Remember the old Western song “Home on the Range?”
It was where the buffalo roamed. Well forget that!
Last Friday night, on this range – Parkway Field – it was where
the fullback roamed and indeed he did.
Junior Taylor O’Brien roamed for over 200 yards and five
touchdowns against the Warren Dragons who were dragging at the end
after taking O’Brien head on 30 times in the game.
“It was a very impressive performance by Taylor when you look at
what he was able to do and did in the game,” head coach Steve
Ackerman said during his weekly interview Wednesday night.
“He also played pretty well defensively with 10 tackles. He had
a good night on both sides of the ball,” the coach added.
However, you can’t talk about O’Brien without mentioning the
names of the guys who opened up the holes for him on the range.
The offensive line completely dominated the inside where the
Owls ran after it was obvious that Warren was going to take away
the outside running game. That’s the range where halfbacks E.J.
Moore and Nick Johnson, and quarterback Ben Walter like to do their
roaming.
“We’re averaging about 300 yards rushing per game,” Ackerman
explained. “We have a luxury with the guys we have in the
backfield, but it also takes a good line, too.”
Those guys up front are guards, Mike Johnston, Alex Faucher and
Joe Hardy; tackles, Steven Reinhardt and Cody Godding; center, Josh
Britton, and tight ends, Tyler Hopkins and Alex Goodman.
And, there are the split ends, Tommy Morris and Nick Foster, who
Ackerman likes to refer to as “our touchdown block makers”.
Bradford’s kicking game also looked sharp Friday night. Senior
Steve Butler put a 35-yard field goal through the uprights and
booted six extra points. He now has a string of 10 straight PAT
kicks.
“Butler kicked pretty well,” Ackerman observed.
The Owls have been the beneficiaries of a lot of breaks this
season which has helped in their 4-0 run, the best start they’ve
had since going 7-0 in 2003.
Most recent was Warren’s fumble into the end zone on the
Dragons’ first possession of the game. It appeared the visitors
were on a certain scoring march, but the loose ball was recovered
by Bradford to swing momentum over to the Owls.
“Everything has been going our way,” Ackerman agreed. “It’s been
that way this season and that’s a credit to our kids. They have
worked very hard to get where they’re at right now. Good teams make
their own breaks. If we continue to work hard good things will
happen for us.”
Moving on to Friday night’s District 9 League game at St. Marys,
Ackerman noted that his team can’t look ahead.
“We’re guarding against not being focused,” he emphasized. “We
want our kids to look at this game as though both teams are 0-0.
St. Marys is one more piece of the puzzle.”
The Dutch are winless, but that only makes them more dangerous
and they have some solid skill players, according to the Owls’
coach.
“They have a very good running back in the Tamburlin kid and a
decent passing game that is very effective and uses the tight end,”
Ackerman explained.
“Defensively they play a 3-5, which we don’t see that often.
We’ve (coaches) had our work cut out for us this week getting our
kids ready for that defense.
“I’ve known Joe Schlimm (head coach) long enough to know that
he’ll have those kids ready to play on Friday night,” Ackerman
added.
Schlimm doled out the same accolades Wednesday night when he
talked about this week’s game between his Dutch and the Owls.
“We have a lot of respect for Steve Ackerman and the program he
has put together up there,” said the St. Marys coach. “Bradford is
the class of our league. I’m sure they will play good,
fundamentally sound football. We have our work cut out for us.”
The Dutch have struggled this season, due in part to their lack
of size.
“We are a physically undersized team,” Schlimm agreed. “We’re
not playing bad football, but we get physically beaten up and worn
down.
“I think we’re getting better, but we have a lot of kids playing
football for the first time. We’ve improved from where we were to
start the year, so we’ll be okay.”
