By HUNTER O. LYLE
PORT ALLEGANY, PA – After four years, the Smethport football team had finally returned to the playoffs. Their hard work over the past few seasons had finally paid off
Last year, with new head coach Ryan Yingling taking the reins, the culture changed and the foundation was built. This year, the fruits of their labor arrived. Wins. Double-digit All-Star Selections. A Region 4 title. An almost perfect season in the form of an 8-1 record and a trip to the Class A postseason. However, their draw for the quarterfinals pinned them against the only team they’d lost to: Port Allegany.
“What we were trying to do (as coaches) was to get the initial game out of (our players’) heads. That was going to be the most important thing for us,” said Yingling of the Hubbers’ 56-7 Week Two loss to Port. “We just wanted to make sure that this was an entirely different game.”
Despite their ascension, there would be no Cinderella Story for the Hubs. In a battle of new versus old, youth versus experience, the Gators proved why they were the defending champions, dispatching Smethport in their first-ever playoff meeting with a 63-13 home field defense.
Flash back to the end of August, Port was also removing some scaffolding from their program ahead of the 2026 season. After graduating a star-studded senior class, the Gators were looking to some new, albeit still heavily experienced, faces to step up. And they did so seamlessly.
Relying on the trio of quarterback Brennan Fillhart, receiver/running back Kellen Veilleux and running back Isaac Postlewait to shoulder the offense, Port’s new crop of talent carried the torch to a 6-4 regular season record, garnering the third seed in Class A.
“It’s been one heck of a season. We’ve had our ups and down but towards the end we tightened things up and got better as we went,” said Port Allegany head coach Cliff Fillhart. “We’re battle tested, I can tell you that.”
In the Gators’ first taste of playoff action this year, Port’s three-headed Hydra hit the ground running, literally. With their offensive line continuously overpowering their matchups in the trenches and their ball carriers breaking through gaps and smashing through contact, Port reached the endzone on their first three drives, all of which were capped off by Veilluex.
Meanwhile, Smethport was searching for daylight. Feeling the pressure early and forced into a fourth-and-two situation on their first possession, the Hubbers conversion failed. Although Maddox Dickerson returned a kickoff for 85-yards to put them on the scoreboard soon after, Smethport was subsequently forced off the field sooner rather than later for the rest of the half. The Hubbers would find only two first downs in the opening two quarters while suffering five tackles-for-losses and one sack.
On the other side of the field, the Gators’ big three were stacking both yards and scores.
Leading 21-6, Port was ultimately forced off the field for the first – and only – time at the start of the second quarter. However, they quickly doubled down. After seeing Smethport’s offense leave the field two empty minutes later, the Gators returned to flawless execution. Postlewait scored on their next two possessions, cracking open a 73-yard rushing touchdown before capping off their following drive with a 17-yard score, followed by a 10-yard quarterback scramble across the plane from Brennan Fillhart just before halftime.
By halftime, the Gators had built a 43-6 lead and the Veillieux-Postlewait-Fillhart crew had amassed 333 rushing yards.
“It’s whoever’s number gets called. They all have each other’s back,” said Cliff Fillhart. “Teams are keying on (Veilleux) so we pull him somewhere else and then (Postlewait) runs hard and tough.”
If there was any uncertainty about the outcome in the final half of play, Port put an end to it immediately. Back-to-back sacks on the Hubbers’ first offensive drive of the third removed them from the field before the Gators ripped off two more successive touchdowns. Brennan Fillhart connected with Liam Hawver for a 28-yard passing touchdown before Postlewait scored his third of the night on a 50-yard dash across the gridiron.
Playing under a running clock, there was no room for a response, and although the Hubbers earned one more trip to the endzone with their reserves – Trent Tanner scored on a five-yard carry – their season was all but wrapped up, ultimately coming to an end in The Swamp.
Postlewait ended with a game-high 202 rushing yards on eight carries, reaching the endzone three times in the win. Veilleux also tallied three touchdowns during his 122-rushing-yard night, while Fillhart ran for 53 yards and threw for 89, completing six of his ten attempts.
For the Hubbers, Jude Kisko finished with a team-high 28 rushing yards, followed by Dickerson with 24 and Lucas Himes with 19.
Port will advance to the semifinals next Friday. There, they will see No. 2 Brockway, the team that handed the Gators’ their most lopsided defeat of the year in Week Four at 27-12.
“I feel good. We weren’t really ready for (Brockway) when we played them, honestly. From top to bottom we didn’t play very well. Didn’t finish three drives within the ten-yard-line, lost by two scores,” said Cliff Fillhart. “I think we’ve been tested since then a bunch and I think we’ve become better from that. We’ll be ready and we’ll see what happens.”
For the Hubbers, while it might not have been the ending they wanted, it was easy for Yingling and Co. to see the silver lining.
“It didn’t turn out our way. Sometimes you’re the hammer, sometimes you’re the nail. Tonight we were the nail but I can tell you, I think we needed this. Seeing the looks on their faces tonight, the future of our program is going in the right direction,” said Yingling. “The turnaround that we’ve made and the trajectory that they’ve put our program on is something that we can all be proud of.”
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