Central Clarion Takes Care of Business on Long Road Trip to Bradford

BRADFORD, Pa. (EYT/D9) — Long road trips can sometimes be kyptonite for visiting teams.

Not so for Central Clarion.

The Wildcats took the long journey north to Bradford, built a 35-0 lead at the half and cruised to a 48-7 victory to move to 5-0.

“We actually came out a little slow defensively — we let them drive the ball a little bit,” said Central Clarion coach Dave Eggleton. “Then Tommy Smith came up with a nice interception with a big return to set us up pretty deep in their territory. Then the offense started clicking from there.”

Jase Ferguson was 9 of 13 for 163 yards and three touchdowns and the running game was also strong with Connor Kopnitsky rushing for 123 yards on 15 carries and a TD and Brady Quinn scoring twice on the ground.

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Ashton Rex continued to show off his big-play ability with 121 yards on five receptions and a touchdown.

Dawson Smail and Tommy Smith also caught TD passes from Ferguson.

“Our offensive line just did a fantastic job tonight,” Eggleton said. “I can’t say enough about the effort our o-line had. Some of those guys were really moving guys.

Bradford (0-5) did little offensively after that initial drive until the game was well out of reach with a running clock in the fourth quarter.

“They didn’t have many first downs outside of that first drive,” Eggleton said. “I don’t think our first team gave up many yards.”

Talan Reese was 20 of 30 for 118 yards for Bradford, which got its lone touchdown on a 2-yard run by Troy Adkins.

Central Clarion has a big game on the horizon next week at home against red-hot Karns City.

“I think we’re in a real good spot,” Eggleton said. “We have a couple of guys who were banged up this week that I think are going to be ready to go next week and healthy. We’re excited about that and I think we’re just going to be a better football team next week than we were this week. That’s our goal every week.”

Central Clarion football coverage on Explore and D9Sports.com is brought to you by Redbank Chevrolet and DuBrook.