Panthers rebound, beat Jays
BLOOMSBURG — Bloomsburg coach Mike Kogut is never quite satisfied.
Even in a 46-0 victory over the Panthers’ archrival, Central Columbia, in which Bloomsburg came away with touchdowns in all three facets of the game, he still sees room for improvement.
See, Kogut knows what it’s like to feel confident going into a game. He thought it before Week 9’s matchup against Southern Columbia, a 61-0 beating. He wasn’t about to let it happen Friday night, knowing the Blue Jays would have loved nothing more than to go into the offseason with their only win of the year coming at the hands of a team set to host a district playoff game.
Kogut’s fears were never close to happening. In fact, the Blue Jays had some misfortunes early to help the Panthers roll up 18 points before their offense even touched the ball.
Josiah Hosler’s first pass of the night went right to Shane Frey, who ran it back 24 yards for the game’s first points. The Panthers converted a 2-point run after the Jays were penalized.
On the Blue Jays’ next possession, punter Gus Bauman booted the ball right into his protector, and the ball went rolling into a free-for-all. Jack Katulis nearly landed on it for the touchdown, but it rolled out of the back of the end zone for a safety.
Then, if things couldn’t get worse for the Blue Jays, they let Julius Serrano slip down the left-center side of the field 91 yards on the ensuing kickoff for another six points. The Panthers caught the Jays sleeping as Katulis ran it in for another two points.
“It was obviously unexpected. There were, unfortunately, some self-inflicted wounds by Central, but we capitalized on that, and that was nice to get up in a game where emotions are very high against your rival,” Kogut said. “You’re never sure how it’s going to start, so to get that breather was nice, but to keep playing well after that and get a solid lead going into halftime, we were pretty pleased.”
The Panthers built on that lead once the offense touched the ball. The connection between quarterback Wyatt Brosious and running back Jharee Moore-Stewart couldn’t be stopped in the first half, as the three times they connected all ended in touchdowns.
All three went for over 20 yards and were three different looks for the Blue Jays to account for. The first came out of the flat for 28 yards, the second proved to be a safety checkdown along the left sideline. Moore-Stewart did the bulk of the work, breaking a tackle and making another defender miss en route to a 30-yard score. The last one came via a post route for 24 yards.
“Last week, our offense did not click. A lot of that had to do with Southern, a lot of that had to do with us,” Kogut said. “We wanted to come out, get rolling the right way tonight and I think we did. Wyatt did some things with his legs to extend plays, and Jharee and the other guys on the outside played outstanding tonight.”
Brosious finished 7 of 9 for 113 yards. Those seven completions came on his first seven attempts. He also posted a team-high 41 rushing yards. The senior twice had a pair of 37-yard touchdown completions called back at the end of the first half due to penalties.
The Panthers added a 9-yard touchdown by Khasire Ferguson in the third quarter to cap off the game’s scoring.
As for Central, it now turns the page to 2026 — which coach Ky Seesholtz says begins Tuesday. Though the score wasn’t in their favor, there were some positives the Blue Jays could carry into the offseason.
Safety Cole Horrax had a pair of second-half interceptions. Though they were shut out for the sixth time this season and haven’t gotten an offensive touchdown since Week 3, experience will prove vital for a team that got nine ball carriers into the game, and put together a trio of drives that lasted at least seven plays — the longest going for 10.
“All we need is a little bit of momentum. [Those interceptions] are huge,” Seesholtz said. “... We can get better as a group, but my big things are getting better at the fundamentals and technique of the game of football. I wanted coaches and other teams to say this team plays fundamentally sound football.”
That sounds a lot like another coach who is preparing for a first-round District 4 Class 2A home playoff game next week, likely against South Williamsport.
“As a coach, you always strive to have everything go right,” Kogut said. “Your caliber of opponents increases, and your mistakes will come back to haunt you. We want to clean up the little things, and we always try to refine and do the best we can — that includes the staff and me. We’re going to go look at the film and praise the good and work on the not so good and look to get better.”
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