When the score of your first game of the season reads 69-60 and you’re playing football instead of basketball, it’s pretty clear what the focus is going to be during the next week of practice.
As you might expect, defense was a point of emphasis for the Bradford Owls after their shootout loss to Brookville in Week 0. But head coach Jeff Puglio has liked what he’s seen over the past few days in the lead up to Bradford’s home opener against St. Marys on Friday.
“We need to be better tackling and pursuing the ball as a whole unit,” he said. “This week I thought they did a good job of helping each other out (in practice).”
While opening the season with a loss is never optimal, Puglio sees benefits from Bradford’s debut, namely the chance to measure themselves against a strong opponent like Brookville (number one in the Era’s Week 1 Large School power rankings).
“That’s one of the positives of this new league: you’re playing good competition every single week,” Puglio said. “(Our) three turnovers were pretty much the difference. The kids played hard and that’s all you can ask for.”
One area that the Owls certainly weren’t lacking in was the run game: Bradford put up a jaw-dropping 522 yards on the ground against the Raiders, with Donny Pattison (204), Derek Sunafrank (179), and Jaron Ambrose (129) all eclipsing 100 yards rushing.
Fans should expect more of the same against the Dutch on Friday.
“We pretty much have the same strategy every week: we want to establish the run,” Puglio said. “We did really well last week getting the ground game going, and that should open up a lot of things for us. We just have to pay attention to detail and let the rest take care of itself. If we play by our rules, we should be fine.”
In St. Marys, the Owls face an opponent that is both new and familiar: the longtime rivals haven’t played each other since 2015 when the Dutch won a tight, season-opening contest 24-19.
St. Marys is coming off of a 42-0 loss to Ridgway to open the 2018 season, but on film Puglio sees a team that can provide a stern test for the Owls.
“They’ve got some size both up front and in the backfield,” Puglio said. “They’re very aggressive defensively and they attack you offensively. They kind of have a similar attack that we do. With a big, physical team like that you’ve gotta be ready to bring your physical game. We have to be ready to gang tackle, establish our blocks on offense, and re-establish the line of scrimmage.”
Some other things to watch for in Week 1:
Matchup of dual-threat QBs
Week 1 provides a big-time crossover matchup in the Small School ranks as Redbank Valley hosts Otto-Eldred. The game will be a rematch of last year’s D-9 Class A 1st Round contest that saw Redbank edge the Terrors 15-8.
Friday’s game doesn’t figure to be as low-scoring thanks to a pair of exciting dual-threat quarterbacks for both teams.
Otto’s Cole Sebastian accounted for 313 yards of offense and four touchdowns in the Terrors’ 34-6 victory over Port Allegany in Week 0. Redbank’s Keaton Kahle, meanwhile, amassed an even 300 yards of offense and three touchdowns of his own in a 41-18 rout of Keystone.
While not a divisional contest, the game will go a long way towards determining who the strongest side in the Small School side of the district is.
Ground and pound
Another Week 1 crossover game of importance features Elk County Catholic (South) hosting Coudersport (North).
The ground game figures to play a key role in both offenses’ game plans considering the success both had last week.
Coudersport didn’t throw the ball once in a 71-0 demolition of Cameron County as both Stephen Kelly and Hayden Keck found the end zone three times on the ground. Kelly, a returning All-AML selection at running back, reached 117 yards on just eight carries.
The Crusaders, meanwhile, rode a strong performance from Stephen Bobby in their surprising 34-14 win over Curwensville. Bobby racked up 166 yards and three touchdowns for ECC.
Last year’s contest saw Coudy win a 14-12 slugfest, but this time around Elk Catholic looks to have a viable passing game after Mason McAllister tossed two touchdowns in the opening victory.
If either team can make one or two plays through the air, it will likely be the difference in the game.
New-look Elkers, Wolves
This year’s edition of the Kane-Ridgway rivalry will look a lot different than last year’s.
Both the Wolves and Elkers lost a large chunk of talent from the two teams that were among the strongest in District 9 the past two seasons.
Kane will hope to recover from its first regular season loss since 2014 after dropping a 14-13 heartbreaker to Moniteau.
Ridgway, on the other hand, looks to have restocked the shelf after dominating St. Marys in a 42-0 shutout victory.
The new quarterbacks for both teams bear watching on Friday: Kane sophomore Zuke Smith threw for 146 yards, a touchdown, and two interceptions against the Warriors.
Ridgway’s Paul Gresco and Gabe Watts weren’t asked to do a whole lot against St. Marys, but they looked very good when they were in action, combining to go 6 of 6 for 149 yards and a touchdown.
