After a tough season opener at St. Marys last week, the road doesn’t get any easier for Bradford in Week 2 as the Owls host Ridgway tonight at Parkway Field.
The Elkers are coming off a 17-14 win over Kane in Week 1, and enter as the four-time reigning District 9 champions.
As such, BAHS coach Jeff Puglio says the Owls will need to play with some mental toughness this week.
“That’s where our focus has been (this week), and we’re not there yet,” Puglio said on Tuesday. “You can tell we’re thinking a lot right now with this offensive system and what we’re doing. It hasn’t clicked yet, but when it does, we’ll explode.”
That tentativeness was evident a week ago at St. Marys, as Bradford quickly fell behind 28-0 in the first quarter before starting to find a little more rhythm later in the game.
“We loosened up in the second quarter and started to move the ball, but we left a lot of plays out there,” Puglio noted.
And just as it was in Elk County last week, Bradford cannot afford to leave plays out on the field if they’re to contend with the Elkers.
Ridgway took advantage of a pair of Kane turnovers deep in the Wolves’ own side of the field to power its offense while the always consistent Elker defense stymied Kane throughout the night.
The Elkers jumped out to a 17-0 lead before Kane rallied back to within three with touchdown throws from quarterback Zuke Smith, but Ridgway clamped down the rest of the way to hold onto the win.
As such, the Owls are looking to do two things this week: force turnovers and start fast.
“Winning the turnover battle is the name of any game,” Puglio said. “You want to be on the positive side of that.”
Preparing for Ridgway’s offense, however, will present its challenges. Puglio noted that the Elkers use a variety of formations and playmakers to move the ball, and that forces defenses to cover each of their bases each play.
Ridgway running backs Cameron Marciniak and Ben Briggs scored on the ground for the Elkers last week.
“Ridgway runs a ton of formations and they present a lot of challenges to make sure you’re lined up correctly,” Puglio said. “I’ve spent a lot of time this week trying to figure out where their formations are and where we need to be. I think we have a handle on what we saw from them against Kane, but they’re well-coached and disciplined.
“There’s a reason they always win the league. There’s a reason why they’re frontrunners to win it this year, too. We’ll have to bring our A-game.”
Meanwhile, Puglio thinks Bradford’s offense has the capability of gelling, but that starts with becoming more and more comfortable with the scheme and coming out of the gates firing.
“I think we have to just relax a little bit and get ready to play ball,” Puglio said. “We’re so worried about alignments and formations that we forget to catch the ball sometimes. We just have to relax, play and let our abilities take over at a certain point and just play football.”
The coach also sees another physical test for his team this week, as Ridgway presents a lot of size and power. The Elkers use that to come after offenses, Puglio says, and so the Owls will have to take the game to Ridgway this week in order to be successful.
“You look at their front five guys, and they’re big, physical guys and they bring it,” Puglio said. “We have the absolute ability to match that. I’ve not found the formula to get us there yet, so I have to do a better job of getting these guys ready to play because we’re not there. This week has been searching for that energy, and we’re trying to find it, harness it and get it to explode on Friday.”
Kickoff is slated for 7 p.m.
