By HUNTER O. LYLE
SMETHPORT, PA – On Friday night, the Smethport football team was on full display.
Their 45-10 win over Moniteau demonstrated the capabilities of the Hubbers’ full arsenal, a squad that collected 498 total yards of offense. It proved their consistency, notching their fourth consecutive win, all of which have been decided by three scores or more. And it showcased their arrival, having finally returned to the top of District 9 Region 4 for the first time in half a decade.
“Us as coaches, we were just incredibly proud of those guys. Winning Region 4, honestly, was a direct reflection of how hard the kids have worked and how focused they’ve been,” said Smethport head coach Ryan Yingling. “You could tell by the looks on their faces, they were very proud of what they did. It was just a good night.”
But when looked at with a wider lens, their Week Six victory and rise to the top of the conference standings was much more than a game won and a box checked. It was the realization of a program freshly removed from the scaffolding.
Flash back five years and the Hubbers were a battle tested team, successful to the tune of a 31-10 record from 2018 to 2021. Regional contention, Big 30 All-Stars and playoff appearances were all written on their resume. However, as an inevitability of playing within the confines of the shelflife of high school athletics, their grip then slipped as faces faded in and out. The subsequent three years produced just as many wins.
Enter Yingling.
As a life long Hubber, both on the gridiron during his playing career and on the sidelines during his long tenure as an assistant coach, he took pride in finally taking the helm. And before he could tackle putting more numbers in the box score or more ticks in the win column, his first aim started in the locker room.
“When I first got hired as a head coach, one thing that we talked about in our coaching meetings was really just hitting the reset button. We were really going to focus heavily on attitudes and I tried to bring positive people around the program,” said Yingling, who recently had the famed Slippery Rock football head coach George Miahlik join the Hubbers on the sidelines last Friday. “I try to do things like that and really focus on basically how they play with class, how they can win like that and how to be disciplined.
“Attitude is paramount. Obviously they have to have athletic ability,” said Yingling, “but couple that with a good attitude and a good work ethic, that’s how they’re going to get to where they want to go.”
Those sermons fell on rosters equally ready to change the tide of the Orange and White.
During Yingling’s first year with the clipboard and whistle, Smethport began to turn the corner. In the 2025 season, the Hubbers started the process of pulling themselves out of the trenches, surpassing the previous three year’s output with a 4-6 record.
Offensively, that campaign was mostly anchored on their main workhorse, Jonah Ganoe, who led the charge for the Hubbers with over 1,300 rushing yards and 13 of their 21 touchdowns. Although they would lose Ganoe, as well as fellow senior Clayton Kiser, the path came into focus and the next men up followed in their footsteps.
Instead of last season’s largely one-dimensional, albeit, successful plan of attack, the new iteration of Smethport’s offense has emerged as a five-headed hydra, one versatile both on the ground and in the air. And across the line of scrimmage, growth has come in massive supply.
The largest step forward has come from Jude Kisko, the Hubbers’ junior running back who has shattered his previous benchmark as he steps in to fill Ganoe’s shoes. After recording 523 rushing yards and three touchdowns a season ago, Kisko has led the charge with 908 yards and 10 touchdowns on the ground through six games.
His counterpart in the backfield, junior Maddox Dickerson, has blown his previous year’s production of 53 yards on ten carries out of the water, now posting 543 yards and seven touchdowns on 80 carries. Also being a target downfield, Dickerson’s 128 receiving yards and three touchdowns has been the direct result of quarterback Mason Swanson’s continued development.
Having not played under center since middle school, Swanson took the QB1 spot as a sophomore, finding 659 passing yards and nine touchdowns on a 50.5 completion rate. One year later, Swanson’s success rate has grown to 66 percent (33-for-50), fostering 443 passing yards and six touchdowns with three games still left in the season.
At the far ends of the experience spectrum, senior Aidan Tanner is ending his playing career with improvement, finding 196 receiving yards (up from 155 in 2025) on 11 targets (down from 28 in 2025) while freshman standout Lucas Himes, who racked up 130 yards against Moniteau, has opened his high school resume with 256 rushing yards and five touchdowns.
“(Our coaching staff) really pay attention and we try to use everyone we can evenly to try to attack. We’re using pretty much every person at our disposal,” said Yingling. “I kind of feel like it’s not really one person, it’s really all of the skill guys. And they’re working together as teammates too. I rarely hear anything about someone getting the ball more than the other. They’re all working together as a varsity team should.”
On the other side of the ball, the effort is reciprocated as well. The quintet of Kisko, Dickerson, Swanson, Tanner and Himes have combined for 100 of the team’s 208 solo tackles (48 percent) and 165 of the Hubbers’ 378 total tackles (43 percent).
With the goal of a Region 4 title already secured, Yingling and Co. are vigilant in keeping their depth of field shallow, focusing only on the task at hand, which at this point rests in their Week Seven visit to Coudersport this Friday. However, having all but locked up a position in the D9 Class A playoffs, also a first since 2021, the prospect of a trip to the postseason would be monumental, both as a milestone and a learning experience.
“Playing at a high level is a learned skillset.So if we are fortunate enough to be confirmed a playoff spot, being able to compete in that environment is going to be important for our players’ development,” said Yingling. “Knowing that you’re getting on that bus and going to a playoff game, it’s just a different atmosphere.”
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