By HUNTER O. LYLE
OLEAN, NY – When everything goes right, you tend to have things to celebrate about. For the Olean football team, their most effective and dominant night on the gridiron produced a few.
Led by their three-headed hydra of quarterback Joe Mest, receiver Mykel Rivera and running back Domonick Hirliman, the Huskies’ 35-12 win over Dunkirk came as their third in a row, their first victory at home and their ticket to the postseason.
After starting the season at 1-2 with all three games being decided by a combined eight points, Olean finally began finding separation on the scoreboard in Week 4. Their 32-8 win against Albion then gave way to a 21-14 beating of East Aurora/Holland last Friday, which saw Hirliman put the offense on his back. Having his best game of the season with 127 rushing yards and three touchdowns, his momentum had yet to stall when the Marauders came to town.
On the very first snap of the game, the Huskies gave Hirilman the green light, taking the ball for an initial five-yard carry. Over his next few touches, he continuously found ways to break through gaps and tackles as he collected a 13 yard gain and 12 yard gain as Olean marched down the field.
“(Hirliman) is such a gritty, tough kid. He’s 140 pounds soaking wet and he runs hard, he’s a great teammate,” said Olean head coach Phil Vecchio. “He’s a really, really good player for us and I’m just so happy for him and for our offensive line. Finally getting things together a little bit.”
Getting five first downs in eight plays, the Huskies found themselves standing on Dunkirk’s three-yard line. One snap later, Hirliman was in the endzone and Olean was on the scoreboard.
At first, it seemed as if the Marauders were about to retaliate. Putting their heads down and feet forward, Dunkirk mirrored the Huskies with short gains that threatened to claw upfield. However, reaching the redzone, Olean’s defense shut down the action. A stop on first-and-ten refused to give up yards before Caine DeGolier came through with a big hit in the backfield for a loss of four. A bad snap would produce fourth-and-17 while staunch defense in the secondary forced an incomplete pass and a Marauder turnover.
On their second drive of the game and first of the second quarter, Olean began by testing the water. A short pass to Rivera came up with five yards, followed by two handoffs to Hirliman which the defense was waiting for. With Dunkirk’s attention on the ground, Mest went with the play-action, faking the handoff and instead finding Rivera downfield with ample space. Coming down with his second reception of the night, Rivera then scored the 51-yard touchdown to put Olean up 14-0.
Forcing two punts, thereafter, Olean had one last chance to score before the break. Taking over after a shallow Marauder punt with just over a minute left, Mest found Rivera for five and Dom Myers for a 23-yard reception. Although they lost some yards on their next play, Mest then scrambled to his right and sent a bullet down range to Tyler Sullivan. Fighting through contact as he bruised his way towards the endzone, Sullivan dove through one final tackle, arms stretched forward as he crashed to the ground, narrowly breaking the plane for his first career touchdown. After two quarters, Olean had posted their highest halftime score at 21-0.
“I think our offensive line improved a ton last week and I think we really kind of ran the ball at will, especially on that first drive,” said Vecchio. “It makes it a hell of a lot easier as a play caller when you can run the ball a little bit and keep defenses honest.”
To open the second, Dunkirk switched to the air. Initially being forced to third-and-13, Hayven Smith connected with Jordan Thomas Smith, somehow sending the ball right behind the tight coverage for a 69-yard inaugural touchdown. Forcing Olean to punt for just the second time all game right after, the Marauders’ found two more long gains back-to-back with 26-yard and 23-yard receptions that put them on the goal line. Using all four downs of the possession, they ultimately reached the endzone again with a tush push, closing the deficit to nine.
Needing a spark, Olean went back to their dynamic duo. Using Hirliman and Rivera back-and-forth, the Huskies picked up yards in bunches and less than two minutes after Dunkirk reached the endzone, Olean arrived with Hirliman bursting through for a three-yard score. Then, Olean’s defense carried them home. Over the Marauders’ final three drives, they would suffer five sacks and fail to cross midfield from then on.
“We can’t make anything easy. It’s 21-0 at halftime and we gave up the two quick scores,” said Vecchio, “but when we needed a quick stop, our defensive line showed up. I don’t know how many sacks we had but it felt like we had pretty good pressure most of the night.”
Meanwhile, after forcing a Dunkirk turnover and taking just 27 yards from the endzone, Olean would tack on just one more touchdown to their dominating evening, with Adrian Bohdanowycz putting the bow on the Huskies’ third win in a row with a 13-yard carry.
Taking the handoff 17 times, Hirliman broke triple digits in back-to-back weeks, ending with 108 against Dunkirk and scoring twice. Mest completed seven of his 13 passes, tallying 148 and finding Rivera four times for 94 yards and one touchdown. On defense, Colby Booth came away with three sacks and a team-high seven tackles, while Hunter Silvis and Antonio Sauri each had one sack.
Tallying their fourth win in the Section VI Class B standings, Olean checked an item off their itinerary: a playoff berth. Yet, while they have one layer of pressure off their shoulders, they now set their eyes on a new horizon.
“We know that we have two excellent teams coming up in Iroquois and Lackawanna so we put ourselves in a position where if we can win another game or two, we could maybe be division champs, we could maybe get a home playoff game,” said Vecchio. “We made our first goal, making the playoffs. The next goal is to get a home playoff game.”
