Information for this story came from various sources including a story that appeared in the Sept. 19 Olean Times Herald.
     SMETHPORT – Eighteen years. Eighteen long, hard years. It had been 18 years since Otto-Eldred beat Smethport on the football field. That was until Thursday night when the Terrors ran away with a 20-7 win over their long-time AML North nemeses.
    The last time Otto-Eldred beat Smethport was 13-0 in the 1983 season-opener, and in September 1983 none of the current Terror players were even born yet. Since then the series had been all Smethport until this year. In addition to winning 18 straight games, Smethport had won by an average of 35-3. They had shutout Otto-Eldred 11 times and held the Terrors to just 12 points in the entire 1990’s. Last season despite a team that finished 3-6, Smethport beat Otto-Eldred 52-6.
    This year it took just one quarter for the Terrors to score more than six points and one half to score more than 12. Otto-Eldred led 14-7 at halftime and then added a third-quarter score to put the game away.
    With the win, Otto, which broke a 27-game losing streak in the last game of last season, is now 3-1 on the season and has won four of its past five games. By the end of the weekend, the Terrors will be in a second-place tie in the AML North with either Port Allegany or Coudersport a game behind the winner of the Port-Coudy game Saturday and very much in the District 9 Class A playoff race.
    Otto-Eldred’s defense dominated the game allowing Smethport just 111 yards of total offense while sacking Hubber quarterback Matt Switzer 10 times which resulted in negative 13 yards of rushing offense for Smethport. The Terrors also forced five Smethport turnovers.
    The Terror defense set the tone from the early moments of the football game after Smethport recovered a fumble on the opening kickoff deep in Otto territory. But the Otto defense forced a turnover on down and then went 67 yards in the following drive to take a 7-0 lead on a 21-yard run by Josh Mesler.
    Smethport tied the game in the second quarter on a 31-yard pass from Switzer to Tyler Covert, and the Hubbers defense then held Otto-Eldred and got the ball back.
    At that point, things started to go south for Smethport. Switzer was picked off by Keith Barrett setting Otto-Eldred up at the Smethport 29-yard line. On the first play after the interception, Virgil Graham sprinted 29 yards for a touchdown giving Otto-Eldred the lead for good a 14-7.
    A second interception by Switzer set up Otto-Eldred’s final score early in the second half. The Terrors Luke Breese picked off this pass, and then four plays after his interceptions Breese hit Barrett with a 32-yard touchdown toss putting Otto up 20-7.
    Breese was 12-for-21 passing for Otto-Eldred for 126 yards and a touchdown.
Switzer finished the night 9-for-25 passing for 124 yards  with one touchdown and four interceptions for Smethport while completing just one second-half pass and throwing three second-half interceptions.
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