Bedford football picks up where it left off in win over Windham

BEDFORD - Zach Matthews figured there would be questions about the Bedford High School football program heading into this season.

Coming off a championship with a new head coach and looking to replace a lot of talent from the year before, Matthews hoped the Bulldogs could answer some of those concerns.

With some help from Windham, Bedford checked off plenty of boxes Friday night, taking advantage of several opportunities on the way to a 41-7 win over the Jaguars in a Division I game.

Michael Akstin rushed for 118 yards and two touchdowns on 22 carries, as Bedford (1-0) piled up 293 yards and five scores on the ground while holding Windham's offense in check for most of the night. The Jaguars (0-1) finished with 182 yards, but 130 of that came on three plays, and they turned the ball over four times.

"I think this is a statement game for us," Matthews said. "There were a lot of questions out there, and rightfully so. New coach replacing a lot of players and coming off a championship game. What is Bedford going to do?

"A lot of questions and I hope we answered a couple of those. Credit to Windham, their kids played tough and it was a battle in the first half. We made key adjustments at halftime. Our kids really listened to those adjustments and they exploded in the second half."

Menderson Elie and Aaron Skaling had touchdown runs of 53 and 80 yards, respectively, in the second half while Jack Grogan added a 2-yard touchdown run in the first half and Ryan Bobotas kicked field goals of 22 and 36 yards. The one area the Bulldogs struggled was the passing game, as quarterback Joseph Mikol was just 5 of 18 for 26 yards.

Riley Desmarais had the lone score for Windham, as he broke away for a 58-yard touchdown run in the final seconds of the first half to cut Bedford's lead to 17-7. Before that play, the Jaguars had managed just 22 yards of offense against the Bulldogs' defense.

"We really wanted to end that triple option (offense) that they have because it really can just demoralize a team, when they just march down the field the whole day," Aktsin said. "We just focused on stopping them on defense and executed on offense."

Bedford's dominance early in the game started up front, as the defensive line consistently got into the Windham backfield, as the Jaguars had eight plays that results in negative yardage in the first half.

"They established the line of scrimmage, not through any lack of effort through our guys," Windham coach Jack Byrne said. "But those guys are big weight room guys, too. When both teams put the time in the weight room in, the guys who have done it longer are going to get the win, and they definitely had the advantage there."

Bedford also had an advantage in field position, as the turnovers and failed fourth-down attempts - Windham was 3 of 10 on fourth down - helped give the Bulldogs an average starting point of the Jaguars' 40-yard line.

Despite that, it was a 10-point game at halftime and Windham's defense forced a three-and-out to open the second half. The Jaguars started their first drive of the half at their own 25, but still couldn't get the offense going, and on fourth-and-13, Kyle Keenan's pass was knocked down by Elie to give Bedford the ball at the 22.

Two plays later, Akstin carried it in from 19 yards out to put Bedford up 24-7. A fumble on the ensuing kickoff was recovered by the Bulldogs at the Windham 20, but the Jaguars' defense forced a field goal, and Bobotas hit from 36 yards to make it 27-7.

"I think that was big," Matthews said. "We knew we had to score first coming out of halftime. We put stress on that third quarter and on shutting them out. That’s a point of emphasis with our kids and they did a great job of that."

Windham responded with its best drive of the second half, getting down to the Bedford 16-yard line thanks in part to a 37-yard run by Thomas Travers. But on fourth-and-4, Travers was sacked by Bedford's Ben Sylvain for a 9-yard loss, and four plays later, Elie raced through the Windham defense for a 53-yard touchdown run and a 34-7 lead on the final play of the third quarter.

Desmarias finished with 69 yards rushing on 11 carries to lead Windham while Keenan, Travers and Stephen Mague combined to go 3 of 24 for 53 yards and an interception.