Big plays from Bloomsburg materialized into a second-half deficit it couldn’t hope it overcome, creating the second straight game in which it experienced mercy rule. Bloomsburg quarterback Wyatt Brosious accounted for four touchdowns and over 300 yards of offense while the Wildcat offense’s early success never translated to the scoreboard, core components in their eventual 35-0 loss.

It was a tough loss for the developing program, especially considering how even things appeared heading into the second quarter and how quickly its momentum was shot. Nonetheless, head coach Travis Thompson felt the team was more competitive than the score indicated, taking that as a positive when facing the up-and-coming Panthers.

“We’re going through some growing pains for sure, inexperience in some places but as I just told them, this is a story where I don’t feel the better team won,” said Thompson. “We were able to hold our own from an athlete-to-athlete standpoint. We just weren’t able to capitalize on the big plays.”

After getting punched in the mouth to start, as Brosious and Bloomsburg receiver Jack Katulis connected for an 82-yard touchdown on the game’s first third down, Central Mountain seemed to handle the initial blow with grace.

TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain competes against Bloomsburg in Mill Hall on Friday. The Wildcats lost to fall to 0-2.

In response, it put together what proved to be its strongest drive of the night, building off a strong return with multiple first downs that put the Wildcats in the Bloomsburg red zone. Sophomore quarterback Kyle Everett completed his longest throw of the season, a 34-yard bomb to Ricky Rohrbach, on third-and-long. And two plays later, Dalton McDermott broke off a ten-yard gain that set the team one first down away from a goal-to-go situation.

But despite getting three yards away from the marker, Central Mountain would get stuffed on fourth down. It’d keep fighting, but its next possession – which saw them start in Bloomsburg territory – would go backwards. And it would never traverse past its own 35 again.

“We settled in, moved the ball well in the first half, but they did some things where they had a lot of edge pressure, really contained us well and hats off to them for that in the first half,” said Thompson. “The second half, I think a lot of it was that mental part of playing from behind.”

Defensively, the Wildcats had some high points, particularly through the first half.

There, they held Bloomsburg to 38 rushing yards on 15 attempts – many which came on a final drive that resulted in zero points. Junior linebacker Kole Corman was a force, at one point securing three sacks in close succession on top of an absurd number of tackles. And along with keeping the Panthers off the board late, it forced two three-and-outs while still being in striking distance.

TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain competes against Bloomsburg in Mill Hall on Friday. The Wildcats lost to fall to 0-2.

The problems occurred in the moments the Central Mountain defense got complacent. It happened on the third play of the game, where broken coverage and arm tackles allowed Bloomsburg to break off an 82-yard touchdown on what could’ve been an early stop.

It happened again on its second touchdown drive, where the Wildcats allowed conversions on a third-and-long and fourth-and-long, a 30-yard gain and 11-yard touchdown respectively. And it happened one more time, when Bloomsburg back Jharee Moore-Stewart shed one tackle before seeing green for the next 60 yards on his way to 74-yard score.

It’s tough to find momentum when you continuously give it up in droves. For Thompson, that was the difference between the team’s eventual blowout loss and what could’ve been a closer game.

“One of our Achilles heels has been, we have those plays where we just have a mental lapse and they capitalize on us. If you look at it, break it down play-by-play, this is going to come down to about ten plays,” said Thompson.

“The rest of it, we had them backed up. We got great pressure on the quarterback all night, and Kole Corman played an amazing game.”

TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain competes against Bloomsburg in Mill Hall on Friday. The Wildcats lost to fall to 0-2.

With Central Mountain’s momentum zapped, Bloomsburg went on to have a dominant second half, scoring on back-to-back drives and only allowing one first down on the other side. It wasn’t the way it wanted the night to turn out, as it heads into Week 3 without a point to its name, but the hope is that the loss serves as a building block heading into upcoming weeks.

Up next, Central Mountain (0-2) will face its first Heartland-I opponent of the season in undefeated Williamsport (2-0), a team Thompson feels the Wildcats can match up with physically. That game is set to take place at 7 p.m. at Millionaire Stadium.

“I think that’s another team that we can physically compete with, go out and hold our own,” said Thompson. “It’s just a matter of staying in the game for four quarters, not one or two.”

TIM WEIGHT/Special to the Sun-Gazette Central Mountain competes against Bloomsburg in Mill Hall on Friday. The Wildcats lost to fall to 0-2.