KANE — Mental mistakes and turnovers once again plagued Bradford as Kane rolled to a 51-7 win over the Owls Friday night at Paul R. Miller Stadium.
The Wolves (1-2) took advantage of Bradford’s miscues and turnovers early on on their way to building a 44-0 halftime lead. Overall, the Owls (0-3) committed seven turnovers — three interceptions and four fumbles.
“This is a bad coaching performance. This is all on me,” Bradford head coach Jeff Puglio said after the game. “I let these guys down tonight and it starts at the top. I’ve got to do a better job getting them ready to play and right now, I’m not doing that.”
Lucas Laktash, who started at quarterback in place of the injured Austen Davis for Bradford, was picked off on his first pass attempt during the game’s first offensive drive. It didn’t take long for Kane to capitalize on the short field as Harley Morris scored on a 12-yard touchdown rush to put the Wolves up 8-0 at the 9:22 mark in the first half.
After a Bradford punt, a 49-yard run from Morris later set up a seven-yard touchdown run from Addison Plants which made it 16-0 in favor of Kane. With 42 seconds left in the first quarter, Kane quarterback Zuke Smith snuck in for a one-yard touchdown to make it 22-0.
A 48-yard touchdown run from Josh Buhl right after a Bradford fumble then put the score at 30-0 and another Owls fumble would lead to Smith finding Ricky Zampogna for a 19-yard touchdown pass on the ensuing possession, giving the Wolves a 37-0 lead.
Morris picked off two Laktash passes during the second quarter and a five-yard touchdown run from Buhl gave the Wolves a 44-0 halftime advantage.
“Mental mistakes happen because we aren’t focused, and if we aren’t focused, that’s my job to make sure we are,” Puglio said. “So I’ve got to go back to the drawing board and I’ve got to figure out a way to help us get that mental toughness that we’re lacking right now. I don’t think this is an ability thing. I don’t think this is a physicality thing. This is a mental toughness thing and that’s the head coach’s job.”
Overall, the Wolves finished the game with 412 total rushing yards on 42 carries and six touchdowns. Physicality up front is something Kane’s coaches have emphasized over the past two weeks and things fell into place for the Wolves against Bradford.
“Finally, tonight, everything kind of came together and they did a wonderful job up front and those backs ran hard,” Kane head coach Jim Hillman said. “They were falling forward and doing all the things we ask them to do for the last two weeks, so (I’m) pretty excited about the performance all the way around.”
A running clock was in place during the second half and Kane picked up right where it left off as Buhl scored his third touchdown on the night from five yards out to make it 51-0.
Bradford’s lone touchdown came with 9:54 left to play when Nolan Gonzalez punched it in from seven yards out to settle the score at 51-7.
The Owls finished the game with 94 total rushing yards. In place of Davis, Laktash finished the game with 67 yards on 3-of-10 passing with three interceptions.
“I’m proud of how Lucas played tonight,” Puglio said. “I thought he did what he could do. He recovered some bad snaps and sometimes we had some things set up and he had to make an athletic play just to get the ball in his hands. He made some plays downfield and he had some nice runs. He’s a tough kid, so I’m really proud of the way he came in and played.”
One of the things Puglio was looking for out of the Owls was improvement each week, but the mental errors are what stand out right now, according to him.
As Bradford readies for Ridgway (2-1) next week, the team will go back to drawing board, but becoming more mentally tough will be an emphasis in practice this upcoming week as well as not taking the season for granted, with Puglio citing the Cameron County and Otto-Eldred game’s postponement after the game.
“It’s being mentally tough every single second we’re out there — every rep like it’s your last rep,” Puglio said. “This year especially, we don’t know if next week’s going to happen. It can be taken from you in a second, so we’ve got to take that seriously and take that to heart and we can’t waste a day and right now, I feel like we’re taking some things for granted and we got to have the focus at practice.”
For Kane, a rematch against St. Marys (3-0) on the road awaits the team next week.
Like this week, Hillman is looking for the team to do the little things right and play mistake-free football.
“Last week when we played them, there were a lot of missteps and a lot of opportunities that we missed,” Hillman said. “So we have to build off of what we did this week. St. Marys is a well-coached football team and they’ve got some super players and so we’ve got to line up and do all those little things right if we’re going to come out on top.”
AT KANE
BY QUARTERS
Bradford 0 0 0 7—7
Kane 22 22 7 0—51
TEAM STATISTICS
Rushes/Yards Rushing: B: 23-94, K: 42-412; Yards Passing: B: 109, K: 22; Comp-Att-Int: B: 5-12-3, K: 2-5-0; Fumbles-Lost: B: 6-4, K: 0-0; Total Yards: B: 203, K: 434
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: B: Laktash 3-10-67-0-3, Adkins 2-2-42-0-0; K: Smith 2-5-22-1
Rushing: B: Fitton 6-62-0, Adkins 3-24-0, Gonzalez 6-18-1, Gleason 1-0-0, Laktash 7-(-10)-0; K: Morris 13-136-1 , Buhl 13-119-3 , Plants 7-82-1, Smith 3-31-1, Lundeen 5-38-0, Rumcik 1-6-0,
Receiving: B: Dixon 2-55-0, I. Fitton 1-28-0, Girdlestone 1-15-0, Team 1-12-0; K: Zampogna 1-19-1, Ackley 1-3-0
Scoring summary
First quarter
K: Harley Morris, 12-yard run (Morris 2-pt conversion pass)
K: Addison Plants, 7-yard run (Morris 2-pt conversion pass)
K: Zuke Smith, 1-yard run (PAT blocked)
Second quarter
K: Josh Buhl, 48-yard run (Morris 2-pt conversion pass)
K: Ricky Zampogna, 19-yard pass from Smith (R. Buhl PAT)
K: Buhl, 5-yard run (R. Buhl PAT)
Third quarter
K: Buhl, 5-yard run (R. Buhl PAT)
Fourth quarter
B: Gonzalez, 7-yard run (Abbie Nuzzo PAT)
