PC hands Bedford first defeat
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By Nate Ritchey
nritchey@altoonamirror.com
BEDFORD -- With both Penn Cambria and Bedford unbeaten heading into the Week 4 matchup, one thing was for certain: someone had to lose.
The Panthers flexed their muscles on both sides of the ball and the Bisons simply had no answer.
PC was able to move the ball efficiently and sustainably on offense to the tune of 386 yards, while the defense, save a second-half long Bedford scoring run, had its way throughout.
When all was said and done, Penn Cambria, unbeaten at 4-0, won 33-6 over Bedford Friday night in Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference action.
"We turn the page and get ready for next week," Penn Cambria coach Nick Felus said. "What we usually do is we pick a few focus areas we've got to get better at. Then we focus on those three things this week. We're just going to keep working and seeing how good we can get each week."
Sequence of the game: Late in the first half, three plays after Penn Cambria quarterback Brady Jones lost a fumble that was recovered by the Bisons' Owen Horne at the PC 41, Bedford QB Quincy Swaim connected with AJ Koontz on a pass that Koontz coughed up on a hit after gaining 7 yards. On the recovery by PC's Blake Lilly, Swaim was whistled for a personal foul, which gave the Panthers the ball inside Bedford territory with 1:41 to go before the break. Five plays later, PC was down to the Bedford 16, where Jones found Lilly on a TD strike in the right corner with :20.4 left. The score allowed PC to take a 20-0 lead at half.
Player of the game: Penn Cambria's Mason Mento came up big on both sides of the ball. The senior ran 13 times for 87 yards, including the first points of the night on a 10-yard run to put his team up 6-0 with 6:48 showing in the first quarter. He also scored on a 3-yard run at 5:20 of the third to give the Panthers a 27-0 edge. On defense, he delivered two big fourth-down stops -- both with Bedford at the PC 30 -- to give his offense the ball back on turnover on downs. The first was holding Swaim to one yard on a fourth-and-6, and the very next defensive series he sacked Swaim for a 3-yard loss.
Mento: "(The goal) was just to get the ball in our offenses' hands and get another score. ... I give (credit) to my O-line. They did a (great) job and got me to the end zone.''
Unsung heroes: The Penn Cambria offensive and defensive lines completed dominated the Bisons linemen all night.
Bedford coach Kevin Steele: "They (Penn Cambria) are good -- I don't think there's any secret there. They have multiple weapons on their side of the ball, their line is tough. They controlled the line of scrimmage and we weren't able to control them on the defensive side. Anytime we had something going our way on offense, we weren't able to get any momentum or string together any first downs. They kind of controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball.''
Most vital statistic: The Panthers scored 21 points off three Bisons turnovers, while Bedford managed 10 yards of offense on two PC miscues.
Felus: "Our defensive staff does a great job of game-planning. We knew what we had to do, we had to stop the run. ... "(On offense), we want to be balanced in the sense of who needs to touch the ball. We've been spreading it around a lot the first four weeks which makes it tough for defenses to prepare for us"
Notable: Jones was 10-for-17 for 83 yards through the air and rushed 11 times for 49 yards. He found paydirt on runs of 8 and 6 yards to set the eventual final in the fourth. ... Thomas Plunkett rushed 19 times for 103 yards, while Gavin Harrold scampered eight times for 64 as well as catching seven passes for 51 yards and grabbing an interception in the second half. ... The lone big play the Bisons mustered was a 57-yard Swaim TD burst that made the score 27-6 at 3:58 of the third stanza. Swaim also came out with a pick, while PC's Grant Gides nabbed one of his own.
Records: Penn Cambria (4-0); Bedford (3-1).
Next week: Penn Cambria hosts Central Cambria next Friday night; Bedford is at Chestnut Ridge the same night.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Penn Cambria 6 14 7 6 -- 33
Bedford 0 0 6 0 -- 6
First Quarter
PC--Mento 10 run (run failed), 6:48.
Second Quarter
PC--Jones 8 run (Jones run), 5:25.
PC--Lilly 16 pass from Jones (pass failed), 20.4
Third Quarter
PC--Mento 3 run (Harrold kick), 5:20.
B--Swaim 57 run (kick blocked), 3:58.
Fourth Quarter
PC--Jones 6 run (kick failed), 5:33
TEAM STATISTICS PC B
First downs 20 8
Total yards 386 189
Rushes-yards 51-303 32-133
Yards passing 83 56
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 10-17-1 6-13-2
Punts-avg. 2-34.5 3-41.7
Fumbles-lost 4-1 1-1
Penalties-yards 5-45 4-45
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Penn Cambria, Plunkett 19-103, Jones 11-49, Mento 13-87, Harrold 8-64. Bedford, Swaim 14-82, Evans 2-4, Horne 4-10, Nave 1-4, Kozielec 5-6, Taylor 4-23, Livengood 1-5, TEAM 1-(-1).
PASSING--Penn Cambria, Jones 10-17-1-83, Harrold 0-0-0-0. Bedford, Swaim 6-13-2-56, Livengood 0-0-0-0, Taylor 0-0-0-0.
RECEIVING--Penn Cambria, Plunkett 2-16, Harrold 7-51, Lilly 1-16. Bedford, Livengood 1-26, Koontz 1-7, Anderson 1-11, Horne 1-0, Taylor 1-11, Evans 1-1.