BRIDGEPORT – It was a rough start to the season for the Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers when they made the trip to Bridgeport Friday night when they battled the fourth-ranked Indians.
The Bucs dug themselves an early hole and wound up dropping a 63-7 decision.
In that first half, B-U fell behind by a 42-0 score, didn’t register a first down and had negative three yards of offense.
“Bridgeport is a really good team, that is who they are,” said Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Zach Davis. “We obviously aren’t at that level yet. We panicked some at the beginning. We were doing things that I have never seen us do before in our practices or our scrimmages. Give credit to Bridgeport, they take you out of your game plan and force you to make mistakes. They are a good team and we aren’t at that point yet, but I think we can get there. I saw some good stuff from our younger guys and older guys challenged themselves to be better and I think that is a step in the right direction.”
Bridgeport built a 21-0 lead after one quarter behind a 47-yard touchdown run from Tyler Martin, a 5-yard scoring scamper from Ryan Hall and an eight-yard touchdown run by Phil Reed.
The Indians doubled that lead in the second quarter to 42-0 with Reed scoring on a 19-yard run and Hall scoring twice on runs of four and 18 yards.
After Bridgeport went up 56-0 with two third quarter scores, the Bucs finally picked up their first first down of the game with 3:49 left in the third quarter on an eight-yard pass from Dawson Tenney to Kaden Jordan.
The Bucs moved the ball all the way to the Bridgeport two-yard line on that drive but fumbled the ball away and Bridgeport recovered it in the end zone for a touchback.
The Bucs would get on the board in the fourth quarter after a 71-yard run by Savion Farmer.
Wyatt Mason was good on the point-after kick making it a 56-7 contest.
Bridgeport tacked on a late touchdown on an eight-yard run by Jack Spatafore.
Bridgeport averaged 11 yards per carry gaining 482 yards on the ground on 43 carries.
They added 14 yards through the air for a total of 496 yards.
Phil Reed led the Bridgeport offense with 141 yards and three touchdowns on the ground on nine carries.
The Bucs managed 137 yards getting 125 on the ground and 12 through the air.
Farmer led the offense with 95 yards on eight carries.
Tenney, making the start at quarterback in place of the injured Ian Donnen, completed two of his six passes for 12 yards.
“I thought Dawson, as a freshman starting against a team like Bridgeport, played his tail off,” stated Davis. “He got thrown into the fire tonight.”
The Bucs will look to regroup next Friday as they host Ripley in their home opener.
Ripley lost their opener Friday by a 49-6 score at home to Brooke.
The statistics:
Buckhannon-Upshur 0 0 0 7 – 7
Bridgeport 21 21 14 7 – 63
(Scoring)
Bridgeport – Tyler Martin, 47-yard run (Taylor Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Ryan Hall, 5-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Phil Reed, 8-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Reed, 19-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Hall, 4-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Hall, 18-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Reed, 21-yard run (Thomas kick).
Bridgeport – Timothy Jeffress, 5-yard run (Thomas kick).
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer, 71-yard run (Wyatt Mason kick).
Bridgeport – Jack Spatafore, 8-yard run (Josh Jackson kick).
TEAM STATISTICS
First downs – Buckhannon-Upshur: 5 (4 rushing, 1 passing, 0 penalty); Bridgeport: 22 (21 rushing, 1 passing, 0 penalty).
Rushing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 27-125; Bridgeport: 43-482.
Passing yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 12; Bridgeport: 14.
Total yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 137; Bridgeport: 496.
Passes – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2-6-0; Bridgeport: 1-2-0.
Fumbles – Buckhannon-Upshur: 7; Bridgeport: 2.
Fumbles lost – Buckhannon-Upshur: 2; Bridgeport: 1.
Punts – Buckhannon-Upshur: 6-31.8; Bridgeport: 0-0.0.
All-return yards – Buckhannon-Upshur: 100; Bridgeport: 38.
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Savion Farmer 8-95 (1 touchdown); Bryson Johnston 8-20; Drake Davis 2-12; Elijah Bryant 1-5; Blake Runyon 1-3; Taiwo Thropp 3-(-5); Dawson Tenney 4-(-5). Totals 27-125 (1 touchdown).
Bridgeport – Phil Reed 9-141 (3 touchdowns); Tyler Martin 4-102 (1 touchdown); Ryan Hall 6-56 (3 touchdowns); Camden Hess 7-55; Jack Spatafore 6-45 (1 touchdown); Alex Moses 3-30; Jaxson Matheny 3-21; Cameron James 1-18; Sam Goodwin 2-13; Timothy Jeffress 1-5 (1 touchdown); team 1-(-4). Totals 43-482 (9 touchdowns)
Passing
Buckhannon-Upshur – Tenney 2-for-6 for 12 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
Bridgeport – Reed 1-for-2 for 14 yards, 0 touchdowns, 0 interceptions.
Receiving
Buckhannon-Upshur – Kaden Jordan 1-8; Bryson Johnston 1-4. Totals 2-12.
Bridgeport – Tanner Hathaway 1-14.
