The hardest thing for those watching Bridgeport Friday night turned out to be determining who was player of the game. In a contest where the Indians had a total team effort in all three phases of play, particularly the defense, the efforts of John Mercia and Jake Bowen were hard to overlook.

 

Thanks to a solid overall body of work, the Indians dispatched of North Marion by a 40-22 score this evening in high school football action in Rachel.

 

The win not only left Class AA No. 5 Bridgeport at 6-1, but assured that the Tribe would have their 25th-straight winning season a week after securing their 50th-straight non-losing campaign. NMHS, ranked No. 10, fell to 4-2.

 

For the third straight game, Bridgeport had a five-touchdown advantage at the intermission. This time, BHS led 34-0 after the first two quarters and, statistically, it was Merica and Bowen who stole the show.

 

Just how impressive were the pair?

 

They had a hand in all five first half Bridgeport touchdowns and all six in the game. And that happened in the first half and the first series of the third quarter.

 

Merica ran for three touchdowns in the game and continually kept North Marion’s defense off balance with perfect reads on the quarterback read option. The senior also managed to pass for another score. He finished with 55 yards rushing, all in the first half.

 

“He’s a really good athlete. He’s a good leader and a quiet leader who happens to be a very competitive individual. We’re lucky to coach good kids that want to win and he certainly fits that mold,” said Bridgeport Coach John Cole.

 

Bowen, who rushed for one touchdown in the first half and the Tribe’s lone touchdown of the second did something extremely rare at any level of football and that was to collect three interceptions in the contest.

 

“I don’t think I’ve coached any kid that had three interceptions in a game to the best I can remember; maybe two,” said Cole of Bowen. “That’s why Jake’s out there. Our coaches put him where he can make plays on defense because he’s a good athlete with good speed and you saw what he did on defense tonight.”

 

Those in attendance also saw what he did on offense. He finished with a game-high 134 yards rushing on 17 carries to round out an impressive all-around effort.

 

“I’m absolutely pleased with his running,” said Cole. “He’ll tell you that a lot of that was the line doing its job against a North Marion team that was changing a lot of things, pinching up front, and things of that nature against us.”

 

While the play of the two backfield standouts stood out, it was the defensive effort in the first half that put the game away. By halftime the Indians would have all the offense they would need as the defense kept North Marion’s potent attack off the field for large portions of the first two periods of play. North Marion didn’t crack 100 yards of offense in the first two frames.

 

“Their offense worried us all week and they’re good at what they do. I think we may have been a little stronger up front along the line and that helped,” said Cole. “It made them one dimensional and put them on the edges where they started throwing and, boy, did we take care of that.”

 

The Indians took care of everything in the opening half. As it turned out, the first drive of the game would be one of just two scoring drives by the Indians that wasn’t set up by a Bowen interception. Instead, the Tribe forced North Marion on a quick three-and-out on the game’s first possession.

 

Even without an interception, the Indians managed to start their first drive with great field position at North Marion’s 49. Seven plays later, the onslaught was officially under way.

 

Merica would score the first of his three first-half rushing touchdowns to cap the drive with a seven-yard run for six. Koby Kiefer, who would hit his first four point-after kicks before a bad snap led to no attempt on the final score of the first half, drilled the extra point for a 7-0  lead with 7:42 on the first period clock.

 

Three plays later, Bowen began his own personal interception festival. He managed to step in front of a North Marion pass and return it 21 yards to the Huskies nine-yard line. Three plays after that Bowen would finish what he started with a four-yard run as Brian Henderson plowed the field in front of him. Following the kick, it was 14-0 Bridgeport with 5:27 to go.

 

The good news for Bridgeport was the offensive and defensive fireworks were far from over. Unfortunately, that was bad news for the hosts.

 

Once North Marion got the ball back, it would take just three plays before Bowen would strike again with his second pickoff. A big Bowen return was negated by a block in the back, but in the end it wouldn’t matter.

 

BHS had the ball at North’s 43 and needed nine plays to go the distance. The big blow on the drive would be the play that culminated it. On third-and-12, Mercia stepped back and with plenty of time in the pocket found a wide open Caleb Strakel in the end zone for a 12-yard scoring strike.

 

The score and point-after left BHS up 21-0. And the touchdown came as time expired in the opening frame.

 

North Marion came out strong to start the second period and put together its only serious scoring threat of the opening half. Starting from their own 13, the Huskies used 13 plays to get as far as the Bridgeport 36-yard line before the drive stalled.

 

The hosts opted to punt and the decision appeared to be a good one as the Huskies downed the kick at the Bridgeport two-yard line. Whatever momentum was gained by the kick would quickly be lost as Bridgeport used six plays to go 98 yards and move ahead by four scores.

 

D’Andre Holloway, back from last week’s ankle injury, showed no rust from the issue as he busted loose for a 51-yard run to put the Huskies on their heels. Merica would end the drive four plays later with a four-yard run and what would be a 28-0 lead with 4:20 to go.

 

Holloway would finish the game with 113 yards rushing on 15 carries spelling Bowen. It marked the second straight game the junior went over 100 yards in a contest.

 

“I don’t know what happened, but a day or two after last week’s game he was okay,” said Cole. “ … He’s got really good vision and makes really good cuts. We need him to keep progressing and, eventually, we may work him in on defense.”

 

It appeared that may be all the damage that would be done by the Tribe in the opening half. Bowen, however, had other ideas.

 

This time, the junior linebacker didn’t wait for the third play to swipe a North Marion pass. On the first play following the Indians’ fourth score, Bowen stepped in front of another pass and put Bridgeport deep into NMHS territory at the Huskies 29.

 

Five plays later, Merica scored his third rushing touchdown on a three-yard run. A bad snap on the pont-after try led to one of the few negatives for the Indians in the first 24 minutes of action.

 

BHS had 205 yards on 30 plays with 28 plays on the ground accounting for 189 of those yards. Bowen led the way with 64 yards on 14 carries. Holloway had 57 yards on three runs and Mercia finished the first two periods with 55 yards on eight runs of the ball.

 

The Huskies had just 77 yards of offense in the first half.  BHS gave up just 34 yards rushing on 14 carries and held North’s strong passing attack to just 4-of-13 for 43 yards.

 

Bridgeport scored one final time on the opening drive of the second half before Cole began to start inserting reserves.  And Bowen did the honors on the third play of the third quarter with a 60-yard run that left it 40-0 with 10:38 to play. Another bad snap led to another failed conversion, but Bridgeport had all the offense it would need.

 

North Marion would score three times after that, including a pair of successful two-point conversions.  The first score came when Dalton Malcolm hooked up with Haydn Anderson on a 67-yard touchdown pass in the third. The hosts added another score with 2.9 seconds remaining in the third quarter when Desmond Fluharty scored on an 11-yard run.

 

The final score came in the fourth. With 4:37 to go in the game, Ethan Tulanowski scored on a 60-yard run for the game’s final touchdown. Following a successful two-point conversion run, the scoring for the contest was complete.

 

Bridgeport finished with 375 yards of offense on 58 plays. North Marion had 291 yards of offense with 214 of those yards coming in the second half.

 

The Tribe returns to action next week. BHS will visit Elkins for a 7 p.m. kickoff in Randolph County.

 

Editor's Note: Top photo shows Jake Bowen on one of his three interception returns, while John Merica works over the defense in the second photo. In the third picture, Caleb Strakel celebrates after hauling in a touchdown pass and that is followed by a shot of the defense swarming to the North Marion ball carrier. In the fifth photo, the Indians' offensive line turned in another strong showing. Coach John Cole is shown contemplating his next move in the next picture, while D'Andre Holloway checks out a North Marion defender on his 51-yard second period run. Photos by Ben Queen of www.benqueenphotography.com.