BRADFORD — The quartet of Ben Reynolds, Ben Paul, Andrew Field and Matthew Gilmore had themselves a huge night as St. Marys beat Bradford 50-22 for its first win of the season.
Reynolds accounted for 265 all-purpose yards (139 receiving, 126 rushing) and three touchdowns, Field ran for 190 yards and three touchdowns and had a pair of sacks on defense, Paul completed 9-of-12 passes for 212 yards and three touchdowns and Gilmore had a 23-yard receiving touchdown and also intercepted two passes on defense.
“It feels real good for the kids,” said St. Marys coach Chris Dworek. “Their attitudes have been awesome even though the results haven’t been what they want. So yea, it’s nice to see them get rewarded. There were a lot of smiles and that’s what they deserve.”
Defensively, the Dutchmen limited talented Bradford quarterback Talan Reese to just 133 yards passing and two of the three touchdowns the Owls did score came on short fields.
“That’s part of the game, too,” Dworek said. “We talked about that. We clean up some things like that, and we’ll feel really good on the defensive side of the ball too. They still should, knowing that we gave them short porches, so that’s something that the kids will realize when they watch some film tomorrow.”
Offensively, St. Marys (1-2) came out swinging. After their game against Karns City last week got postponed due to weather, they came out and hit for a touchdown on their first play from scrimmage, as it was Paul to Reynolds for 49 yards.
They forced a Bradford punt on the Owls second possession of the game, but Bradford pounced on a muffed punt at the St. Marys 2, and Reese called his own number to tie the game up at the 6:49 mark of the first quarter.
The big plays continued for St. Marys, as they needed just three plays to score on their next drive, a 50-yard run from Field.
Their third scoring drive was more methodical. After forcing a turnover on downs, they drove 73 yards on 10 plays, including a big 4th-and-8 conversion on a pass from Paul to Talon Thomas that set up Paul’s 23-yard touchdown pass to Gilmore to make it 22-7.
Bradford (1-3) again drove the ball down inside St. Marys territory, but on a trick play attempt, Bradford freshman Landon Wallace was intercepted by Gilmore at the 22-yard line. A 50-yard run from Fields set up another Paul to Reynolds score, this one a 28-yarder to make it 29-7 at the 2:08 mark of the second quarter.
For the game, St. Marys had 355 yards rushing and 212 passing.
“Yeah, that’s always the perfect plan, to be balanced,” Dworek said. “And then the kids just executed. It’s kids hustling to break tackles. It’s kids hustling for tip drills, tip balls. It’s kids hustling on routes and getting open and blocking for each other. That’s always a goal, and that was nice to see that we were able to do that.”
Reynolds busted loose on a 63-yard touchdown run on St. Marys’ first drive of the second quarter to make it 36-7 and essentially put the game away.
“We didn’t get guys to the ball tonight,” said Bradford coach Jeff Puglio. “We weren’t aggressive in pursuing the ball tonight, but we just have to keep working. Sometimes we over-pursued and were a little too aggressive. We’ll look at the film and continue to improve.”
Gilmore intercepted Reese, the latter’s first interception of the season, on the next possession, but the Dutchmen gave it right back with a bad snap that resulted in a Brody Haviland 6-yard touchdown run to make it 36-14.
A 53-yard pass from Paul to Reynolds set up Field’s second touchdown of the night late in the third quarter, and Fields scored once more in the fourth quarter from eight yards out.
Jordy Thompson also had a 1-yard touchdown run for Bradford early in the fourth quarter.
Up next for St. Marys is a home date with Moniteau next Friday, and Dworek knows this win is something they can build off of.
“They knew that, and we told them in practice the next day that this could be a turning point of our season (after the Central Clarion loss in Week 2), because that was great effort and attitude,” Dworek said. “And now we’re going to play some teams that we can just keep building off of that.”
