Published: August 30, 2008 12:38 am      

Johnstown rallies past Bedford for league win

For the better part of a decade, Greater Johnstown relied on big-play threats Antwuan Reed and LaRod Stephens-Howling to produce gaudy numbers and plenty of points.

A new era officially opened on Friday night at Trojan Stadium.

Johnstown now counts on an ensemble of offensive players.

That much was evident in the Trojans’ 37-23 comeback win over visiting Bedford in the season opener.

“We showed our versatility,” Johnstown assistant coach Neil Cobaugh said. “We have a lot of guys who can step up and make plays for us. That’s what we’re counting on. We don’t have the big-play threat anymore, the one guy who can do it all. We’re going to have to rely on a lot of good players to do some things for us. Each player is going to have their night to shine.”

Cobaugh spoke on behalf of head coach Kevin Marabito, who left the stadium immediately after the game to be with his son, Brett, who was injured in Laurel Valley’s win over United.

Johnstown rushed 42 times for 326 yards and four touchdowns.

Tailback Quadir Christian (11 carries, 108 yards, one touchdown) and fullback Kashmir Pretlor (12-85, two touchdowns) combined to do most of the damage. But Quatrell Rose (7-52) and first-year starting quarterback John Siciliano (8-60, one touchdown) also had productive outings.

“Johnstown has a good team with some decent speed and a veteran front five,” said new Bedford coach Dan Smith. “They came to us. We kind of got a little bit shocked by P.J. (Brett) going down. Hopefully he’ll be all right. It’s an ankle injury. We started to hang our heads a little bit but we bounced back.”

Bedford’s Patrick Brett had a team-best 91 rushing yards and a pair of touchdowns on 17 carries before his injury with 8:12 left in the third quarter of a 16-16 game.

After Johnstown fumbled away a punt to give the Bisons the ball at the Trojans’ 35-yard line, Brett capped a seven-play drive with a 6-yard touchdown scamper. He ran for the conversion and an 8-0 lead.

Johnstown’s Marcus Seals intercepted a pass at the 22 and ran to the Bedford 8, setting up Christian’s first touchdown.

Christian caught a Siciliano conversion pass in an 8-8 first quarter.

Brett’s 2-yard touchdown run and his conversion pass to Zach Hess put the Bisons up 16-8 at halftime.

Johnstown answered with four consecutive touchdowns to lead 37-16 with 8:34 left in the game.

Pretlor had scoring runs of 11 and 4 yards.

“We have a lot of good receivers, our quarterback is real good, we’ve got big depth at running back and our line blocks really good,” Pretlor said. “The line really worked hard and pushed hard and opened up some holes.”

Siciliano scrambled for a 52-yard touchdown and passed 26 yards to Christian for another score. Bedford back-up quarterback Kyle Deenen had a 52-yard run to set up his 1-yard keeper for a late touchdown.

“No team can come in and worry only about one person now,” Christian said. “They’ve got to worry about a couple people, and our line is good.”