From the very first drive during Friday’s game between Bradford and Ridgway in Johnsonburg, Bradford head coach Jeff Puglio knew something felt different.
Prior to the game, the Owls had been outscored, 165-34, during the year by their opponents.
But against the Elkers, the team put together its best performance of the season so far, especially on offense.
The Owls outgained Ridgway in total yards of offense, 282-161, and racked up 14 first downs and won the turnover battle, 2-1, in a 28-21 loss to Ridgway — a game that came down to the final play.
“I’ve been looking for that,” Puglio said. “That night where everybody and the whole sideline was into it, everybody’s head was in the game from those guys on the field to the guys on the sideline — there was just different energy there.”
“As a play caller, it’s real easy when your kids are making really good plays,” he later added. “The two scores we gave up on defense were bad calls by me, it was nothing the kids did, it was things I shouldn’t have done.”
Following the narrow loss, the team is now looking to build off that performance heading into this week’s matchup against Kane, who dominated the Owls 51-7 at Paul R. Miller Stadium on Oct. 2.
Bradford will have a different look offensively this time around against Kane with starting quarterback Austen Davis back behind center. Davis missed the team’s loss to the Wolves after suffering an injury during the previous week’s loss at home to Ridgway.
Davis turned in a solid performance against the Elkers, completing 13 passes for 150 yards with one touchdown and an interception. He also led the team in rushing with 89 yards in 14 carries with a score.
“I feel like I let people down even though it’s kind of uncontrollable, but I feel like I needed to be there for us,” Davis said regarding his injury. “I felt so energetic. I was excited to be back. Standing on the sideline for practices all week was the worst thing, trust me.”
Davis said he knew the team had a good chance to pull off the upset against Ridgway going into last week’s practice.
The talent and skills within the squad had been outshadowed by its mental mistakes and turnovers on the field accompanied by slow starts on both sides of the ball in games.
“We came out, we wanted to win and you can tell we wanted to win,” Davis said. “We’ve known the team that we are, we just haven’t been mentally prepared like coach has said. I feel like we can do a lot more and prove it this Friday too.”
So far this week, there’s been a lot of energy in practice and the team has more confidence, according to Puglio.
The head coach has been reminding his team of the 51-7 final score from the first matchup between Bradford and Kane this week, not only for it to serve as motivation for the team to avenge that loss, but also to remind them that they’re not the same team they were that game and the previous two weeks before that.
Davis said the key to building off the momentum during practices is for everyone to remain focused and not goof off on the sidelines. Maintaining focus during the week of preparation also helps in not slipping back into old habits.
“I’m ready to show what we did last week. I feel like last week, we came out, we hit Ridgway in the mouth,” Davis said. “They weren’t expecting it, nobody is and I feel like we showed everybody that we are a contender and coming out to Kane this week, they lost to Ridgway once, we can beat these guys.”
Another highlight from Friday night’s bout in Johnsonburg was Nolan Gonzalez’s rushing performance.
Gonzalez finished second on the team in rushing behind Davis against the Elkers with 51 yards on 14 carries, including a five-yard touchdown rush in the second quarter.
Cleaning up the mental errors is still a work in progress for Bradford, but getting the run game going on offense will force defenses to change up their game plan and account for not only the backfield but also passing game and receivers, according to Puglio.
“The first three weeks, our run game was nonexistent, but Nolan stepped it up big time and made Ridgway get out of their plan,” Puglio said.
“They weren’t planning on us being able to get him going and once we got him going, it opened everything else up. I like the way Nolan’s running the ball right now and we saw it tonight in practice. When he’s going to run downhill, when he decides to do it, I don’t think there’s anybody that can tackle him.”
Puglio said one of the major differences between the two teams at the end of the game was that Ridgway had been battle tested and is used to playing and coming out on top in tight games.
But that experience of playing four full quarters in a close game can be beneficial for the Owls going forward.
“We left points on the field last week. I feel like we had multiple opportunities to break that game wide open, we just didn’t do it,” Puglio said. “The experience we got Friday was really, really good for us. Playing in the game and four quarters, our starters haven’t had to play a full game like that because we’ve been so far behind, so getting in them in that kind of dogfight was really really good for us experience wise.”
After having the running clock rule enforced in its first three games, Friday’s narrow loss was a step in the right direction for Puglio and company.
And after suffering a 45-14 loss to Ridgway the first time around and only a seven-point defeat last Friday, the Owls know they’re capable of showing the same improvement against Kane and can come out with their first victory of the season.
“We just got to maintain our focus, that’s really key and important,” Davis said. “Last week, we did not have a lot of mistakes on offense, we didn’t have false starts, we didn’t have miscues on routes. We were all together and we played as a team and I feel like that just needs to happen this week and we’ll be good.”
