WEST SUNBURY — The weather during Friday night’s game between Bradford and Moniteau wasn’t great. Neither were the two teams. In a sloppy game with neither team looking their best, a couple of big plays proved to be the difference.
Unfortunately for the Owls, those plays favored the Warriors last night, as Moniteau defeated Bradford 12-7 on the strength of two long touchdowns.
A 52-yard scoring catch by Cody Wise and an 81-yard run by Chance Nagy would be all the offense Moniteau (3-2 overall, 3-2 Large School Division) would need to hold off the Owls.
Quarterback Nate Blauser scored on a 66-yard run of his own for Bradford (2-3, 2-3), but the Owls simply couldn’t do enough with their other possessions to make a difference.
With both teams gaining an identical 232 yards on the ground — and Moniteau’s offense completing just three passes — it was a game that was certainly there for the taking for Bradford coach Jeff Puglio’s squad.
“We didn’t play well tonight,” he said. “We made the same mistakes we’ve been making the past couple weeks and we can’t seem to correct them, and it’s killing us.”
The first quarter was a highly forgettable one. Neither offense looked very comfortable — or very aggressive — and both units essentially traded punts during a scoreless first 12 minutes.
Moniteau’s offense was the first to hit paydirt when QB Nagy found backfield mate Wise on a screen pass that, with the help of some missed tackles by Bradford, ended up going 52 yards for a touchdown.
In addition to his long TD catch, Wise would finish with 77 yards on 15 carries.
With Moniteau leading 6-0 at halftime, the third quarter began slowly as well, when nearby thunder and lightning caused a weather delay that lasted the better part of an hour.
When play finally resumed, the Owls looked like they had made good use of the intermission, as they came up with a quick fourth down stop on defense.
The offense, meanwhile, got a shot in the arm from senior running back Nik Erickson. Taking the place of the injured Derek Sunafrank, Erickson made great use of his playing time, racking up 88 yards on just four carries, including scampers of 58 and 29 yards.
“Nik did a good job tonight for us,” Puglio said. “He’s a fiery guy, and that’s the kind of attitude we need out there. He’s always positive. He never makes excuses, no matter what’s going on. Hopefully that gets to be contagious for us.”
After the big stop on defense, Blauser called his own number, slipped past a pair of Moniteau defenders, and went 66 yards to the house to give the Owls a 7-6 lead with 4:36 left in the third quarter.
In the fourth quarter, Blauser would come up with another big play, this time converting on a crucial fourth down. But on that same play, the Bradford quarterback went down with a leg injury and was forced to leave the game.
“That sucked the wind out of us for sure,” Puglio said of the injury. “We were moving the ball on that drive.”
Caleb Nuzzo came in as the new signal-caller, and the junior led the Owls down inside the Moniteau 10-yard line. But in what turned out to be a turning point in the game, the Warriors stopped the Owls on four consecutive plays to give themselves a chance to take the lead.
It didn’t take long, as Nagy took a QB draw up the heart of the Bradford defense and down the sideline for an 81-yard scoring run with 4:26 left to play. Nagy finished as the game’s leading rusher with 102 yards on seven carries.
Like they did in last week’s loss to Ridgway, the Bradford defense played relatively well. But the two big scoring plays — plus a few key first downs by Moniteau — were enough to overcome the shortcoming of the Owls’ offense.
“We held them to 12 points; they had two big plays,” Puglio said. “But (it was) tackling; letting them extend drives because we’re not tackling. We’re tackling up high. We don’t want to go low and drive people back, and you saw their big physical backs drive us backwards tonight. We’re giving up two, three extra yards every play.”
After Bradford got the ball back, it seemed like there might be a miraculous finish in store. But a potential touchdown by Donny Pattison was called back on a block in the back penalty, and the Owls never recovered.
After the game, Puglio acknowledged that everyone — including himself — needs to do some self-examination if the Owls are to turn their season around.
“We just can’t find that fire,” he said. “That’s gotta be on me; I can’t get these guys motivated to play right now. That’s the coach’s job to make sure these guys are ready to play. X’s and O’s, we’re ready, but I’m not getting them mentally fired up, ready to go right now. I’ve got to do some soul-searching myself.”
Bradford will have its work cut out for it next week when the Owls host Brockway for their Homecoming contest. The Rovers will certainly be motivated after seeing their perfect season come to an end on Friday after losing to Ridgway 20-7.
“We’ve got to forget this one, learn from it, and move on,” Puglio said. “We’ve got a really good team coming in for Homecoming on Friday. We’ve got to find the fire; I’ve got to find a way to get these guys in that mindset to play football, because we’re not doing it right now.”
AT WEST SUNBURY
BY QUARTERS
Bradford 0 0 7 0—7
Moniteau 0 6 0 6—12
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: Brad 6, Mon 9; Rushes/Yards Rushing: Brad: 38-232, Mon: 36-232; Yards Passing: Brad: 0, Mon 73; Comp-Att-Int: Brad: 0-6-0, Mon: 3-8-0; Penalties: Brad: 5-25, Mon: 12-119; Fumbles-Lost: Brad: 2-1, Mon: 1-0; Total Yards: Brad: 232, Mon: 305; Offensive Plays: Brad: 44, Mon: 44
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Brad: Nate Blauser 0-3-0-0-0, Caleb Nuzzo 0-3-0-0-0; Mon: Chance Nagy 2-7-72-1-0, Brady Thompson 1-1-1-0-0
Rushing: Brad: Jaron Ambrose 5-16, Donny Pattison 16-66, Nate Blauser 5-58-1, Patrick Caskey 5-(-2), Nik Erickson 4-88, Isaac Smith 1-7, Caleb Nuzzo 2-(-1); Mon: Cody Wise 15-77, Nick Martino 6-22, Trent Kelly 4-19, Chance Nagy 7-102-1, Austin Yeager 1-4, Mason Mershimer 3-8
Receiving: Brad: none; Mon: Chance Nagy 1-1, Braydon Risinger 1-20, Cody Wise 1-52-1
Scoring summary
First quarter
No scoring
Second quarter
M: Wise 52-yard catch from Nagy (2-pt conversion failed), 1:28
Third quarter
B: Blauser 66-yard run (PAT by Nuzzo), 4:36
Fourth quarter
M: Nagy 81-yard run (2-pt conversion failed), 4:26
