By Sean McNamara
BRIDGEPORT – In front of their home crowd at Wayne Jamison Field on Saturday the No. 3 Bridgeport Indians raced past the No. 6 Nitro Wildcats, 70-21, to advance to the Class AAA semifinals.
The Indians (12-0) will take on the Fairmont Senior Polar Bears in the next round, marking the 13th time in the last 14 seasons Bridgeport has advanced to the semifinals.
“That’s a tribute to the community, the coaches who have come before that, and everybody who’s laid the foundation for Bridgeport football,” Indians coach Tyler Phares said of his team’s return to the semis. “That doesn’t happen without the entire community.”
In the victory, Bridgeport led wire-to-wire and outgained Nitro 507-355 in total yardage while holding a 3-0 advantage in turnovers throughout the game.
“My hat’s off to them,” Nitro coach James “Boom” McKinney said. “They have a unique offense and they’ve got a heck of a defense. It’s a good team. I think that’s your state champion right there.”
Of Bridgeport’s 507 yards, 451 came on 38 rushing attempts out of the single-wing offense, a scheme that is uncommon for many opponents to prepare for.
“You cannot simulate it at practice. That’s just impossible, especially in a week’s time,” McKinney said. “It’s just not long enough to prepare for as far as to make it look like what they run. It’s just something you don’t see, and they’ve got it down pat.”
Alex Moses led the way for Bridgeport with 190 yards and two touchdowns on 10 carries while Josh Love ran for 129 yards and four scores on 8 attempts, Timothy Jeffress ran for 35 yards and a TD on four attempts, Jack Spatafore ran for 19 yards and a touchdown on three attempts and Graham Vincent scored a 15-yard TD on his only carry.
“We practice really hard at what we do,” Phares said. “We really work tremendously, and we want our kids to get their Ph.D. in our offense, not their bachelor’s. It’s really important to us that we show multiple looks. We do a lot of things, but we also have key breakers and things and try to figure out exactly what the defense is reading and then use those reads against them.”
Spatafore completed his only two pass attempts in the game for 56 yards, with Donavan Williams catching a 39-yard pass and Jeffress catching a pass for 17 yards.
The Wildcats (10-2) came into Saturday’s game shorthanded with several players out on suspension, making things difficult against a tough Bridgeport defense that saw Moses pick off two passes and Jon Bender recover a fumble that was forced by Wes Brown.
“It didn’t help things, but you play with the guys you’ve got and you move on,” McKinney said of the absences his team faced Saturday. “That’s all we had tonight. Hopefully, they learn from it.”
Nitro had some success throughout the night passing the ball as quarterback Josh Moody completed 21-of-34 passes for 392 yards with Malachi Thompson and Luke Shaffer each catching seven balls for 187 and 139 yards, respectively, with Thompson catching a pair of touchdowns and Shaffer hauling in the other.
While Moody was able to complete passes throughout the game, it was never easy for the senior signal caller who faced consistent pressure from the Bridgeport defense, which sacked him five times in the game.
“Those two kids can play,” Phares said. “Twenty-three (Thompson) and 9 (Moody) are tough for sure. We knew we wanted to get the ball out of his hands as fast as possible. We knew 23 was probably going to make some big plays, and he did. A kid like that is tough to completely eliminate, and he had a nice game.”
In total, Nitro was held to negative 37 rushing yards in the contest and concluded the season 10-2.
“That’s a great team. We knew that coming in,” McKinney said. “We have a lot of guys coming back next year. That’s going to be our message when we go in the locker room – keep your heads up. We earned our spot here tonight, and that was just a good opponent.”
Next up for Bridgeport will be a Polar Bear squad that it defeated 56-28 in the regular season.
“This is a whole new season,” Phares said. “The regular season was what it was. This is the second season. No one’s going to care. We don’t get a whatever-point lead just because we beat them in the regular season. Our kids have to focus in and understand that this is a huge game. It’s as big a game as we’ve played. You’ve got a chance to go play for that state championship, and it’s through a very, very good Fairmont Senior team.”
BRIDGEPORT 70 NITRO 21
BP;NIT
First Downs;;22
Rushing Yards;;451;-37
Passing Yards;;56;392
Total Yards;;507;355
Passing;;2-2-0;21-34-2
Fumbles;;0;1
Fumbles Lost;;0;1
Penalties;;4-40;8-41
Individual Stats
Rushing – BP: Alex Moses 10-190 2 TD, Josh Love 8-129 4 TD, Timothy Jeffress 4-35 1 TD, Jared Rhodes 2-28, Jack Spatafore 3-19 1 TD, Graham Vincent 1-15 1 TD, Landon Gillum 3-15, Zachary Hickman 1-15, Aiden Gorby 1-0, John Knight 1-12, Sawyer Culicerto 2-2, TEAM 2-(-9), Totals 38-451. NIT: Josh Moody 6-(-35), Lyric Berger 4-(-2), Totals 8-(-37).
Passing – BP: Jack Spatafore 2-2-0 56 yards. NIT: Josh Moody 21-34-2 392 yards 3 TD.
Receiving – BP: Donovan Williams 1-39, Timothy Jeffress 1-17. NIT: Malachi Thompson 7-187 2 TD, Luke Shaffer 7-139 1 TD, Takye Porter 2-11, Coltyn Lycans 2-9, Ty’Liil Mills 1-16, Xavier Patterson 1-16, Braylon Price 1-14.
BP;;21;27;15;7;;70
NIT;;7;7;0;7;;21
Scoring Plays
First Quarter
BP – Josh Love 37-yard run (Gavin Williams kick)
BP – Jack Spatafore 3-yard run (Timothy Jeffress run)
NIT – Malachi Thompson 80-yard pass from Josh Moody (Maddox Cole kick)
BP – Alex Moses 72-yard run (run failed)
Second Quarter
NIT – Luke Shafer 79-yard pass from Moody (Cole kick)
BP – Love 31-yard run (run failed)
BP – Love 10-yard run (Williams kick)
BP – Jeffress 8-yard run (Williams kick)
BP – Moses 4-yard run (Williams kick)
Third Quarter
BP – Gavin Williams 77-yard kickoff return (Moses run)
BP – Love 19-yard run (Williams kick)
Fourth Quarter
BP – Graham Vincent 15-yard run (Jaylen Brown kick)
NIT – Thompson 47-yard pass from Moody (Cole kick)
