Wolves chew up Oswego, reach quarters
Offensive perfection.
Well, almost.
Scoring on 8 of 9 possessions and amassing 429 yards of rushing, No. 2 seed Prairie Ridge remained undefeated with a 56-36 victory over No. 7 Oswego in a second round game of the Class 6A playoffs held at the Prairie Ridge Athletic Stadium Friday night.
The Wolves (11-0), who avenged a 56-42 loss to Oswego in last year's second round, advance to next weekend's quarterfinals and will play the winner of today's Grant-Lemont matchup.
"We are going to run laps Monday because we had to punt once," kidded Prairie Ridge coach Chris Schremp. "We talked a lot about last year's game with Oswego. When we saw we had a chance to play them again the kids were excited. Bryan (Bradshaw) ran the option well and all our backs ran well. Oswego is a strong team that has a lot of phenomenal athletes."
PR quarterback Bradshaw, who read the option almost flawlessly all night, ran 6 times for 112 yards and he scored on runs of 3, 1 and 59 yards. The junior also completed 4-of-11 passes for 79 yards which included a 32-yard touchdown pass to Sam Campbell.
"We watched a lot of film and the coaches came up with a very good game plan," said Bradshaw. "Oswego displayed some weaknesses on film and we were able to exploit them. We knew we couldn't let up because Oswego could score a lot of points. We had to keep pounding and pounding and we had to keep scoring. We couldn't let up."
Bradshaw had plenty of help from his friends in the backfield. Campbell ran 14 times for 126 yards and scored on touchdown runs of 22, 5 and 1. Kevin Keener toted the pigskin 17 times for 110 yards and scored the game's final touchdown on a 38-yard run.
Todd Budy carried 5 times for 81 yards and had runs of 35 and 27 yards.
"We just don't see that type of offense and we just couldn't simulate that in practice," said Oswego coach Dave Keely. "It is a precision offense and they have it down to a science and they have great athletes to run it."
Holding a tenuous 35-30 lead after three quarters, the Wolves were finally able to silence the Panthers (8-3) in the fourth quarter.
Running the option flawlessly, Bradshaw scooted the left end unscathed for 59 yards and a touchdown which gave the Wolves a little breathing room with a 42-30 lead and 11 minutes and 49 seconds remaining.
That 2-touchdown advantage didn't last long as Oswego's Octavio Fleury ran back the ensuing kickoff 42 yards to the PR 48. The Panthers only needed 4 plays to reach paydirt as Matt Casula rambled 25 yards for a score. The 2-pointconversion was thwarted and Oswego had sliced the PR lead in half at 42-36 with 10:09 remaining.
Those would be the last points the Panthers would score. A 1-yard TD run by Campbell and a 38-yard scoring jaunt by Keener sealed deal for the Wolves. A last minute drive to score for Oswego was thwarted b an interception PR junior linebacker Curtis Slack.
Casula had an outstanding game for the Panthers with 198 yards on 23 carries with 4 touchdowns on runs of 3, 6, 16 and 25 yards.