BLOOMSBURG-It wasn’t necessarily a work of art, but Bloomsburg did achieve the desired result against Hughesville on Friday night. The Panthers had to overcome an uneven, penalty-ridden first half that saw them struggle to maintain any sort of rhythm on offense. Things did turn around in the second half, which enabled Bloomsburg to pull away. Wyatt Brosious continued his strong season as a dual-threat quarterback, and Julius Serrano scored a pair of third quarter touchdowns, as the Panthers eventually rolled to a 35-0 win.
“First half was very sloppy, nine penalties, had some drives we didn’t finish,” Bloomsburg coach Mike Kogut said. “Sometimes we’re having issues with that, so we need to get better with that. Credit to Hughesville, they played us hard. The second half, I really liked, because with Jharee (Moore-Stewart) going out and you lose a kid, one of your guys that’s on both side of the ball — this group is so tight. So our kids, I thought, responded maturely, kept their heads, and I thought we had a really good second half.”
Bloomsburg (6-1) scored on its second possession of the game. Moore-Stewart took a toss left and went in untouched from two yards out to give the Panthers a 6-0 lead at the 6:18 mark of the opening quarter. However, several drives would stall in Hughesville territory with penalties playing a big role. Despite moving the ball pretty much at will, it took a while for Bloomsburg to open up some separation on the scoreboard. Krue Wheadon made an excellent one-handed catch in the right corner of the end zone for a 10-yard touchdown with 2:32 left before halftime. Moore-Stewart added the two-point conversion shortly before being carted off with an apparent lower-body injury. Hughesville (2-5) was outgained 288-25 in the first half and had just one first down, but the Spartans only trailed 14-0 at intermission.
“We worked hard on defense this week to make sure we were back on track, ” Hughesville coach Howard Rainey said. “Our defense has always been a decent part of our team. Our offense looks good in practice, but when we get on the field, I don’t know what happens. They’re young, we got a lot of sophomores, a couple juniors, and only a couple seniors that are playing. Hopefully, it’s something to build on.”
In the third quarter, Bloomsburg smoothed things out and took over the game. Brosious gained 26 of his game-high 90 yards on a nice run to put the Panthers in Hughesville territory. The connection with Jack Katulis was once again a factor, as the two hooked up on a 23-yard pass completion. On fourth and goal, Brosious ran around for what seemed like an hour, then found a wide-open Serrano in the end zone on a 6-yard touchdown pass that capped off an 11-play, 89-yard drive. Brosious completed 18-of-29 passes for 220 yards with two touchdowns and one interception. Katulis totaled 96 yards on seven receptions.
“We all like to find open gaps and just lock eyes with Wyatt,” Katulis said. “When we lock eyes with Wyatt, he trusts us enough. He throws it up, and trusts us to come down with it and make some plays.”
Just over three minutes later, Serrano made the play of the night on defense. The junior stepped in front of a pass, and was off to the races. Serrano sprinted 66 yards to the house down the left sideline on a pick-six which extended the lead to 28-0 with 1:29 left in the third quarter. Bloomsburg’s defense only surrendered 73 yards on the night.
“Julius just continues to elevate his play on defense, even on offense,” Kogut said. “He deserves all of it just because of the work he’s put in.”
Midway through the fourth quarter, Bloomsburg closed out the scoring. Gabe Dube got some carries from his tight end position, and made the most of them. Dube took a handoff up the middle, and got some help from a couple of linemen to help push him across the goal line on an 18-yard touchdown run with 6:22 left. Bloomsburg only committed one penalty after halftime, while simply looking sharper in the second half. The Panthers racked up 432 yards of offense.
“At halftime we said, great teams like this respond,” Katulis said. “Everyone was frustrated and we got calmed down, changed the game plan a little bit, and changed what we had to change.”
The toughest part of the schedule awaits Bloomsburg over the next two weeks. Matchups with Shikellamy and Southern Columbia are on the horizon, which will go a long way in determining where the Panthers will be seeded in the District 4 Class 2A playoffs. The Panthers took care of business against teams they should have over the last couple of weeks, but will now face a step up in competition.
“We’re not going to look to the second game, we’re only going to look to the first game,” Kogut said. “The first game is Shikellamy. They’re 5-2 right now. Coach (Mike) Hoover has done a tremendous job. They’re really big, they’re physical. I’ve seen a little bit of film on them, it’s going to be a big test for sure. We look forward the challenge. In order to be a really good football team, we’ve got to beat good teams. We’ve got to cleanup what we need to from this one and really put a lot of time in for Shik.”
Hughesville 0 0 0 0-0
Bloomsburg 6 8 14 7-35
Individual Scoring
First Quarter
B-Jharee Moore-Stewart 2 run (run failed) 6:18
Second Quarter
B-Krue Wheadon 10 pass from Wyatt Brosious (Moore-Stewart run) 2:32
Third Quarter
B-Julius Serrano 6 pass from Brosious (Michael Masteller kick) 4:55
B-Serrano 66 interception return (Masteller kick) 1:29
Fourth Quarter
B-Gabe Dube 18 run (Masteller kick) 6:22
Team Statistics
……………………….H……………….B
1st downs………..5………………21
rush-yds………26-24…………30-212
comp-att-int….8-18-2………..18-29-1
pass yds………..49……………..220
total yds………73……………….432
fumb-lost…….1-0…………….2-0
pen-yds………6-60…………..10-65
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Hughesville: Connor Anstadt 10-26; Jed Abernatha 6-11; Chase Shrawder 7-4; Nicholas Stubbs 1-0; Landen Puderbach 1-(-3); Team 1-(-14). Bloomsburg: Wyatt Brosious 10-90; Gabe Dube 4-42, TD; Wyatt Schrader 5-34; Julius Serrano 1-32; Jharee Moore-Stewart 4-23, TD; Krue Wheadon 2-3; Hines Dietz 1-(-2); Bilal Washington 2-(-4); Khasire Ferguson 1-(-6).
Passing-Hughesville: Anstadt 3-6-1, 38 yds.,; Stubbs 5-12-1, 11 yds. Bloomsburg: Brosious 18-29-1, 220 yds., 2 TDs.
Receiving-Hughesville: Shrawder 1-30; Chase Fowler 4-10; Carson Stackhouse 1-5; Puderbach 1-4; Anstadt 1-0. Bloomsburg: Jack Katulis 7-96; Wheadon 5-51, TD; Moore-Stewart 3-46; Serrano 3-27, TD.