ERIE — After winning the coin toss and choosing to defer — putting themselves on defense to open the game — the DuBois Beavers couldn’t have given their first-year head coach Rob Hanzely a much better start to their 2026 campaign against Erie High School on Saturday night, as the Beavers forced a three-and-out, then scored on the fifth offensive play of their season to take a lead.

From there, though, the host rebounded and scored the only other touchdown of the first half, then the first one of the second half to take an eight-point lead. DuBois responded late with another touchdown to cut the lead to two points, but that’s as close as they’d get, and the Royals held on for a 14-12 victory at Erie Veterans Memorial Stadium.

“We came out hot, and it looked like it was going to be one of those games where we could get rolling, but we kind of got stymied for the rest of the game until we found something there in the fourth quarter,” Hanzely said. “We just had too many mistakes, plain and simple. We had some special teams mistakes, some miscommunications, and those little things cost us. We’ll chalk that up to it being our first game, and we’ll get back to work on Monday and get ourselves ready to go for next Friday against Brockway.”

After a nice opening kickoff by Maddox Barnes skipped deep into Royals’ territory, DuBois stuffed a pair of run plays for short gains then forced Erie quarterback Jack Musone to roll out of the pocket and throw an incompletion, setting up a punt and giving the ball to the Beavers less than 2 minutes into the contest.

DuBois made the most of its first offensive opportunity, going 44 yards on five plays to score its first touchdown of the season. The drive started with two short runs by Dalton Reasinger, but on the third-down play, Seth Wilmoth aired one out down the field and Erie was called for pass interference, moving the ball to the 27-yard line.

Then, after Reasinger ran for a total of 7 yards on two more run plays, Wilmoth rolled to his left on the third-down play and threw a short pass to Josiah Brackman, who caught it, turned up the field and sprinted to the goal line, where he ran over an Erie defender to punch it in for a 20-yard touchdown reception. The extra point try was just wide, but DuBois held a 6-0 lead with 6:57 to play in the first quarter.

Erie’s second drive went a bit better than its first — thanks to a 37-yard screen pass from Musone to Adlen Gilmore Jr. on its first play — but after that, DuBois forced a punt, thanks in large part to a big third-down tackle at the line of scrimmage for Brock Fike.

DuBois’ following drive lasted 11 plays and more than 6-and-a-half minutes, turning the game into its second quarter, but after moving downfield on a 52-yard pass from Wilmoth to Avion Bell and pushing inside the 10 on two nice catches by Brackman, the Beavers saw their host make a defensive stand to force a field goal attempt. The snap on that attempt was botched, and the play resulted in a 16-yard loss and a turnover on downs.

Erie took the momentum its defense gave it and ran with it, going 80 yards on 11 plays of their own to score and take their first lead of the game. The drive was highlighted by a 25-yard scramble by Musone and a 3-yard run by DyArren Woodard on a 4th-and-3 play, with the final punctuation mark being a quick hitter screen from Musone to Amir Hansbrew for an 18-yard touchdown to make it 7-6 with 6:12 left in the half.

The Beavers’ ensuing drive started at their own 29 and was the third-straight drive of the game to last 11 plays. This time, they turned the field on a great sideline snag by Bell for 33 yards and another 20-yard reception by Brackman. But after the Royals defense made a stand at the 20-yard line, the Beavers attempted another field goal.

This time, the kick launched successfully, but Erie’s Al Anderson got a paw on it for a block. His teammate, Keishaun Richmond, scooped it up and took it all the way to the other end zone, but a pair of Erie personal fouls were called on the return, and after they were enforced from the spot of the first one, Erie took over at its own 12.

Three plays later, after an Erie first down, the Royals tried to air one out down the field, and Bell managed to sky high and haul it down for an interception. DuBois’ ensuing drive was stymied by an Erie sack, and with just 10 seconds left on the clock, the Royals went for broke only to see Calvin Cooper rock Musone as he was releasing the ball, forcing an incompletion and ending the half with the home team still ahead by one point.

After a number of long series in the first half, the story changed drastically in the second, beginning with an opening drive interception for Erie’s Michael Henry on the Beavers’ second play from scrimmage. Neither team picked up a first down on their next drive, and while the Royals’ following one lasted just three plays, it did result in their second touchdown, as Musone hit Julian Leone for another quick-strike screen, and Leone took it 32 yards down the left sideline for a score to push the lead to 14-6.

Tyon Tate ended DuBois’ next drive early by forcing and recovering a fumble at his own 43, and after three successive three-and-outs, the two teams traded turnovers on downs, as well, to send the game to its final quarter with the score unchanged.

Erie’s first drive of the final 12-minute segment was set up by another fumble recovery — this time by Travis Barnes — and the drive proved to be a messy one for both sides. It began with offsetting personal foul penalties and included three other penalties of the 15-yard variety. Ultimately, though, DuBois’ Joey Ruscitti picked up a big sack to stall it out, and the Beavers took over at their own 42 with 6:57 to play.

It was on that drive that something changed when the Beavers found a spark by handing the ball to Reasinger. On the first play, he rumbled for 16 yards up the middle, so they handed it to him again on the next, and he did it again — this time breaking through a herd of Royals’ would-be tacklers then running away from them all for a 46-yard touchdown. The Royals were able to stop Reasinger shy of the goal line on the pivotal two-point try, though, to keep a lead, 14-12, with 6:33 to play.

Erie went three-and-out on its next possession — with Fike coming up with another big stuff in the backfield on a third-down screen pass attempt to force the punt, which was a short one off the side of the kicker’s foot, giving DuBois possession at its own 45.

Reasinger rumbled up the middle twice more on the first two plays of the drive for a total of 10 yards and a first down in Erie territory, but from there, a false start and an illegal motion penalty stalled out the Beavers’ momentum, and Anderson and Barnes teamed up for a key sack on the third-down play to set up fourth-and-long, which resulted in an incompletion deep down the field on a pass break-up by Erie’s Keishaun Richmond.

That turnover on downs with 1:29 on the game clock — paired with DuBois only having one timeout remaining — meant that with some strategic timing, the Royals were able to kneel out the clock without allowing DuBois to regain possession, sealing the 14-12 victory.

Offensively, Wilmoth went 9-for-26 for 151 yards, throwing a touchdown and an interception. His top targets were Brackman (who finished with 76 yards and a touchdown on a team-high four catches) and Bell (who had 85 yards on his two catches).

Reasinger was the leading rusher with 81 yards and a touchdown on nine carries, and London Duncan added 20 yards on 14 totes.

Defensively, Bell had the interception, with Fike adding a sack and two tackles in the backfield, while Ruscitti also had a sack. Cooper also proved to be a disruptor in the backfield on multiple occasions.

That defensive unit did what it needed to for the Beavers in the opener, and Hanzely pointed out that it didn’t go unnoticed.

“We’re so proud of our defense, and we told them that after the game here in the huddle,” he said. “We’re going to lean on those guys, but we just had a few too many mistakes tonight that we were unable to recover from. But we can definitely build this team around our defense.”

The Beavers (0-1) will be back in action on Friday for their home opener, as they host the Brockway Rovers (0-1).