PINE-RICHLAND'S LONG SET TO FACE FORMER TEAMMATES

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WARREN – When Bradford meets Pine-Richland in the PIAA Class AAA semifinals at 7 p.m. Friday night in Warren, the Owls players will be very familiar with the starting quarterback of the District 7 opponent.

That is because the Pine-Richland quarterback is none other than sophomore Jake Long, who started for Bradford last year as a freshman.

"We are trying not to make Jake the main focus," Bradford head coach Steve Ackerman said. "They have a lot of weapons that can hurt us. We can’t be preoccupied with Jake."

While the Owls might try not to be preoccupied with Long, there is no mistaken there will be a lot of emotions on both sides of the football.

"I am sure emotionally Jake is split down the middle," Pine-Richland head coach Clair Altemus said. "He still has a lot of friends at Bradford, and I he probably has some family there as well. But at the same time, his loyalty is with this team."

Long’s presence on the Pine-Richland sideline could cause some problems for Bradford, since Long knows the Owls offensive system.

"On our way back from Pittsburgh (and the WPIAL title game) we were joking that they have a great quarterback to run their scout team," Ackerman said. "Jake is a pretty bright kid who pays attention to details. I am wondering if he remember by tendency. We might have to change some of our game plan because he might remember what we do."

Ackerman might not have anything to worry about according to Altemus.

"To be honest, we have not asked a single thing (about Bradford) from Jake, and he has not volunteered anything," Altemus said. "That is the class act that Jake is. We are just watching film and planning an attack the way we would attack anybody."

Long, who went 25-for-61 passing for 420 yards, three touchdowns and eight interceptions in Bradford’s Wing-T offense last season, has really flourished under Pine-Richland’s more open attack. He has completed 60.7 percent of his passes (102-for-168) for 1,490 yards and 22 touchdowns. And this despite having to replace maybe the best quarterback to ever play at Pine-Richland Kevin McCabe, who is now playing at the University of Virginia.

"Jake coming in and performing the way he has was a surprise for us," Altemus said. "I didn’t know much about Bradford. You don’t see or here a lot about them done here. We had all intentions of putting Neil Walker under center. But in the grand experiment, Jake was right behind him. Every day he convinced the coaches a little more at a time. We started to realize that with Neil at quarterback, people would always know where he was. In the second scrimmage, Jake stepped in and started playing well. He has taken to this thing like a duck takes to water."