Bulldogs dominate the trenches in 55-17 win

Alex Topor, The Meadville Tribune, Pa.
·4 min read

Sep. 9—Fairview struck first on Friday night at Bender Field, but the Meadville Bulldogs responded by punching over and over again.

After Fairview's Vincent Campoli connected with Jacob Harkness on a 53-yard touchdown pass, Meadville marched down the field and Bradyn Miller scored from 28 yards out. Brighton Anderson followed with a 45-yard scamper on the next drive.

On the net drive, Campoli hit Robbie Benford down the seam for 30 yards to the one-yard line. Campoli capitalized with a one-yard sneak and tied the game at 14.

"Our secondary, because it's been shuffled around with injuries and stuff, with the inexperience I am not sure they trust each other back there just yet," Meadville head coach Ray Collins said. "I think they're overcompensating for one another and routes get down the seams. It's something very fixable as far as getting their eyes on their keys and learning to trust the guys that are out there with them."

After Fairview's game-tying score early in the second quarter, it was all Meadville. The Bulldogs outscored the Tigers 41-3 the rest of the way.

Meadville did all of its damage on the ground with 466 rushing yards and zero through the air. A big reason for the running room was senior guard Justice Esser. Esser served a two-game suspension to begin the season and had his first start on Friday. He cleared big running lanes and was a force defensively with a sack and several tackles at the line of scrimmage.

"It's a different dynamic when he is playing guard. He is just a dominant lineman in there. He blows open holes. I thought it was big for us," Collins said. "Not only open holes on the inside, but when he pulls and gets to the outside he is really kicking them out. You can see how those backs were cutting loose. It was good to get him back. Across the board, I thought the offensive line had a really nice game tonight."

Benefiting from the dominant play in the trenches was the stable of backs at Collins' disposal. Miller led the pack with 240 yards and three touchdowns. Anderson had two touchdowns with 96 yards. Also scoring once each was Jordan Lawrence (82 yards), Jacoby Thompson (81 yards) and Tahlir McClure (eight yards).

Defensively, Meadville's Amarri Grenaway intercepted two passes and the front seven totaled two sacks and multiple tackles for loss.

On special teams, Collins was ecstatic to find an answer at kicker. After being forced to attempt two-point conversions last week after an injury to starting kicker Nic Williams, freshman Geovani Vincik was 7/8 on extra point attempts.

"All week in practice he stood down here by himself and kicked extra points. Last night (Thursday) in the walkthrough, we get to extra point and he promptly missed three extra points. So the special teams coach, Andy Herbstritt, said 'You've been down here kicking 1,000 of these this week and this is all you can give us?' From right there he locked it in," Collins said. "I am so proud of him. He stepped into the deep end of the swimming pool and showed he can do it."

The huge win was good to have for the 'Dogs after losing to Butler by one point in Week 2. Collins was happy with the way his team responded and got back to winning.

"That loss last week was painful," Collins said. "To come back tonight and put it together, get back on the track we need to be on and should be on, I was really happy with the effort of the kids tonight."

Meadville moved to 2-1 overall. The Bulldogs will play at Titusville on Thursday to open the Region 4 schedule before hosting Conneaut and Oil City.

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Fairview 7 7 3 0 — 17

Meadville 14 20 21 0 — 55

First Quarter

F — Vincent Campoli 53-yard pass to Jacob Harkness (Michael Gennuso XP).

M — Bradyn Miller 28-yard run (Giovani Vincik XP).

M — Brighton Anderson 45-yard run (Xp good).

Second Quarter

F — Campoli 1-yard run (Xp good).

M — Jacoby Thompson 29-yard run (Xp good).

M — Tahlir McCLure 8-yard run (Xp good).

M — Jordan Lawrence 9-yard run (Xp no good).

Third Quarter

M — Miller 45-yard run (Xp good).

F — Gennuso 45-yard field goal.

M — Miller 80-yard run (Xp good).

M — Anderson 13-yard run (Xp good).

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: F — Campoli 12-(-17), T. Benford 6-19, R. Benford 0-0, Oldach 7-26, O'Reilly 1-(-2); M —Miller 11-240, Anderson 7-96, Lawrence 8-82, Thompson 6-81, Phillips 3-21, McCluer 1-8, Howe 3-12, Walker 1-7.

PASSING: F — Campoli 9-16 188 yards 1 td 2 ints; Tate Reichel 0-1, AJ Feleppa 0-1.

RECEIVING: F — Harkness 4-123, R. Benford 1-30, Work 3-30, Chevalier 1-5.

Records: Fairview 1-2, Meadville 2-1.

Alex Topor can be reached at (814) 724-6370 or by email at atopor@meadvilletribune.com.