From the disappointment of not making the District 9 playoffs his second season as head coach in 2010 with an 8-2 team, Bradford’s Jeff Puglio’s long wait is finally over.
Last Friday night’s come-from-behind victory over Curwensville closed out the Owls regular season at 7-2 and locked down a playoff berth in the District 5-6-9 Class AAAA division.
Four teams will make the playoffs ranked by record and power points. The Owls are in the third slot.
In the division and listed by record and their power points are Bellefonte (7-2, 900), Johnstown 7-2, 810), Bradford (7-2, 800), Clearfield (5-4, 570), DuBois (3-6, 380) and Somerset (3-6, 310).
“No matter what happens we’re the three seed,” Puglio confirmed during his weekly interview Tuesday night. “Clearfield can’t catch us.”
For Bradford, which chose not to play a 10th game this season, the win over Curwensville was a must-have. The Owls also needed some help.
“We need to win,” Puglio stated last Thursday night. “We also need DuBois to lose at least one of its last two games.”
Newport obliged, handing the Beavers a 49-14 setback and dropping DuBois to 3-6 on the season.
Now it comes down to a waiting game for Bradford. Several of the teams in the division will be playing a 10th game this week.
“We’re pretty sure we’ll be playing Johnstown, but we’re struggling right now because they won’t exchange game films and that’s unfortunate,” stated Puglio. “We will exchange films with anyone we play.”
In the meantime, the Owls’ coaching staff will do what it can.
“We’re focused on recovering and getting healthy. After Friday we should know for sure who we’ll be playing and what to prepare for. Then next Monday we’ll go at it 100 percent,” Puglio noted.
Looking back at last week’s win over the Golden Tide, the most pleasing aspect for Puglio was the Owls ability to battle their way back from a 14-0 deficit.
“We have not come from behind like that this season. That’s what happened in the Kane game when we got behind panic set it. This was the first time we were able to battle back.”
Offensively, senior running back, John Eakin, the District 9 Player of the Week, carried the Owls on offense and the entire defense set the tone in the second half.
“John was ‘Player of the Week,” and in the game we put the load on his back and he carried us,” Puglio pointed out.
The story of the game, however, was the Owls’ defense which put the clamps on a high scoring Curwensville offense in the second half, holding the Tide scoreless.
“Our linebacker play by Eakin, Patrick Caskey, Andy Pantuso, Vinny Burgess and Kevin Ackerman, and our line play by Isaac Gralak, Drew Piganelli, Mitchell Hayden, Burgess and Clayton Cornelius was great. The pressure we were able to generate affected their quarterback.
“Drew (Piganelli) got hurt and we had to make some changes, but we didn’t lose much. We’re getting some depth,” said Puglio. “On the back end it was lights out by our secondary of Nate Blauser, Jaron Ambrose, Caleb Nuzzo and Donny Pattison.
“We had a really, really good off-season and that’s the kind of commitment it takes to be playing in November. It was great to see the hard work these guys put in pay off. That’s what it’s all about … Now they’re seeing some rewards for their hard work,” he added.
