BROOKVILLE — Brookville started fast and finished faster.
The Raiders led for nearly the entirety of 60 minutes, and despite several counterpunches from Bradford in the first half, used a potent second-half passing attack to beat Owls football team, 36-6, at Brookville High School Football Stadium on Friday.
After Brayden Kunselman returned the game’s opening kickoff for a touchdown and Brookville marched down the field for six more points on its first possession, the game appeared to be getting away from Bradford as quickly as it had started.
The Owls tightened up their run defense, however, and senior quarterback Elijah Fitton moved the ball with his legs and his arm to steal back much-needed momentum. Bradford moved the ball onto Brookville’s side of the field on nearly all of its first-half possessions, but sputtered once it got there.
“(Fitton) saw the field well tonight and was able to make some plays with his legs,” Puglio said. “You get into the red zone and have penalties, you can’t do that. You go from first and goal on the five to first and goal on the 20; it’s hard to call plays there.”
Negative plays, whether they be penalties or quarterback sacks, hurt the Owls in the red zone. Fitton established a consistent connection with wide receiver Dalton Dixon, however, who hauled in multiple contested passes that resulted in large gains for the Owls.
“(Dixon) played hard tonight,” Puglio said. “Both sides of the ball, even on special teams, he showed some stuff tonight and he’s serious. He brought his game. We’ve gotta get some guys to follow along with that.”
Dixon finished with 106 receiving yards while Fitton threw for 159 yards and ran for 79 more, including a one-yard touchdown scamper.
With Brookville’s run game in check, Bradford trailed just 14-6 after a half that felt evenly played. From there, however, Brookville quarterback Charlie Krug got hot and Bradford’s offense lost its mojo.
“If this doesn’t hurt them, I don’t know,” Puglio said of his team’s second half struggles. “We came out as flat as we could have, I guess, and gave up that kickoff return. Even from there, we had every opportunity to take control of the game. We just couldn’t do it. I felt like we had momentum (at halftime).”
Brookville set the tone on its first possession of the second half, eating nearly eight minutes of game clock before Krug scored on a quarterback keeper. On the Raiders’ next possession, he’d find Kunselman on a deep pass that set up a five-yard touchdown run by Jackson Zimmerman.
The Krug-to-Kunselman connection revived Brookville’s offense in the second half after Bradford had denied its efforts to run the ball consistently in the first.
“Brookville always seems to have a guy that’s just going to hurt you if you let him, and we were really concerned with their short stuff, but they got the deep ball going tonight,” Puglio said.
Meanwhile, Bradford’s offense struggled to do much of anything in the second stanza.
“I think it was more of us than them, I really do,” Puglio said. “I don’t think they’re 30 points better than us. We need to learn how to handle that and attack, and we just didn’t do it.”
Bradford struggled to establish a run game outside of Fitton’s escapability, as Ashton Smith totaled 18 rushing yards to go with 20 receiving yards, and AJ Gleason added 17 yards on the ground. The Raiders’ advantage at the line of scrimmage, Puglio said, contributed to that.
“They’re a good team. They’re physical up front and they kind of dominated us up front,” Puglio said. “We had some busted coverages; some guys got shallow on our zones. That happens.”
Turnovers and special team miscues hurt the Owls as much as their negative plays.
Fitton threw three interceptions, the third of which was tipped at the line of scrimmage before ending up in the arms of Jacob Clinger. Bradford’s lone extra point attempt was blocked before it could get into the air, as was a field goal attempt.
Those lapses, plus some positive surprises, helped Puglio’s staff learn a lot about its roster.
“We saw some guys that want to play,” Puglio said. “There’s some guys that need to step up, but there’s some that want to play, and there will be some shake ups to the lineup.”
Bradford returns home 0-1, and will now prepare to host a loaded St. Marys team next weekend.
“It doesn’t get any easier,” Puglio said. “St. Marys is going to bring it next Friday night so we’ve got to be ready to go.
