Chieftains fend off pesky Polar Bears

BASCOM — Hopewell-Loudon played flawless football for the first half and gained a 26-0 advantage over Margaretta Friday night. Then, the Polar Bears fought back to make things interesting with a couple scores in the second half. But in the end, H-L was victorious 26-14 in SBC River play. It was a game the Chieftains needed as they haven't been challenged for a few weeks, H-L coach Brian Colatruglio said. "That's a good football team and that was a good win for us," he said. "I'll be honest, we really haven't been challenged for a little bit and I think it was good for our to struggle for a little bit and face some adversity and to have to execute. Those are things we'll keep improving on as we go down the line."When H-L (6-0, 3-0 SBC River) was clicking, it was something to watch. Whether it was the run game with Braylon Martinez, the precise passing game from quarterback Evan Kreais or the stout defense forcing turnovers as Martinez and Adam Kreais tallied picks in the first half … things were going awfully well for the Chieftains to build a 26-0 halftime advantage."The first half was to plan, and just like we've done on defense we got the turnover and that really what was the big momentum shift in the second quarter. We scored off of that and then getting another one and scoring right before the half was huge," Colatruglio said."I was scared all week … those two receivers (Julian Washington and Gage Bodey) are really really good. They're fast, I knew we'd have trouble with them," he said. "I think we were fortunate in the first half that they didn't go to them as often and we jumped on them, shellshocked them a bit, but we saw what happened in the third quarter when those guys got involved in the offense. They're really good."It was all Chieftains in the opening half. Evan Kreais found Martinez for a 10-yard touchdown to open the scoring late in the first quarter. The two-point conversion failed. On H-L's next drive, Evan Krwais hit Adam Kreais for a 17-yard TD on a wide receiver screen and then found him again for the two-point conversion to make it 14-0.After the Adam Kreais pick, Evan Kreais hit Wyatt Crow for a 15-yard TD on a fourth-and-3, but the conversion failed.Then after the Martinez pick, he capped the scoring before the half, plunging into the end zone from 2 yards out, giving H-L the 26-0 halftime advantage."I don't know … it was like we didn't get off the bus or something," Margaretta coach Gary Quisno said of the first-half struggles. "What we thought we were going to bring over here, we didn't and they really had their way in the first half. We couldn't move the ball at all and couldn't stop them. "We challenged our kids at halftime to go out and win the second half to see what happens. We made it a little more interesting, but really I don't think we ever really stopped them, they just methodically go down the field and their quarterback is pretty doggone good, receivers are good … they just did a great job. They have a good program here and they beat us tonight."It certainly was a different looking Polar Bear team in the second half. Sophomore QB Jake Bouy found Washington twice in the second half for touchdowns — 2-yard TD and a 6-yard TD. Margaretta had all of the momentum in the fourth quarter and only being down 12 points with 8:26 left, there was a chance for it to get even closer. But it never saw the ball again. The Chieftains put together an eight minute drive to close out the contest as they converted a third down and two fourth downs. The two fourth downs were from around midfield and both were huge passes from Evan Kreais to Jack Colatruglio."Our defense was on their heels a little bit there in the second half and I just have all the confidence in the world in our quarterback that he's going to make the right play," Colatruglio said. "If I'm gonna go down, I'd rather go down with him. He made two great throws on fourth down to seal the game."For the game, Kreais went 23 of 28 passing for 284 yards. Martinez carried the ball 27 times for 127 yards, Colatruglio caught six passes for 80 yards, Matt Wyman caught two passes for 55 yards and Blake Berrier finished with five catches for 47 yards.It was a special night for the Chieftains football program as members from the very first H-L team 50 years ago were in attendance and were honored before the contest Friday. "It was a cool night. In the big picture of things 50 years really isn't all that long, we're not an extremely old program, but a lot of those guys still have connections to the program through grandkids, nieces or nephews that are playing … it was cool to see that group of guys back. "Our guys got to understand that it's bigger than us, this is a pretty cool tradition to be a part of Hopewell-Loudon football."