LOCK HAVEN – All season long, and even going back the last couple of seasons, Troy’s offense has thrived on big plays. A big part of the Trojans’ success has been due to their ability to put up chunk plays and largely run away from their opponent on the scoreboard, oftentimes before halftime.
On Friday, playing in the state quarterfinals for the first time since 2013, Troy instead used a methodical rather than explosive offense, and combined that with a stout and opportunistic defense to take the program where it has never gone before. The Trojans topped Bedford 42-16 in a Class 2A quarterfinal to advance to the state semifinals for the first time in school history. They will face the winner of tomorrow’s game between Riverside and Williams Valley next week for a trip to the state championship.
“We knew we wanted to come in and be physical and win the turnover battle and we did and we didn’t turn it over on offense, didn’t make mistakes and we did what we do” said Troy coach Jim Smith.
Troy had just four plays go for over 20 yards out of 54 total. But instead of the game largely being over by halftime as so many of the Trojans’ games have gone this season, Troy gradually wore down the Bisons, as three touchdowns in the third quarter put the game into the mercy rule late in the quarter.
“We told the kids all week that this is a team that doesn’t give up too many points. They pursue to the ball and are extremely fast, good tacklers and are hard to trick, so the fancy stuff was out and early on they blew up some of our fancy stuff so we just asserted ourselves,” said Smith.
The Trojans’ defense also picked up a pair of turnovers, including on Bedford’s first drive of the game, which set the tone for the remainder of the contest.
After Troy went three-and-out on its opening drive, Bedford took over at its own 14 following a punt and proceeded to pick up a pair of first downs. On third down from the Troy 41, Quincy Swaim was picked off by Joseph Frye, who returned it to the Bedford 49.
From there, the Trojans put together a 12-play drive capped by Evan Woodward’s one-yard touchdown run. Troy picked up five first downs on the drive, with no single play going for longer than eight yards.
The Bisons then picked up a pair of first downs on the first two plays of its subsequent drive, with Swaim picking up runs of 10 and 22 yards, but Bedford would get very little for the rest of the night from that point. The Bisons would pick up just two more first downs in the remainder of the first half, and Swaim, who had 80 rushing yards on just six attempts at that point, would finish with -2 yards on his remaining carries in the game.
“They had a really good scheme and a really good running quarterback with almost 1,800 yards coming in, so we decided we weren’t going to play with safeties. We had to keep everyone in the box, so we took our chance, put our best cover corner on their best receiver,” said Smith. “Early on they made a couple of big plays and our backside pursuit was over pursuing and their kid has great vision if they don’t stay home so he was hitting the backside seam. Once they saw that and we talked to them about it, they settled in and stayed home and that really took care of that.”
Bedford punted on that and its next drive, and Troy answered with touchdowns on both of its subsequent possessions, putting together two straight nine-plays drives, one for 85 yards and the other for 50 yards, while chewing up over 8:30 of clock.
Mason Smith tossed a 15-yard touchdown pass to Lincoln Chimics on a halfback pass to make it 14-0 with 6:23 left in the half, and Brendan Gillilland took a handoff on a counter and went 11 yards for the score with :55 remaining in the half to make it 21-0.
“We just had to keep our foot on the pedal. We knew things would open up eventually and we just had to keep going,” said Woodward. “Bedford did a great job and didn’t make things easy on us. Sometimes we were able to get those big plays and that saved us some energy on some long drives but we were able to complete the long drives tonight.”
Bedford was forced to punt on its first drive of the second half, and Troy took over at its own 29. On the third play of its drive, Gillilland burst through the middle of the line and found open space for the first time all night, going for a 52-yard touchdown run to extend the Troy lead to 28-0 and put him over 100 yards on the night. Gillilland would finish with 112 yards on the ground, the only player on either side to go over the century mark on the evening.
Following another three-and-out by the Bisons, Troy took over at its own 48 and went 52 yards in five plays capped by Woodward’s second rushing touchdown of the game, this one from 15 yards, to put the game into the mercy rule.
But the Trojans weren’t finished yet. Ben Warburton recorded Troy’s second pick of the game, as he intercepted Swaim at the Troy 20, and after an 18-yard return and 15-yard penalty on Bedford, the Trojans took over at the Bedford 47. With Troy’s starter in for one final drive, Woodward hit Frye for a 38-yard reception and then Kael Millard, the Trojans’ lumberjack fullback who had picked up several tough yards and also lead blocking earlier in the game, punched it in from three yards out to make it 42-0 at the 2:19 mark of the third quarter.
The Bisons scored a pair of touchdowns in the fourth quarter with both teams largely playing their JV players at that point. Bedford picked up 93 yards on its two scoring drives of their 239 total yards.
“This is uncharted territory for us,” said Smith. “I told the kids there’s a reason why the old-time pioneers everybody knows their names. They are not forgotten because they paved the way and this group of kids is paving the way for Troy. This is a big deal. Next week at this time, we’re going to know if we’re playing in the state final or not. We have to have a great week of practice.”
Troy 42, Bedford 16
Bedford (10-4) 0 0 0 16 – 16
Troy (14-0) 7 14 21 0 – 42
First quarter
1:14 – (T) Evan Woodward 1-yard run (Lykon-Leffler kick), 12-49, 4:43
Second quarter
6:23 – (T) Lincoln Chimics 15-yard pass from Mason Smith (Lykon-Leffler kick), 9-85, 4:39
:55 – (T) Brendan Gillilland 11-yard run (Lykon-Leffler kick), 9-50, 3:52
Third quarter
10:23 – (T) Brendan Gillilland 52-yard run (Lykon-Leffler kick), 3-71, :53
6:54 – (T) Evan Woodward 15-yard run (Lykon-Leffler kick), 5-52, 2:20
2:19 – (T) Kael Millard 3-yard run (Lykon-Leffler kick), 3-47, 1:40
Fourth quarter
6:24 – (B) Andrew Evans 16-yard run (Taylor run), 6-41, 3:16
2:35 – (B) Gabe Taylor 16-yard run (Taylor run), 2-52, 1:09
Statistics
B T
First downs 13 22
Rushes-net yards 30-180 50-323
Passing yardage 59 70
Passing 4-15-0-2 4-4-1-0
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Penalties-yards 3-44 5-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Bedford: Quincy Swaim (15-78), Gabe Taylor (6-38-1), Andrew Evans (4-55-1), Treg Nave (3-11), Owen Horne (1-1), Carter Kozielec (1-(-3)); Troy: Brendan Gillilland (13-112-2), Kael Millard (12-48-1), Evan Woodward (7-89-2), Mason Smith (7-28), Spencer Martin (3-27), Jayden Kutt (2-0), Joseph Frye (1-9), Ben Warburton (1-3), Evan Allen (1-3), James Roy (1-3), Marcus Frisbie (1-2), Garret Parks (1-(-1))
PASSING: Bedford: Quincy Swaim (4-15-59-0-2); Troy: Evan Woodward (3-3-55-0-0), Mason Smith (1-1-15-1-0)
RECEIVING: Bedford: A.J. Koontz (1-35), Treg Nave (1-15), Gabe Taylor (1-9), Owen Horne (1-0); Troy: Lincoln Chimics (3-32-1), Joseph Frye (1-38)
