It’s a cornerstone of just about any football defense: wreaking havoc and forcing turnovers.

For Bradford, the importance is even greater as the Owls look to get on track after a tough 0-2 start to the year.

The Owls managed to force three Ridgway turnovers a week ago, including a scoop-and-score by Nate Girdlestone, and played their strongest defensive game of the year in the loss.

Now, Bradford is tasked with replicating or even improving upon that performance this week as the Owls travel to face 0-2 Kane.

In order to do so, Bradford head coach Jeff Puglio says the Owls need to be in the correct pre-snap alignments and then swarm to the ball during plays.

“When you’re playing a Kane team, you know they’re disciplined. They’re fundamentally disciplined, so going and gang tackling is something we’ve always preached here — trying to get five, six or seven guys to the ball,” he said. “The first guy initially there is standard football — you make the tackle and everybody else should be trying to rip the ball out. It’s something we stress here, and we try to force turnovers and it’s something we’ve had some success with. Hopefully it continues on Friday.”

Pre-snap alignment is actually how Girdlestone managed to score his defensive touchdown, according to both Puglio and the player himself.

“The reason it happened was because Coach (Puglio) was telling me to move outside when they came in motion,” Girdlestone explained. “(The Ridgway quarterback) tossed it and all I saw was the ball on the ground, so I scooped it up and went for the end zone.”

It was a big moment for the Owls, who had not scored up to that point but felt energized by the defensive touchdown.

“I think anytime you can score on defense, it excites you,” Puglio said. “Nate made a really good play on that. He widened out like he was supposed to, and we’ve been trying to get our guys lined up correctly. He found out first-hand what happens.

“Alignment is half the battle, and when you line up correctly, you give yourself the best chance to make good plays.”

Defensive end Ryan Hughes also had a fumble recovery on the night for Bradford. On his play, the Elkers mishandled the snap and he was able to fly in from the edge to recover the ball.

While they won’t all be as simple as that play, Hughes says the Owls can create more of those turnovers by playing within their respective roles.

“It’s just a team thing. Everybody has to do their role,” he explained. “This team is set up so that if you do your job, people will do their jobs and we’ll start making plays like that.”

Of this week’s game, Hughes mentioned that gang tackling and pass coverage will be of the utmost importance against the Wolves.

“I think we kind of preach all 11 of us getting to the ball. That shows really good physicality and kind of unites us as a team, and that will result in fumbles and turnovers.”

He added, “Kane’s a passing team, so obviously our defensive backs will have to play great coverage and get interceptions, and we’ll have to get good pressure up front. Other than that, we can just keep up the intensity and practice and preach what we need to do.”

And it’s in the secondary that Puglio says some breakdowns have occurred due to pre-snap alignment, and so the Owls will need to have themselves well-positioned this time around.

“We’re starting to pick up key reads and starting to get faster. If we can get to our spots on the field, we’ll be fine,” he said, adding, “When we get into man coverage we’ve had some breakdowns, so that’s something we’ve looked at this week is how to get more efficient in that.”

And should the Owls be able to capitalize, it will provide much needed field position, which Bradford has struggled with thus far. That could prove crucial as Lucas Laktash steps under center for the first time this season in the absence of typical starter Austen Davis.

“We have to flip the field. I feel like we’ve been on one side of the field for two games,” Puglio said. “We have to start putting some drives together, and turnovers can help with that and with getting the offense going.”

He said of Laktash, “Lucas is looking like the guy for Friday, and he’s coming along really well… He understands the offense and what we’re trying to do. He just needs reps, and that’s the focus this week is getting the reps he needs to feel comfortable.”

Kickoff is set for 7 o’clock Friday night at Paul R. Miller Stadium in Kane.