By Drew Terhall

Dailyadvocate.com

WEST ALEXANDRIA — It was a rough game from the start for the Bradford football team. Playing at Twin Valley South on Oct. 11, the Panthers jumped all over the Railroaders as they handed Bradford a 43-6 loss.

The quick start by Twin Valley South had Bradford down multiple scores early in the game. Head coach Chuck Cantrell said the gameplan starts to fade when you’re down that much early and it starts to weigh on the team.

“You could tell, the players kind of got into their heads. We had to change some things we were doing. It was a tough start,” Cantrell said.

Twin Valley South senior Carson Hurst scored on their opening drive with a 51-yard touchdown run. Senior quarterback Caden Bishop found senior Mason Crews for two passing touchdowns in the first half. A pick six by sophomore Owen McKee and a four yard touchdown run by senior Griff Roell gave the Panthers a 36-0 lead at halftime. They were up 23-0 after the first quarter.

The offense had a rough go at it in the first half. In addition to the pick six, the Railroaders fumbled the ball twice to give Twin Valley South great field position.

Bradford made some plays on both sides of the ball in this game. Junior Kaleb Tegtmeyer had a pair of sacks on defense. Offensively, senior Owen Canan was finding guys like senior Griffin Trevino, freshman Doolin Puterbaugh and sophomore Rallie Wirrig for first downs.

But just when they got a positive play a turnover, a penalty or a negative play happened that killed any momentum they were building.

Cantrell said you can’t win many games when you’re the only team turning the ball over.

“Unfortunately that’s been kind of the season. We move the ball quite a bit. But then we turn the ball over and we have penalties that puts into third and a mile. There’s nothing on my playcall sheet for that,” Cantrell said.

After halftime, the Railroaders played with a clear mind and started to play clean football. After Twin Valley South senior Conner Mowell scored to make it 43-0 in the third quarter, Bradford still competed.

On a fourth and forever on Twin Valley South’s side of the field, Canan used his feet to get outside the pocket and hit Trevino for a first down at the 20-yard line.

On the next play, Canan found Puterbaugh in the middle of the field. Puterbaugh avoided a pair of defenders and dove into the endzone for a 20-yard score to make it 43-6 with 6:21 left in the fourth quarter.

Bradford came right back and recovered the onside kick to get another crack at scoring. But, Bradford was stopped around the five-yard line on fourth down. Twin Valley South just needed to run two plays to end the game.

Bradford will have two games left of their season. Cantrell said he wants to see the team continue to be resilient and keep playing hard to finish out the season. He wants his three seniors to finish out their Bradford careers with the team playing with everything they’ve got.

“We only got three seniors on the team. Those boys only have two games left. From this point, you play for those guys. Those three seniors have done everything I’ve asked them to do this year. But three guys can’t carry a team,” Cantrell said.

Bradford is now 1-7 on the season with a 1-6 WOAC record. They will host Tri-Village on Oct. 18 at 7 p.m. for their final home game.

Contact Daily Advocate sports editor Drew Terhall at [email protected].