THE UNDEFEATED

 

I tried something different in this writing. Instead of focusing on one individual(s), a specific league or team. I went with a different concept and focused only on teams (both basketball and football) who finished their regular season undefeated.

The initial plan was to pick only ten teams, but that rarely works out for me once a piece starts rolling as this one did. Of course, there are more teams that had unbeaten seasons than only the ones listed plus squads who had outstanding seasons and lost just a game or two for three, four or even more seasons in a row.

So the planned ten teams ended up as 25, several with multiple undefeated seasons.

No chronological order- Here we go

ABOVE: 1975 Portville team (9-0) Bob Connell and his team: Bottom row, left to right- King, Doty, Tom Yanetsko, Tim Yanetsko, Bretzin, Thomas. Second row, Sutter, Mark Skiver, Campbell, Caya, Baker, Nease. Top row, Childs, Rasey, Parr, Mike Skiver, Sweigart and Coach Bob Connell

Portville beat Bolivar for win #9. QB Tom Yanetsko ran for 164 yards in 13 carries including an 85 yard run for a touchdown. Stats showed Portville winning the first down battle 20-8 and the Panthers ran for 355 yards to Bolivar's 5 yards.

Portville had the second best PPG vs, opposition in the Big 30

TOP-Hinsdale's Dave Conklin in season's finale (1975) vs. Little Valley

Rod Rohl's Bobcats win 60-6 to cap a 9-0 season. Conklin ran for 174 yards and two touchdowns in the final, including a 74 yard dash.

Hinsdale rushes for 474 yards overall and 26-6 lead in the first half.

Highlights in 1964 included Franklinville's undefeated "B" basketball champs with George Hicker the one top scorer in the area.  Coudersport basketball wins 26 in a row and loses in Pennsylvania state final. Running back John Bulicz leads Sheffield to an undefeated season. West Valley and Bradford C.C. football also run the table. Salamanca football coach, Joe Sanflippo is Coach of the Year.

Franklinville's basketball squad extends their winning streak to 36 games. Center Dan Wetzel, 6'8" leads the Falcons to state finals.

Midway through the '64 North Tier season Coudersport is 17-0 and Wetzel and Butch Stilson of Smethport (16-6) were two of the top players in the Big 30 area in '64. Stilson scored 37 points vs. Port Allegany in this league clipping (no three point shots in 1964)

Angelica led by Bill Young goes 18-1.

Finals loss for Coudersport in Lewisburg, Pa. (Bucknell University)

Finals box score, Wetzel held to 11. Conshohocken has four players in double figures.

The much bigger Coudersport team was outrebounded by the Philadelphia area team.

`1972. Bradford CC. put together back to back 8-0 seasons. Coach Rod Rishel, former University of Buffalo player leads team to their second straight conference title and puts seven players on the Border Conference All-Star team including Marty Sapko, Pat Pecora and Marty Hollenbeck who made up the backfield along with O-E's Mike Miller. The rest of the squad listed below.

1972 All-Stars included Terry Surra who rushed for 1,023 yards in 170 carries. Sapko was named Big 30 QB.

Cuba Central HS racked up undefeated seasons in 1971 and 1972 (8-0) Head Coach Ron Mosher was named Coach of the Year in the Big 30. (1972)

1972 Big 30 Award Winners pictured left to right: Rob King(Portville)-Outstanding Defensive Player, Marty Sapko (Bradford C.C.) -Player of Year, Jim Morris (Bradford High) Outstanding Player in Olean-Bradford game and Coach Ron Mosher.

Year by Year (1959-1983) Football Coach of the Year and Players of the Year. 1959 COY was Rock Denning (Bradford) and 1960 POY was Jim McNeal (Sheffield), Several coaches won multiple times: Joe Sanflippo (Salamanca) in '64 and '71, Bob Dunsmore (Bolivar) '74 and '79 and Ron Mosher. A defensive player of the year was awarded beginning in 1970 and included: Mike Simon '73 (Emporium), Greg Carney '77 (Olean High) and Marvin Bowen '83 (Pioneer) The Monago brothers of Bradford won the POY award: John Monago in 1961 and Joe Monago in 1968. Barry Bova of Port Allegany was the '78 POY winner and Rob Tronetti (Smethport) was the '82 recipient. 

1984- "Battle of the Unbeatens", Coudersport vs. Smethport. T.j Reap intercepted a pass in the final minutes and raced 50 yards for the game's only touchdown and a 6-0 victory. Below-Reap is stopped at the goal line earlier in the game. Both teams were 6-0 going in to this contest.

Smethport defeats Bolivar, 20-0 (1984). This game was Smethport's tenth win in a row- the longest winning streak in the Big 30 at that time.

The Hubbers' defense had not been scored in 33 straight quarters going back to the previous season.

Scott Burdick scores twice in Smethport win. Bolivar gained more yards than Smethport and also had more first downs and plays run from scrimmage.

Smethport had some outstanding wins in '84, but a loss to Portville (14-7) gave them an 8-1 mark. Coach Defilippi's initial four years as head coach showed a 31-5 record overall. Ellicottville and Portville were the only two unbeaten Big 30 football teams in '84.

Ridgway completes their third consecutive 9-0 season (1974-1976) and 30th straight victory. Head Coach Norm Zwald was named COY and fullback Ken Streich was named POY in the Big 30.

Zwald took over the program in 1973, winning their final three games that began the long winning streak. Ridgway outscored their opposition 990-187 during that 30 game streak.

Scio basketball coached by Roger Rigby went undefeated in 1976-1977 (20-0) and again in 1980. 

1981- Coudersport football goes 9-0 with Head Coach Paul Simcoe. The Falcons clinched an unbeaten season beating North Penn, 35-6. John Dubots ran for 173 yards and QB Bill Daisley threw for two TD passes.

Ridgway joins Coudersport at 9-0. Ridgway is led by head coach Mike Dominick. Dominick was the assistant coach when Norm Zwald coached Ridgway to undefeated seasons from 1974-1976.

Ridgway goes undefeated for the third year in a row, this time with Mike Dominick as HC and leading his squad to their 27th straight win, this time over Johnsonburg, 41-6. Ridgway has now won 40 of its last 41 games.

Below: Bolivar had an unbeaten regular season (9-0), but loses in the sectional playoffs 7-0 to Geneva Desales. 1979.

QB Rich Matheny prepares to handoff as running back Stan Dunsmore leads the way in Bolivar's playoff loss.

A defensive struggle, but Bolivar did have the edge in total yardage, 201-121.

I had to jump ahead almost 40 years, but I had to be true to my alma mater who put together a tremendous boys and girls basketball streak in both 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. In the past two seasons the boys and girls basketball teams have combined for a 68-0 record in the North Tier League and 87-11 overall.

The 2021-2022 girls and boys basketball teams at Otto-Eldred HS. Shawn Gray is the coach of the O-E girls team and Steve Bell followed by Derrick Frances have led the boys' team during the incredible hoops run.