BROOKVILLE — Three 100-yard rushers later and Bradford High’s offensive line is feeling pretty good.
Kyle Langdon, Justin Fishkin and Alex Colosimo each ran for over 100 yards, with Langdon leading the way at 212, as the Owls had their most dominant performance of the season in a 47-34 win over Brookville on Friday.
The trio combined for all seven of Bradford’s touchdowns and Owls’ coach Jeff Puglio couldn’t have been happier.
“We had control of the game from the start,” he said. “The offensive line had a mission tonight that they were going to take the game over. All those guys should be proud of their effort.”
The final score was not indicative of how the game went, as the Owls led 40-6 at the end of the third quarter, with Brookville adding some late touchdowns against Bradford’s JV unit.
“If we would have left our starters in, we would have controlled it all the way,” said Puglio. “But we have to give those guys a chance to play and get them experience.”
Bradford was in complete control from the opening kickoff, dominating both side of the ball in out-gaining the Raiders 244-45 in the first half in building a 19-0 lead.
Langdon got things going early, rushing for 42 yards on the opening drive, capping it with a 1-yard score.
The Owls wasted no time in striking again, as Langdon once again scored from 1-yard out after a Brookville three-and-out, to make it 14-0.
Of Langdon’s 212 yards on the ground, 115 of them came in the first quarter.
“When you have three guys go over 100 yards and one go over 200, that’s total domination up front,” Puglio said. “We ran at will.”
While Bradford’s offense was taking control on the ground, its defense was equally as dominant.
Rob Rice, Brandon Hughes, Steve Zawatski and Patrick Robinson all recorded sacks in the first half, as the defensive front proved to be just as dominant as the offense.
“We shut their run down completely,” Puglio said. “We knew we could get pressure on them and we knew we could run a lot of run blitzes and that’s what we did. It really paid off.”
Langdon’s power was replaced as the game went on by the quickness of Colosmio and Fishkin.
Colosimo broke free on a 37-yard touchdown run in the second quarter to help Bradford take its 19-point advantage into halftime.
If their performance on the line of scrimmage wasn’t enough, the Owls dipped into their bag of tricks to start the second half.
Travis Gleason executed a perfect onside kick and the Owls recovered at midfield.
“We saw on film that the front guy bailed and Travis is pretty good at that onside middle,” noted Puglio. “At halftime we thought we were playing pretty good defense and figured we’d give it a shot. That was fun. It worked and we scored on it.”
The Owls needed just three plays to score, as Colosimo ran it in from six yards out after a pair of long runs by Langdon.
Gleason even got in on the act throwing the football, as a bad snap forced a throw to Justin Fishkin, who went in for the two-point conversion and a 27-0 lead.
After yet another three-and-out by Brookville, Fishkin took over, needing just two plays to net 50 yards, finished off by a 39-yard touchdown run and it was 33-0.
“Everything worked because the offensive line was making huge holes for us to get through and getting down field blocks and our backs were running extremely hard,” Puglio said.
After Brookville got on the board with a hook-and-ladder to Jonah Sampson that made it 33-6, Bradford put the finishing touches on a dominate three quarters, with Fishkin taking it in for the second of their scores, this one 13 yards out making it 40-6.
“It’s long overdue,” Puglio said of his teams performance. “I feel like we’re better than our record. If we could have played the second half of our season first, you never know. We played some really tough opponents. We’re really meshing right now and the guys keep coming together. This was big for us.”
Sampson, who finished with 140 yards, scored three fourth-quarter touchdowns and finished with four on the night.
Fishkin capped things off with a 21-yard touchdown run after Brookville had cut the lead to 40-28. The senior finished with 152 yards on just 11 carries and Colosimo 117 yards on just nine carries.
For the Owls defensively, they yielded just four first downs until late in the third quarter.
“Where we’re trying to go with this program, this is something we needed,” Puglio said.
Bradford closes out the season next Friday at Warren. The Dragons lost to Grove City, 55-21, Friday night.
