BLOOMSBURG – For the most part, the first half of Friday’s game between Mifflinburg and Bloomsburg was an evenly played one. Mifflinburg made two big plays that resulted in touchdowns, while Bloomsburg put together touchdown scoring drives of 11 and 12 plays, respectively. Only a 40-yard field goal by Bloomsburg’s Oakley Wodehouse on the final play of the first half gave the Panthers a three-point lead at the half.
The second half was more one-sided. Bloomsburg scored three straight touchdowns on its first three second half possessions, and the Panthers’ defense blanked Mifflinburg in the second half as Bloomsburg topped the Wildcats 38-14 to improve to 3-0 for the second straight season.
“I thought we really proved ourselves especially in the second half. I don’t know what it is about this group but I’ve never had a group respond like this in the second half,” said Bloomsburg coach Mike Kogut. “I thought our secondary really responded tonight. We worked really hard this last week because Loyalsock really tested us last week in the secondary. We really worked on technique and I thought we did a great job responding to their pass game, especially when they were forced to pass, and we got some good pressure as well.”
It was once again Shane Frey leading the way for the Panthers. The senior quarterback was responsible for four touchdowns and 279 total yards. He completed 14-of-23 passes for 195 yards and three touchdowns – including a pair to Julius Serrano in the second half – and also ran for 84 yards on 13 carries with a score. He also took a handful of hard hits in the pocket after unleashing passes but managed to only be sacked once. He left the game briefly after being shaken up on Bloomsburg’s final drive of the first half that ended with Wodehouse’s field goal, but returned to start the second half and led the three consecutive scoring drives to turn a three-point game into a 24-point lead.
“Shane does a great job running our offense and he makes some reads where I’ll trust him every time,” said Kogut. “When you say Shane Frey, you say toughness. He’s an old-school player, just tough and relentless. He epitomizes toughness and is the heartbeat of this team. People respond to him and he’s just a fantastic leader for us.”
Frey capped Bloomsburg’s opening drive of the game, which went 11 plays, with a one-yard touchdown run. But Mifflinburg answered right back with a 60-yard touchdown run by Brennen Snyder, which came on a fourth-and-1 play from the Wildcats’ own 40-yard line. That followed a 22-yard picked up on a third-and-23 play.
Mifflinburg then took the lead, 14-7, just before the end of the first half when Snyder hit Cameron Schneck for a 41-yard touchdown pass as Schneck won a jump ball against man coverage in the end zone.
The Panthers answered that with another long drive, this time taking 12 plays and nearly six minutes off the clock, and tied the game on Frey’s seven-yard touchdown pass to Brayden Holbert at the 6:19 mark of the second quarter.
The Panthers then took over at their own 32 with 3:53 remaining in the half and took 11 plays to get down to the Mifflinburg 23 to set up Wodehouse’s 40-yard field goal.
But Mifflinburg was plagued by dropped passes and missed tackles for much of the second half. Mifflinburg received to start the second half and went 48 yards down the field before Bloomsburg stopped the Wildcats on downs at the Bloomsburg 26. The Panthers took over and went 73 yards in eight plays, capped by Frey’s first touchdown pass of the game to Serrano for 44 yards, as Serrano slipped behind the Mifflinburg secondary and hauled in Frey’s pass.
“I told them we got the momentum going into the second half, so let’s capitalize. We needed to get a stop to start the second half and we got that stop – they have a potent offense – and then we scored three straight,” said Kogut. “It was just about executing and digging down deep.”
The Wildcats then went three-and-out and a short punt gave Bloomsburg the ball at the Mifflinburg 42. Three plays later, Jharee Moore-Stewart broke a few tackles and got loose around the right side of the line into open space for a 32-yard touchdown to make it 31-14 with 3:27 left in the third.
“We didn’t catch the ball. We must have had 15 drops and 20-plus missed tackles,” said MIfflinburg coach Cody Botts. “I talked about it after Week 1 and Week 2. If we don’t change the little things, games will get out of hand in a hurry. It was near a tie game at the half and we came out and didn’t tackle their best athletes, didn’t catch the ball and got behind the chains with penalties.”
Another Mifflinburg three-and-out combined with a shanked punt gave the Panthers the ball at the Wildcat 30. Once again, it took just three plays for Bloomsburg to find the end zone as Frey and Serrano connected again, this time for 19 yards, to extend the lead to 38-14 with just over a minute to play in the third. It was the last of six catches made by Serrano on the evening for 106 yards.
“They have really good athletes so credit to them, but we couldn’t tackle their best players – Moore-Stewart, Serrano and Frey,” said Botts. “They certainly have weapons but for us, it comes down back to the basics – wrapping, tackling and catching balls.”
Snyder threw for 168 yards for the Wildcats and completed 9-of-25 passes, but completed just 4-of-17 in the second half until completing two passes for 59 yards on Mifflinburg’s last drive of the game with the Wildcats down by 24.
Bloomsburg 38, Mifflinburg 14
Mifflinburg (1-2) 14 0 0 0 – 14
Bloomsburg (3-0) 7 10 21 0 – 38
First quarter
7:59 – (B) Shane Frey 1-yard run (Wodehouse kick), 11-67, 4:01
5:29 – (M) Brennen Snyder 60-yard run (kick failed), 4-69, 2:30
:06 – (M) Cameron Schneck 41-yard pass from Brennen Snyder (Snyder run), 3-42, :50
Second quarter
6:19 – (B) Brayden Holbert 7-yard pass from Shane Frey (Wodehouse kick), 12-65, 5:47
:00 – (B) Oakley Wodehouse 40-yard field goal, 11-68, 3:53
Third quarter
4:48 – (B) Julius Serrano 44-yard pass from Shane Frey (Wodehouse kick), 8-73, 3:25
3:27 – (B) Jharee Moore-Stewart 32-yard run (Wodehouse kick), 3-42, :55
1:16 – (B) Julius Serrano 19-yard pass from Shane Frey (Wodehouse kick), 3-30, 1:06
Statistics
M B
First downs 9 23
Rushes-net yards 19-107 46-199
Passing yardage 168 191
Passing 9-25-1-0 15-25-3-0
Fumbles-lost 5-1 0-0
Penalties-yards 8-60 4-25
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Mifflinburg: Dylan Catherman (7-48), Seth Hartman (6-13), Brennen Snyder (4-49-1), Landon Moser (1-2), Taylor Zimmerman (1-(-5)); Bloomsburg: Shane Frey (13-84-1), Jharee Moore-Stewart (12-52-1), Demir Wood (9-39), Wyatt Schrader (4-30), Bilal Washington (2-1), Team (2-(-2)), Julius Serrano (1-4), Hines Dietz (1-(-3)), JD Klingerman (1-(-3)), Avery Schlaugh (1-(-3))
PASSING: Mifflinburg: Brennen Snyder (9-25-168-1-0); Bloomsburg: Shane Frey (14-23-195-3-0), JD Klingerman (1-2-(-4)-0-0)
RECEIVING: Mifflinburg: Grady Brubaker (2-35), Cameron Schneck (1-41-1), Taylor Zimmerman (1-29), Seth Hartman (1-22), Dylan Catherman (1-14), Landon Moser (1-14), Brady Threet (1-7), Brayden Resseguie (1-7); Bloomsburg: Julius Serrano (6-106-2), Brayden Holbert (4-42-1), Jharee Moore-Stewart (3-48), Wyatt Schrader (1-0), Mehki Mullins (1-(-4))