Tush logging a team-best 63 times.
“He’s a very good runner – tough, a very strong boy,” Skiles said. “We’re solid there.”
There’s plenty at the skill positions to have Skiles expecting big things, if a young and inexperienced offensive line can develop.
“We’ve got some players who haven’t played, but we’ve been successful and they want a piece of that,” said Skiles, who had 39 players on the roster to open training camp. “They’re brand new as blockers. They’re question marks.”
The same could be said of the defense.
While the offense was making big strides last year, the defense didn’t keep up.
The Bearcats were an exciting team to watch, one that would make a big play and give up an even bigger one. The Bearcats allowed 30 or more points in seven of nine games.
“Defensively, we still struggle,” Skiles admitted. “We lost games because of our defense. That’s going to be our focus. We’re expecting to be better on offense and a lot better on defense.”
And if that happens, the sky, or even the moon, could be the limit. First, Skiles would like to be a playoff contender in the Class A Tri-County South Conference.
The improvement the Bearcats made last season has Skiles cautiously optimistic about their chances to make the playoffs for the first time since 2005, the last time he was Bentworth’s head coach.
“Our program has not been successful in quite a while,” Skiles said. “I believe last year we turned that around and we’re now on an upward trajectory.”