Metea Valley can't keep Bernat, Bartlett in check
The Metea Valley defense was seldom surprised by what Bartlett threw at it on Friday night in Aurora. But that's not to say the Mustangs had too much success stopping the Hawks' Nolan Bernat, even when they knew he was getting the ball.
The Bartlett junior carried the ball 39 times in the rain and came away with 187 yards and a 37-yard touchdown run as the visiting Hawks prevailed 14-3 in the Upstate Eight Conference Valley Division opener for each school.
The Mustangs offense struggled to get on track in the first half but trailed just 7-3 after Michael Sfikas kicked a 37-yard field on the final play of the half. But the second half brought more of the same: a solid Hawks defense, plenty of Bernat runs and a Metea (1-2, 0-1) attack that struggled to finish off drives and put points on the board.
"Obviously, it affects the passing game a little bit, but we ran the heck out of the football the first two weeks," Mustangs coach Ben Kleinhans said when asked about the windy, wet conditions. "I think what affected us was just Bartlett showing up and outplaying us."
Bernat played both ways and seldom came off the field. After a scoreless first quarter, he broke free for the night's first score, a 37-yard run with 9:51 left on the half. It was the first offensive touchdown this season for the Hawks, who won last week by a 3-0 count.
"I ran it right through the three hole. The O-line had terrific blocks, the fullback kicked out the safety and it was just wide open," Bernat said. "It feels good to finally score. It won't be the last of it."
After Bartlett took the lead the Mustangs managed to drive to the Hawks 20 in the final minute before settling for field goal, but when the hosts turned the ball over on downs on their first possession of the second half, Bartlett marched down the field and went ahead 14-3 following a 1-yard keeper by quarterback Jordan Flint.
The 9-play drive was capped off after eight runs by Bernat, including runs of 14 and 9 yards on the first two plays.
"Their scheme is tough," Kleinhans said. "He's got two lead backs in front of him and a tight end and only one receiver. They got a lot of guys at the point of attack. On a night like tonight they controlled the clock and they used their 25-second clock time after time to keep us off the field and our offense never really got in a rhythm because of it."
Mustangs running back Bryson Oliver started slowly but still finished with 130 yards on 25 carries. He didn't play the first two series while Maurice Burkley was gaining 30 yards on 4 carries, but Oliver had 104 yards in the second half. Metea missed a field goal and just couldn't finish off its other drives.
Bartlett, meanwhile, notched its 100th varsity victory to improve to 2-1.
"You know, we play pretty good when it's raining. At Notre Dame (last week) it was also raining," Bartlett coach Tom Meaney said. "The kids came out to play and we got the monkey off our back with the first score on offense and we actually got two scores."