ARCHIVES:Juniata takes CFA Title

By rscaife
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Updated: February 14, 2014

David met Goliath in this years CFA Federal Conference Midget Super Bowl as the Juniata Indians went up against an undefeated 9-0 Greenwood Buffaloes.

In this one, “David” would come out the victors as the Indians held off the Buffaloes in a 22-20 nail biter.

The win clinched the second title for the Indians in their third Super Bowl appearance.

During the regular season, the Indians came out strong.

“They (Juniata) were outstanding. The kids started out the season against some of the weaker teams and we rolled over them. I think we were 6-0 before we hit the meat of our schedule“, said Juniata coach Bob Bowers. “The meat of our schedule came in the last part of the year. We played boiling Springs and for some reason our team didn’t show up and they beat us 21-0.

However, after the loss, the Indians bounced back when they ran into a tough Northern team.

“The Northern game was a very important game for us so that it would put us in the opposite bracket of Greenwood for the playoffs,” Bower said. “We wanted to face Greenwood in the Super Bowl. So we needed to beat Northern if we were going to go head-to-head and be in the opposite bracket.”

Juniata pulled out the victory over Northern.

In a regular-season match up with greenwood, it would be the Buffaloes that would win the first round 27-4.”

It would be the last loss the Indians would have the rest of the season.

“In the first round of the playoffs, we played Gettysburg. They were the newcomers to the league Bowers said. “We didn’t know anything about them and didn’t have time to scout them. We went in blind but we ended up putting up 24 points against them and ended up winning 50 to 6.

Juniata did that with only a group of 18 players.

In the second round the Indians revenged their loss to Boiling Springs. The game went into overtime tied at zero.

In the second overtime, Boiling Springs would score the first touchdown of the game but ended up missing the extra point.

When the Indians got the ball in the extra period, Juniata tied the game and was able to pull out the 7-6 victory by completing the extra point.

With the victory the team got its chance at a rematch revenge with Greenwood.

“The boys played their hearts out“, Bauer said. “They were outsized. I couldn’t have been more proud of them.”

Both losses were avenged leaving the Indians as the CFA midget champions.