After a pair of nice wins against Brockway and Punxsutawney, the Bradford Owls faced a barometer test type of game against the reigning District 9 Class AA Champions from Clarion.
Suffice to say, the Owls passed with flying colors.
Bradford was the better team from the first whistle on Friday night, utterly dominating the Bobcats 34-14 in a Senior Night game that wasn’t as close as even that lopsided score might indicate.
“It was a four quarter game,” Bradford coach Jeff Puglio said. “That was how we wanted to come out. We knew it was going to be a slugfest with them. Pretty much from the opening kickoff we took over this game. We got some other guys in and gave up some points, but our starters pitched a shutout and our offense put some points on the board. Everything was clicking.”
The Owls (5-3 overall and Large School Division) only racked up 267 yards of offense, but that was due largely to the tremendous starting field position provided by the defense.
Donny Pattison (95 yards on 15 carries) and Jaron Ambrose (46 yards from scrimmage) both found the end zone twice, while Derek Sunafrank added 66 rushing yards and an 11-yard touchdown reception.
Bradford’s defense, meanwhile, held a Clarion (6-2) offense that came into last night averaging over 30 points per game to a paltry 187 yards of offense — 85 of which came on a late touchdown pass against the junior varsity defense.
It was the latest in a series of sterling performances by the Owls defense, which has stepped up its game down the season’s home stretch.
“We shut them down,” Puglio said. “It was a complete shutdown. These kids wanted this one this week and they worked hard all week for us and we found that fire that we’ve been looking for.”
The Owls opened the game with an excellent opening drive that was capped off on Sunafrank’s touchdown catch from QB Caleb Nuzzo.
In the second quarter Bradford began to break things open. Pattison found the end zone on a 1-yard leap near the halfway point of the quarter. Nuzzo then found Ambrose for a nice 18-yard scoring strike in the waning seconds of the half to give the Owls a 21-0 halftime advantage.
While Nuzzo’s two touchdown passes were his only completions of the game, the junior added 38 yards on the ground, including a couple of important first down conversions.
“Caleb’s coming along little by little,” Puglio said. “He’s letting the game kind of slow down for him. He’s not going too fast. I like the way that it’s going for him right now.”
Bradford’s defense, meanwhile, limited the Bobcats to just 16 yards of offense and one first down in the first half.
After getting another stop to start the third quarter, Pattison found the end zone again on the next drive, this time from five yards out to make it 28-0.
Ambrose’s four-yard scoring run in the fourth quarter put Bradford up 34-0 and allowed the Owls to empty the bench.
The Owls running game — which finished with 238 yards — got a lift from the return of Sunafrank, who had missed several games with a leg injury.
“Derek gives us that spark, that inside running game,” Puglio said. “We know teams are going to try and take away Donny and Jaron outside, and Derek’s going to make them pay if they do.”
Clarion would find the scoreboard late in the game on a pair of touchdown passes from backup Calvin German to Ethan Burford, who finished with 122 yards on five catches.
All in all though, the Bobcats did almost nothing against the Bradford starters. Starting quarterback Archer Mills finished with just 53 yards through the air on 9 of 16 passing, while Clarion totaled just 35 yards rushing on 17 carries.
On a cold and wet night like Friday, it was exactly the type of performance Puglio wanted to see as Bradford prepares for the playoffs.
“This is Owl weather,” he said. “That’s our motto around here. This is Owl weather. When it gets colder we come to play. We’ve been working for these potential November games and that’s what we want and we’re just happy to be in the mix of it right now.”
It’s hard to think of a better way to send off a very large senior class that has come a long way since a 1-9 campaign in their freshman season of 2015.
“These 23 guys have done it all here,” Puglio said. “When they came up as freshmen, they took some beatings. We were in that Erie league and it wasn’t much fun to play football here. They got a lot of experience, a lot of playing time then, and to see what they’re able to do now, it’s really special.”
Bradford will travel to Karns City next Friday for its final regular season road game.
AT BRADFORD
BY QUARTERS
Clarion 0 0 0 14—14
Bradford 7 14 7 6—34
TEAM STATISTICS
First Downs: Clarion 5, Brad 13; Rushes/Yards Rushing: Clarion: 17-35, Brad: 45-238; Yards Passing: Clarion: 152, Brad 29; Comp-Att-Int: Clarion: 12-25-0, Brad: 2-6-0; Penalties: Clarion: 12-91, Brad: 7-66; Fumbles-Lost: Clarion: 0-0, Brad: 4-3; Total Yards: Clarion: 187, Brad: 267 Offensive Plays: Clarion: 42, Brad: 51
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Passing: Clarion: Archer Mills 9-16-53-0-0, Calvin German 3-9-99-2-0; Brad: Caleb Nuzzo 2-6-29-2-0
Rushing: Clarion: Colton Zacherl 3-9, Logan Minich 3-7, Sam Minich 3-(-1), Archer Mills 3-12, Cutter Boggess 4-5, Calvin German 1-3; Brad: Donny Pattison 15-95-2, Derek Sunafrank 14-66, Jaron Ambrose 8-28-1, Caleb Nuzzo 4-38, Austen Davis 2-11, Dalton Dixon 1-2, Nolan Gonzalez 1-(-2)
Receiving: Clarion: Logan Minich 1-(-3), Sam Minich 3-14, Cutter Boggess 2-19, Ethan Burford 5-122-2, Drew Wrhen 1-10; Brad: Derek Sunafrank 1-11-1, Jaron Ambrose 1-18-1
Scoring summary
First quarter
Brad: Sunafrank 11-yard pass from Nuzzo (PAT by Nuzzo), 8:23
Second quarter
Brad: Pattison 1-yard run (PAT by Nuzzo), 6:20
Brad: Ambrose 18-yard pass from Nuzzo (PAT by Nuzzo), 0:25
Third quarter
Brad: Pattison 5-yard run (PAT by Nuzzo), 7:34
Fourth quarter
Brad: Ambrose 4-yard run (PAT no good), 7:59
Clarion: Burford 85-yard pass from German (2-pt conversion failed), 7:07
Clarion: Burford 5-yard pass from German (2-pt conversion by Boggess), 4:45
