BELLEFONTE — For about one quarter, it looked like the Bradford Owls had a chance to win their first playoff football game since 2007.
But it simply wasn’t meant to be, as the Owls gave up 58 unanswered points to the Bellefonte Red Raiders as Bradford (6-5) lost 58-18 in Saturday’s District 6-9 Class AAAA Sub-Regional Semifinal game.
“They’re a good team, and this time of year they’re all going to be good teams,” Bradford coach Jeff Puglio said of the Red Raiders (9-2).
Bellefonte was led by a four-touchdown performance from C.J. Funk, who ran for 118 yards and three touchdowns and also returned a punt 81 yards for another score. Quarterback Kyle Myers also had a big day, finishing with 111 yards on the ground and two touchdowns to go along with 121 passing yards on just four completions.
Donny Pattison (76 yards on 17 carries) scored all three of Bradford’s touchdowns, while Jaron Ambrose ran for a game-high 123 yards on 14 carries.
Things couldn’t have started much better for the Owls. Jaron Ambrose took the opening kickoff 88 yards down to the 1-yard line, where Pattison plunged the ball in to give the Owls an early 6-0 lead.
Bellefonte then fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which Bradford eventually took advantage of on another 1-yard scoring run by Pattison. Up 12-0 less than four minutes into the game, Bradford had all of the momentum.
Unfortunately, it wouldn’t last.
The defending Sub-Regional champion Red Raiders regained their composure and ended the first quarter with a 24-yard field goal by Chris Persiko and a four-yard TD run by Funk, cutting Bradford’s lead to 12-10.
The second quarter was all Bellefonte. Myers gave the Red Raiders the lead on a 13-yard run. After the defense came up with a three-and-out, Funk took the ensuing Bradford punt 81 yards to the house to make it 24-12 Red Raiders.
Funk would find the end zone again in the waning seconds of the first half on a 3-yard run to give Bellefonte a 31-12 halftime advantage.
Bradford simply didn’t have any answers for Bellefonte’s dynamic rushing attack, which finished the game with 271 yards on the ground. Puglio saw a combination of schematic mistakes and poor tackling as the main culprits.
“It was a little bit of both,” he said. “I thought our scheme was fine. We weren’t recognizing some of the formations and getting the shifts the way we needed to.
“So much was just recognizing formations and getting into what we practiced,” he added. “When we were able to do it, we were successful. We just weren’t able to do it enough.”
Any thoughts of a second-half comeback were quickly erased when Noah Badger took the opening kickoff 60 yards for a touchdown to make it 38-12 Bellefonte.
Funk would score again from one yard out to make things 45-12 after three quarters.
Bradford’s offense, while outgained 392-217, actually did a fairly good job of running the ball, averaging 5.2 yards per carry. The problem was its inability to sustain drives, as the Owls recorded just eight first downs in the game.
“That’s it. We couldn’t sustain drives,” Puglio said. “We moved the ball at times, but we just had nothing consistent. If you’re not going to be consistent against a good team, you’re going to punt more than you’d like to.”
Bradford also took far too many penalties, getting flagged 10 times for 107 yards.
Bellefonte would add two more rushing touchdowns in the fourth quarter courtesy of Myers and Logan Houser.
From beginning to end, the Red Raiders were dominant in the trenches on both sides of the ball.
“They were just a little bigger, faster, stronger than us up front, and this time of the year, that’s going to win,” Puglio said.
Pattison would score on a 39-yard run with 3:12 left in the game to close the gap just a bit.
Despite the disappointing end to the season, Puglio made a point of commending his 24-man senior class that finished their careers with back-to-back postseason appearances after winning just five games in 2015 and 2016 combined.
“These guys, when they came in, we won one game” Puglio said. “Now we have back-to-back playoff appearances. This program’s going in the right direction, where we want it to go. Being a contender in the postseason, being a contender in the Sub-Regional. We haven’t found the code to crack it and get into the championship game yet, but the example these guys have set — they’ve stuck together, all twenty-four of them.
“They’ve come up together, they’ve played together. That’s important. Now we’ve gotta get more kids out because we’re losing half of our team tonight. So there are a lot of spots available.”
Despite knowing that his team is going to look a lot different a year from now, Puglio is proud of how far the program has come in the past four years.
“We’re doing special things right now and we want more people to be a part of it,” he said.
AT BELLEFONTE
BY QUARTERS
Bradford 12 0 0 6—18
Bellefonte 10 21 14 13—58
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: Bradford: 8, Bellefonte: 17; Rushes/Yards Rushing: Bradford: 40-207, Bellefonte: 44-271; Yards Passing: Bradford: 10, Bellefonte 121; Comp-Att-Int: Bradford: 1-8-1, Bellefonte: 4-6-0; Penalties: Bradford: 10-107, Bellefonte: 5-43; Fumbles-Lost: Bradford: 3-1, Bellefonte: 2-1; Total Yards: Bradford: 217, Bellefonte: 392 Offensive Plays: Bradford: 48, Bellefonte: 50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Bradford: Caleb Nuzzo 1-8-10-0-1; Bellefonte: Kyle Myers 4-6-121-0-0
Rushing: Bradford: Donny Pattison 17-76-3, Jaron Ambrose 14-123, Nik Erickson 5-5, Caleb Nuzzo 4-3 ; Bellefonte: C.J. Funk 20-118-3, Kyle Myers 13-111-2, Mason Grey 2-(-7), Ryan Lehman 3-39, Nick Capparelle 2-6, Logan Houser 2-6-1, Sheldon Knepp 1-(-4)
Receiving: Bradford: Zach Woodel 1-10; Bellefonte: Noah Badger 1-24, C.J. Funk 1-30, Mason Grey 1-34, Jalen Emel 1-33
Scoring summary
First quarter
Brad: Pattison 1-yard run (PAT no good), 11:03
Brad: Pattison 1-yard run (2-pt conversion failed), 8:38
Bell: Chris Persiko 24-yard field goal, 4:39
Bell: Funk 4-yard run (PAT by Persiko), 0:32
Second quarter
Bell: Myers 13-yard run (PAT by Persiko), 9:01
Bell: Funk 81-yard punt return (PAT by Persiko), 7:40
Bell: Funk 3-yard run (PAT by Persiko), 0:11
Third quarter
Bell: Badger 60-yard kick return (PAT by Persiko), 11:52
Bell: Funk 1-yard run (PAT by Persiko), 4:19
Fourth quarter
Bell: Myers 10-yard run (PAT no good), 11:23
Bell: Houser 4-yard run (PAT by Persiko), 6:06
Brad: Pattison 39-yard run (PAT no good), 3:12
