By Curtis Pulliam

cpulliam@vindy.com

Poland

Alik Bradford didn’t think he would have a huge night.

“We had a little bit of everything going on,” Bradford said of Wellsville’s offense. “We noticed passing started working so we just tried to do that.”

Even though it wasn’t the original plan, Bradford had 174 yards and three touchdowns through the air leading the Tigers over Youngstown Christian, 44-7, at Dave Pavlansky Field on Saturday night.

“It was big win,” Wellsville coach Rich Wright said. “First time on the road [this season], it was a kind of physical game.”

With the Eagles up 14-7, Bradford found Frank Jackson open for a 38-yard touchdown pass. The Tigers converted the 2-point conversation making it 22-7.

Later in the second quarter, Bradford hit Branzen Gradhaus for a 40-yard TD.

“One guy kept getting open,” Bradford said. “And the defense couldn’t cover them.”

Wright was happy with Bradford’s performance.

“I thought his pass plays at the end of the second quarter were huge for us.” Wright said. “It was nice to see us make plays.”

In addition to the three passing touchdowns, the Tigers employed a balance rushing attack.

On their second drive, TyShawn Franklin broke out of the backfield on a double reverse to give the Tigers a 7-0 lead.

“I think TyShawn got us going with that run,” Wright said. “That slowed [Youngstown Christian] down a little bit.”

The Tigers scored with 3:19 in the first on a 23-yard run by Zack Mellott.

The Eagles answered with a 2-yard touchdown by Terrelle Jones to make it 14-7, but from there on it was all Wellsville.

The Tigers scored 30 unanswered points to put the game out of reach.

“I thought we had great pressure [on defense],” Wright said. “We took away the run.”

Although the Eagles managed minus-5 rushing yards against the Tigers, they did have 229 passing yards.

Quarterback Ryan Houston was 11 of 25 with an interception.

Head coach Brian Marrow tried to remain upbeat.

“We just had too many mistakes,” Marrow said. “It was expected. We had a lot of emotions going on.”

The Tigers (2-0) have a big game next week against rival Lisbon.

“It’s the last game before our league play,” Wright said. “They have a great team.”