By Matt Corbett
The Daily Item
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BEAVER SPRINGS — Fortunately for East Juniata, the Tigers got their first-game jitters out of the way in the first half.
After a shaky first two quarters, East Juniata pulled away in the second half for a 28-0 blanking of Bucktai l in the season and All-America Conference opener for both teams.
N i c k Kratzer rambled for 216 yards on 26 carries and had two long touchdown runs in the second half as the Tigers opened with an impressive victory at West Snyder Middle School. But it took awhile for them to begin clicking.
“Hopefully we don’t have another first half like that.
That’s about as bad as we can play,” East Juniata coach Tom Feltman said after the Tigers fumbled four times, losing two, and committed five penalties in the opening 24 minutes of action. “The second half was better, but we still have a lot of things we need to work on.”
East Juniata (1-0, 1-0 AAC) lost those two fumbles on its first two possessions, but thanks to Bucktail’s own mistakes and a swarming Tigers defense, the Bucks (0-1, 0-1) were unable to capitalize.
Bucktail was held to 181 yards of total offense, including just 54 yards in the first half.
“I thought the defense did a very good job. I was pleased with the way we hit,” Feltman said.
East Juniata finally got on the board with 2:36 left in the second quarter when senior quarterback Sam Wray took it in from a yard out on a busted play — capping an 11-play, 48-yard drive — and Brendon Holley-Billman’s extra point made it 7-0 heading into halftime.
East Juniata set the tone in the second half when Dakota Fuller intercepted an A.J.
Morgan pass on the Bucks’ first possession of the third quarter. On third-and-six at the Bucks’ 31, Kratzer took a handoff up the middle, broke one tackle and was gone for a 14-0 lead.
Bucktail drove to the East Juniata 20 on the ensuing possession, but Anthony Shipe pounced on a missed exchange between the center and quarterback to thwart the drive.
Kratzer tacked on his second score two possessions later, bursting through a huge hole and outrunning the defense the rest of the way for a 69-yard scoring jaunt and a 21-0 lead.
“Our front five did an outstanding job of opening holes, and Nick made some fine cuts in the open field,” Feltman said. “We knew going in we’d rely heavily on our offensive line, and they really set the tone for us.”
The Tigers had enough success on the ground that they didn’t even attempt a forward pass.
“With everything that was going wrong in the first half, we didn’t have a chance to establish a passing game,” Feltman said. “We know we’ll need to work on that.”
Logan Hambright capped East Juniata’s scoring with a 15-yard TD run with 4:45 remaining in the game. The Tigers finished with 246 yards on the ground.
Besides executing all four extra points, Holley-Billman boomed several kickoffs and had a 46-yard punt, and the Tigers’ kickoff and punt coverage was swarming.
“That was one of the better special-teams efforts I’ve had here,” Feltman said. “This was a good start to the season and it gives us some momentum.
But we’ll need to get better.”
