Published: September 13, 2008 12:08 am         

Forest Hills shuts down Bedford

BEDFORD — Dan Smith will have to wait another week for a chance to record his first victory as Bedford’s head coach.

Smith and his Bisons will try to shake off Friday night’s 23-0 loss to Forest Hills and break their three-game losing streak when they travel to Cresson on Friday to take on Penn Cambria.

Before the game, Smith said that his focus was on conditioning following two games that saw the Bisons start strong only to fall apart in the second half. With a steady rain falling throughout the night, Smith also hoped to mix his team’s running game with some aspects of the run-and-shoot, which he hoped the Rangers would not be prepared for.

“No matter how long you’re in the business, the first win is always special,” Smith said.

But in the first half, the Rangers seemed ready for anything the Bisons had for them, allowing Bedford to cross midfield once and limiting the hosts to 6 yards of total offense and no first downs in the half.

The Rangers started the second by scoring quickly, converting a third-and-15 when Zack Glessner connected with a 46-yard pass to Tyler Rosenberger that brought them to Bedford’s 2. Scott Mehall punched it in the next play to give the Rangers a 7-0 lead.

The Rangers came back with an 87-yard drive that ended when Glessner, who finished with 262 yards on 15 completions, hooked up with Rosenberger again from the Bedford 33-yard line on a fourth-and-9.

Another three-and-out by Bedford set up the Rangers at the Bison 48-yard line, from which they drove 30 yards and seemingly stalled at the Bisons 18 before Jason Shope connected with Jeff Meier on a fake-field goal.

The Rangers managed only one more field goal by Pat Donoughe to close out the scoring, but they managed to control the ball for most of the game, which Rangers coach Don Bailey said was the key.

“I think we played great defense that kept them out of the end zone,” he said. “In the first half, we controlled the ball well. They didn’t have it too often and we made some big plays in the air and had some decent runs.”

Leading the ground attack for the Rangers was Nick Dudokovich, who carried the ball 10 times for 69 yards, while Rosenberger made eight catches for 184 yards to pace all receivers.

Bedford tried to mount a comeback in the second half and appeared to be on the right track with a sustained drive that began when Gdula missed a 23-yard field goal attempt wide right.

Taking over at their 20-yard line, the Bisons moved the ball seemingly at will, including a 13-yard pass from Mike Short to Paul Detweiler and a 12-yard run by Jeremy McCormick. The drive took the Bisons to the Rangers 16 before the Rangers got two key stops at the line of scrimage that brought up a fourth-and-13 from the 19 that ended with an incomplete pass from Short to Zach Hess in the end zone.

“They got a couple of big plays on us in the first half,” Smith said. “Our linebackers didn’t get back quickly enough and that allowed them to do what they wanted to do. Forest Hills is a well-coached team and if you make mistakes, they’ll take advantage of them and exploit them. We haven’t been a second-half team, but I thought despite not scoring any more points, we got better as the game went on and stopped them on defense and ran the ball better.”

McCormick was the Bisons’ top rusher with 50 yards on 15 attempts, while Detweiler caught two passes for 26 yards to lead the team in that category. The Bisons defensive effort included two sacks by Cody Shippey that helped take the air out of two first-half drives.

Despite his disappointment at losing, Smith’s thoughts were on his team and the upcoming contest with the Panthers.

“We have seven more to go,” he said. “They came together as a team and as I always emphasize to them, it’s all about team, team, team. We have to keep working at it, keep pushing, keep trying to improve. The second half we showed some pretty good improvement and hopefully we can put together four good quarters against a tough Penn Cambria team. They are very tough and like every team in this league, they are well-coached and will be ready to play us.”

     

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