Brooke looks to bounce back hosting Bridgeport
Trending
WELLSBURG -- Here's all you need to know about Brooke's upcoming opponent, the Bridgeport Indians.
Bridgeport sports a 4-1 record. The Indians average 47.4 points per game and have amassed some 2,407 yards of total offense, an average of 481.4 yards per game.
In that sea of eye-popping statistics, there's one that stands out even more. It's the number one, as in, the number of passes Bridgeport's completed through five games.
The Indians love to run the football. And safe to say, they are pretty good at it.
So, Brooke will have its hands Friday with a team that quite literally wants to ram the ball right down its throat.
It's not a matter of what they are doing, it's a matter of if the Bruins can stop in.
"Bridgeport is a completely different animal," Brooke head coach Mac Mclean said of this week's opponent. "They want to line up and play power football and drive right down the field."
Leading the way is Zach Rohrig and his 174 yards per game and 9.6 yards per carry average. Rohrig has 10 touchdowns. Rohrig isn't the quarterback, that job belongs to Aiden Sparts. But Rohrig has completed the team's lone pas, a 32-yarder to Donovan Williams. The other pass Rohrig threw? Interception.
That catch makes Williams the team's leading receiver by default. Rohrig is far form a one-man rushing operation. He's got plenty of help, including Josh Love and Tanner Hathaway.
Love has 499 yards and eight TDs while Hathaway equals Love's TD total but with only 299 yards. As a team, Bridgeport averages 10.9 yards per carry.
Love and Cameron Martins are the team's two leading tacklers with 37 and 36 stops, respectively, while Beau Ford leads the team with eight tackles for a loss, including a team-leading 4½ sacks.
This is a monumental challenge coming off a disappointing loss to Watkins Memorial in a game many of the Brooke faithful likely felt the Bruins could and should have won.
Bridgeport's not unbeatable, however. Morgantown took care of the Indians 22-14 back in week two at Bridgeport. What the Mohigans did was play opportunistic football.
The Indians ran for 270 yards. Morgantown managed only 148 combined (84 passing, 64 rushing). But Morgantown did force two turnovers--one fumble and one interception that Jake Anderson turned into a 21-yard pick six.
Brooke will need to be equally opportunistic against the Indians and also not commit the turnovers (three interceptions, one fumble) that plagued it against the Warriors.
The Bruins will need another monster game from defensive end Tyler Wise to assist in creating havoc in the Indians backfield.