What’s next for Gabe Hein and Mars football after offense’s eye-popping first week?
ADAMS TWP — Gabe Hein and the Mars offense caught lightning in a bottle. But Luke Goodworth will have to rain more passes down elsewhere if the Planets are to succeed against visiting Bethel Park Friday night.
Throughout Mars football’s 47-35 season-opening triumph Saturday against Boone High School in Orlando, Fla., the junior wideout, Hein, tallied 256 receiving yards and four touchdowns. Both figures are single-game program records.
Starting this week against the Black Hawks (1-0), the senior signal-caller, Goodworth, doesn’t expect things to be as easy for the offense.
The task at hand will be figuring out if any added focus is put on Hein and dealing with what comes of that.
“Getting other guys involved ... that’s on us as a staff to kind of do that,” Mars coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “Teams are going to hone in on Gabe. When that happens, that’s going to open up (opportunities for) other guys.”
Goodworth, who completed 13 of 21 passes for 391 yards and five scores in Week 1, believes sharing the wealth could make the offense even more lethal. Senior running back and coach’s son Eric Kasperowicz rushed for 117 yards and two touchdowns on 19 totes. Mason Childress added an 80-yard touchdown reception and Ethan Kresinksi had two grabs for 43 yards.
“We need to find people other than just Gabe that can go make a play,” Goodworth said. “I think, now, teams, they obviously saw what he did. Having other people like Blake (Yates), Liam (Hein), Mason and Eric, I think that’ll help a lot.
“Once they see what the rest of our team can do, it’ll be tough to guard.”
One way Hein did most of his damage Saturday was on a four verticals concept called “Shooter,” which suited the Planets’ (1-0) attack especially well against the Sunshine State opponent. Coach Eric Kasperowicz said he’s been using the play since 2014 when he was in charge at nearby Pine-Richland.
“The best play in the playbook,” Hein said.
“It’s tough to defend,” coach Eric Kasperowicz said. “It’s a play that has unlimited options. You can do a lot with it, and we really put a lot of time (into) it and our kids know what to do and when they’re supposed to do it. It usually pops open for us.”
Boone didn’t do itself any favors by running a Cover 1. Hein was only left to maneuver around a linebacker in front of him.
“They just had a guy head-up on him at like 5 yards the whole game,” Goodworth said. “They just kept covering the same way, and I don’t know why they thought it was going to continue to work. I just think putting the same defense out there against our best receiver isn’t that smart.”
It got to the point where Goodworth knew when calling the play which route would be open, and he’d switch Hein to that spot.
Bethel Park’s secondary figures to be much more adept, having only allowed Seneca Valley quarterback Andrew Loebig 88 passing yards in Week 1. The Black Hawks totaled three picks, including a pair of interceptions returned for touchdowns in a 50-14 win at Seneca Valley in its opener.
“We’re just going to continue doing what we do best,” Goodworth said. “I think this week is going to be another shootout just because they (Bethel Park) also put up 50 and we almost put up 50.”
