For the second straight week, Bradford High took to its home Parkway Field turf eager to show it wasn’t the up-and-down team of last year.
For the second straight week, the Owls racked up well over 300 yards rushing, dominated at the line of scrimmage and scored in bunches. On Friday night against visiting Coudersport, Bradford High showed its ground attack is one to be reckoned with as John Eakin scored three times and Jaron Ambrose once as the Owls won, 28-8.
The Owls are 2-0 for the first time since 2010 when the team started out 4-0 in Jeff Puglio’s second year as head coach.
“It’s been awhile,” Puglio said. “A win’s a win. We have a lot of work to do. We were not perfect by far. I thought the defense played stellar all night. We didn’t give up much. A couple lapses and a lot of mental things moving forward, we can’t have those things. It’s going to hurt us.”
The Owls outgained the visiting Coudersport squad by a margin of 391-133. All but 17 yards of the Bradford offense came on the ground, as Eakin nearly ran for 200 yards again, going for 197 on 19 carries. Ambrose ran 10 times for 72 yards and for the second straight week opened the game with a big return into enemy territory.
“It gets us a fast start,” Ambrose said of his returns. “It gets my guys pumped up, my offensive line pumped up. They make the blocks, we move the ball and we score.”
Ambrose capped off the first series by running wide on a jet sweep to score from seven yards out to put the Owls up 7-0.
While Eakin was running up the middle, Ambrose, quarterback Donny Pattison (34), Derek Sunafrank (34), Nathan Blauser (30) and Vinny Burgess (6) added to the ground attack on the perimeter.
“It opens up trap, jet trap, everything,” Ambrose said. “It gets John the ball. They need the whole team to tackle John.”
Puglio was pleased with the way his backs are performing.
“I like the way our wings are blocking, Jaron and Derek,” Puglio said. “They’re getting after. John is getting tough yards. [Ambrose] got some really tough yards for us tonight. Donny was able to get some carries and get some yards for us tonight. We’re getting to the point where that backfield is like a four-headed monster. We have to fine-tune things and we have a couple guys banged up tonight, but I like the way our offense is progressing.”
It wasn’t all Bradford all night long, as the Falcons briefly took a lead in the second quarter.
On the quarter’s first play at the 16-yard-line, Pattison had Blauser open in the end zone, but was hit and the ball fell to the turf. Coudersport’s Elliot Hite picked it up and the lineman started running 84 yards toward the goal line.
“I think we had some good roadblocks in the way going down through there that helped him out,” first-year Coudersport head coach Tom Storey said. “That’s probably a dream play for Elliot. He’s always messing around to do that sort of stuff and he got his opportunity.”
On the ensuing Owls’ drive, Eakin took a third-and-one carry at the opposing 40, executed a nasty stiff-arm move and rumbled down the home sideline to score. He would add scoring runs of 10 and 22 yards 1:37 apart late in the third quarter.
Chase Whitman added 49 yards on 15 carries for Coudersport, while Blauser and Pattison came up with interceptions of quarterback Jared Green (4-for-9, 53 yards).
Friday was no-doubt a game Bradford High wanted after losing 36-34 in overtime last year to the Falcons, the only time all season a team from the Allegheny Mountain League’s North Division beat a team from the South.
“You could see it at halftime,” Puglio said. “The first half, it looked like we were asleep at the wheel. The touchdown we gave up…we were moving the ball, and whatever, fumbles would stall us. We controlled the game, but I still feel like we’re not there yet.
Bradford High now travels to Otto-Eldred, the defending North Division champs, next Friday.
“I tell these guys all the time the only team we have to worry about is us and executing our offense, our defense and playing 100 percent every play,” Puglio said. “We’re moving in the right direction, but we’re not there yet. It’s Week 2 and we have room to improve. We have another game next week. We go on the road now, and that adds a little bit of adversity.”
BY QUARTERS
Coudersport 0 8 0 0 — 8
Bradford 7 7 14 0 — 28
Team Statistics
First Downs: Coudersport 5, Bradford 14; Rushes/Yards Rushing: Coudersport 32-80, Bradford 43-374; Yards Passing: Coudersport 53, Bradford 17; Comp-Att-Int: Coudersport 4-9-2, Bradford 1-1-0; Punts: Coudersport 3, Bradford 0; Penalties: Coudersport 5-25, Bradford 4-30; Fumbles-Lost: Coudersport 1-0, Bradford 2-1; Total Yards: Coudersport 133, Bradford 391; Offensive Plays: Coudersport 41, Bradford 44
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Coudersport: Jared Green 4-9-53-0-2; Bradford: Donny Pattison 1-1-17
Rushing: Coudersport: Chase Whitman 15-49, Green 10-25, Stevie Kelly 10-25; Bradford: John Eakin 19-197-3, Jaron Ambrose 10-72-1, Derek Sunafrank 6-34, Nathan Blauser 5-35, Vinny Burgess 1-6
Receiving: Coudersport: Kelly 4-53; Bradford: Sunafrank 1-17
Scoring summary
First quarter
Bradford – Ambrose 7-yard run (Nuzzo kick), 9:00
Second quarter
Coudersport – Hyte 84-yard fumble return (Whitman run), 11:44
Third quarter
Bradford – Eakin 40-yard run (Nuzzo kick), 6:29
Bradford – Eakin 10-yard run (Eakin run), 2:43
Bradford – Eakin 1-yard run (kick no good), 1:06
