BRADFORD, PA – Leaning on their tough-nosed senior star, the Bradford football team earned their first win of the season, beating Otto-Eldred 28-16.
In Week 1 of the regular season, both the Owls and Terrors were sent back to the drawing board after tough losses. For O-E, they faced a revenge match against Union/A-C Valley, who they had drawn in the District 9 Class A postseason a year prior. Unfortunately, they found a similar result, being beaten 42-6 to christen the year. Bradford opened their campaign with Port Allegany, a team that was fresh off a PIAA Class A state championship appearance and who dominated the field in a 70-33 beat down.
“We had to get back to fundamentals. We installed a whole new offense this offseason and I think we tried to put too much in to get ready for week one,” said Bradford head coach Jeff Puglio. “So we scaled it back, went back to basics this week and really hammered on our footwork and the fundamentals.”
Coming into the game, both teams had notable speedsters. For the visiting Terrors, theirs came in the form of their hypermobile quarterback, Shane Magee, who was equally able to launch a dot downfield as he was to scramble for bunches of yards at a time. For Bradford, Logan Kohler led the footrace, a supersonic wrestler that just needs a few steps to reach his top speed and burst from the pocket.
Flashes were seen from both sidelines early. After forcing the Owls off the field in three, the Terrors quickly leaned on Magee, who racked up 16 quick rushing yards – including 11 on the first O-E snap of the game – on their initial drive. Stunting the Terrors quickly thereafter, Kohler was quick to repeat the feat, quickly acquiring 15 yards on his third touch of the game. However, the battle on the ground had yet to reach the redzone.
That changed during the Terrors’ second drive.
With the Owls’ keying on to Magee, O-E rotated in some new names and a new front that came from the air. Eyeing receivers Wyatt Blendinger and Dawson Welch and running back Michael Eaton, the Terrors marched up to Bradford’s 19 as the first half came to a close. Rolling into the second, O-E made short work of the final distance between the endzone, with Magee bursting out of the pocket to his left for a 13-yard touchdown. He then struck again for a successful 2-point conversion that put the Terrors up 8-0 with 9:29 left in the second.
“Shane is our guy. He’s been the engine that makes us go. He’s a senior, he’s a leader, he has a little bit of swagger to him,” said Otto-Eldred head coach Eric Rees. “We’re going to hang our hat on him. There’s no doubt about it.”
Seemingly fitting, Kohler then put the Owls in prime position with a massive kickoff return, making his way to O-E’s 32-yard-line, but Bradford was unable to close the distance. Their defense, however, shut out the Terrors in three immediately after before Kohler once again put the team on his shoulders with a 51-yard run on the first play of the drive. Following 12-yard and five-yard gains from Tommy Langdon, Kohler powered through another gap, scoring the Owls’ first touchdown of the night via a 27-yard run.
“Logan’s a dynamic player. You see him on the return game, you see what he can do for us offensively and when he’s doing what he’s doing, it opens up everything else,” said Puglio.
With just over four minutes left on the clock, the Terrors then switched to the air, determined to improve upon their one-point lead. Eventually making it to the Owls’ 26-yard line, their air assault backfired, as Bradford – who else but Kohler? – picked off a pass. Having just 5.9 seconds to clear three quarters of the field, quarterback Andrew Giordano launched a deep throw down range and connected with Braylan Austin for a 75-yard touchdown with nothing but zeros left on the clock.
“We were stalling in the first half. Not much was going our way and we were kind of getting in our own way, I think,” said Puglio. “Going into halftime with momentum was huge. There was a lot of noise, a lot of voices (in the locker room) and we started to believe. When you’ve been struggling as a program, when you start to get kids to believe in themselves, special things start to happen.”
Up 14-8 at the start of the second half, Bradford’s hot streak continued, with Matthew Decasper recovering an O-E fumble on the first drive of the third quarter. However, while they seemed to be firing on all cylinders early, they couldn’t get over the hump and back into the endzone. Errant penalties, miscommunications and bad snaps – one of which gave way to a safety – kept the Owls scoreless throughout the entire third.
Luckily for Bradford, the wear and tear on the Terrors was overwhelming. Unable to sustain a possession for more than a few snaps, O-E began to cave to the incoming pressure, giving up blown plays and sacks as the game began to wind down. Although they were able to start the fourth on Bradford’s 23, another interception, this time picked off by Fabian Sherk in the endzone, cut the Terrors’ momentum just as it was about to climax. The Owls eventually marched the ball down the length of the field, scoring off of a 19-yard carry from Langdon before a third O-E interception from Braylon Little deflated their offense.
Despite the dropped heads on the sidelines, O-E would find one last brightspot. Taking over with nine and a half minutes remaining, Magee launched a high-arching throw down field which reached Welch and resulted in a 53-yard score. While that seemed to spark life in the Terrors, drawing them to within five points, it would only be momentarily.
Lining up for the kick off, there was only one Owl in the backfield. As Bradford’s student section chanted his name, the kick landed directly in front of Kohler, who wasted no time reaching top speed. As he cut through the middle, gaps opened in front of him and in just a matter of seconds, the senior had cleared 75 yards for Bradford’s fourth touchdown of the day.
“We gave up some really big, explosive plays to Logan Kohler. That kid is special. He’s so fast and we knew it. Our gameplan was to stop No. 30. We didn’t,” said Rees. “We put a second kicker in there, I told him to kick it low and hard at somebody and he didn’t kick it low and hard enough.”
Down by 12 and with only a few minutes remaining, the Terrors relented. As the final seconds dropped off the clock, they accepted another loss added to their season while the Owls rejoiced with their home fans as they rang in the first win of the season.
Kohler’s exceptional night ended with 215 rushing yards and two touchdowns while in the air, Giordano finished with 85 yards and a score alongside 64 rushing yards. Langdon tallied 64 yards on the ground as the Owls improved to 1-1. For the Terrors, Magee ran for 67 yards while completing 7-of-13 of his passes for 43 yards in the air. Welch caught six passes for 31 receiving yards.
With Bradford’s two-game home stand coming to an end, they now take to the road, where the challenges become even harder. Next week, they travel to Punxsutawney to take on the Chucks before a meeting with DuBois the following Friday.
“We just have to keep working on the fundamentals. I think that this offense speaks for itself and if you are fundamentally sound, you give yourself a chance,” said Puglio. “Punxsutawney has a really good player in Bo Thomas. We remember what he did to us last year, the kids haven’t forgotten, so that’s something we’ll be looking at this week and just give them our best shot.”
