They say when one door closes another opens.
Well, a door certainly closed – actually was slammed shut – on
Clearfield last Friday night ending any hopes the Bisons had to
move up from their honorable mention spot in the pre-season state
football rankings.
Slamming that door was Bradford which outplayed the Bisons in
every aspect of the game. The complete domination of the contest
ended a string of losses in Clearfield dating back to 1975.
And, now a door has opened for the Owls, who found their way
into the Class AAA honorable mention list released on Wednesday
with the remaining three classes in the state.
“We knew Clearfield was honorable mention before the season, but
I was not aware that we had made the list this week,” Bradford head
coach Steve Ackerman said Wednesday night during his weekly
interview.
“Not one of our players, or, even our coaches said anything
about it during our practice today (Wednesday),” Ackerman
continued. “That tells me that our minds are in the right place.
We’re not sitting on our accolades.
“Right now polls don’t mean much. On Dec. 18 when the final
polls come out, that’s when they’ll mean something,” he added.
What Ackerman preferred to concentrate on was the play of his
team in last week’s season opener.
“Our offensive line played very well. Any time you can rush for
over 500 yards people are doing a lot of things right.
“Tyler Hopkins and Alex Goodman, our tight ends; our tackles
Cody Godding and Steven Reinhardt; our guards Mike Johnston, Alex
Faucher and Joe Hardy, and our center, Josh Britton, all did a good
job.
“I also have to mention our two split ends, Nick Foster and
Tommy Morris, who were down the field blocking when one of our
backs broke a long run. We call them touchdown blocks.
“They did a fantastic job. People don’t realize how important
our split ends are. They think they’re (tight ends) just window
dressing, but they do a great job blocking for us,” he
emphasized.
Three Owls backs rushed for over 100 yards in the game with
fullback Taylor O’Brien’s performance earning him D9sports.com
“Player of the Week” honors.
O’Brien scored three touchdowns and rushed for 126 yards.
“That was a nice honor for him,” Ackerman noted, adding that any
of the Owls other backs and even the offensive line would have been
deserving of the accolade as well.
Defensively the Owls’ coach didn’t hesitate when it came to
naming the top player on that side of the ball.
“Rob Pire had a fantastic game. He had 10 tackles and was our
stand out defensively,” said Ackerman.
Also getting his share of the credit was kicker Steve Butler,
who booted eight straight extra points through the uprights.
“I believe that’s a school record,” Ackerman observed. “I don’t
think anyone has ever been 8-for-8 on extra points in a game for
Bradford.
“There is a lot of credit to go around in a big win like that,”
he added.
Ackerman, however, was the only one still discussing it on
Wednesday.
“We were done talking about the game on Sunday,” he pointed
out.
At that point the attention turned to arch-rival Olean which the
Owls host on Friday night in their home opener at Parkway
Field.
The Huskies lost their season opener last Saturday to East
Aurora, but Ackerman isn’t taking them lightly.
“Olean is young, very young,” he began. “They lost a lot of good
football players last year. With their quickness and speed, they
match up well with us. In fact, sometimes they are the one team on
our schedule that’s faster than us.
“They don’t have bad size on the line, either, so we’re not
monsters over them. They’ll match up pretty well with us.
“We saw them against East Aurora last week and they made the
mistakes of a young team. Those mistakes were correctable, so it
will be a good game this week. We have to stay focused or we could
get ourselves in trouble,” he cautioned.
Ackerman said that his team has had a lot to prepare for this
week.
“Olean runs multiple sets from the shotgun. They’ll use one
back, slots to both sides with split ends and pro sets. There is a
lot for us to prepare for defensively.
“On defense, they have shown three different fronts. Last week
they used a four man front, but in their scrimmages they used a
five man front. That’s a lot for our offense to digest in a week
and get in order.
“I think it will be a tight game. Both teams will want to win
because of the rivalry and closeness of the two towns. A lot of
things can happen … we’ll just wait and see what does,” he
added.
