Defending State Champion Indians Start 2025 Season in Dominant Fashion, Defeating B-U 62-14
By Chris Johnson on August 29, 2025
The Class AAA defending state champion Bridgeport High School football team kicked off the 2025 season in dominating fashion, defeating Buckhannon-Upshur 62-14 Friday at Freal “Red” Crites Memorial Stadium.
It marked the 15th consecutive game that ended with a running clock for the Indians, who accomplished that feat in all 14 games of the 2024 season.
Friday’s game looked a lot like any of those 14 from a year ago as Bridgeport’s single-wing offense couldn’t be stopped and the Indians’ defense couldn’t be run on.
The Indians finished with 457 yards on the ground and nine touchdowns. BHS held B-U to – 55 yards rushing.
It didn’t take BHS to establish its single-wing dominance as Gabe Martin scored on a 1-yard run to cap five-play game-opening drive. Gavin Williams booted his first of eight PAT kicks to make 7-0 and the Indians were off and running.
As impressive as the Game 1 victory was, the Indians did have to overcome some adversity along the way.
Senior Bryson Lowther, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, suffered what is believed to have been a minor injury in practice on Thursday. Lowther was slated to start on the offensive line and at defensive end.
His anticipated return to the lineup was instead met with a test to the BHS depth and the test was passed with flying colors. J.P. Cortez started at left guard and was part of a line that dominated up front the entire game.
Defensively, Sean Veltri moved from linebacker to defensive end and Brody Jeran started at linebacker. Both had huge games.
“It was awesome to see the way they played,” BHS coach Tyler Phares said. “I’m super proud of Sean. Sean’s a kid that I’ve been tough on in practice because we see a lot of potential there. He got thrown into a tough position tonight because we weren’t planning on playing him at defensive end.
“We’ve played him a decent amount at defensive end in spots but he showed what he can do tonight and it was fantastic.
“Brody stepped up big time and made a bunch of plays tonight. It’s been a tough learning curve for him coming to a new offense, a new defense (Jeran played at B-U previously). Coming home, it was a lot of emotions for him but he really stepped up.”
On the Bucs’ second play from scrimmage, Jeran recovered a fumble which set up Martin’s second TD run, this one from 3 yards out that extended the lead to 14-0.
The Buccaneers showed they could capitalize off a turnover as well. Following a Bridgeport fumble with 6:13 showing on the first quarter clock, backup quarterback Xavier Robinette found starting quarterback for a 44-yard touchdown pass.
Bridgeport advanced on the ensuing drive down into the red zone. Williams got the carry on a third-and-1 play from the 16, fought his way to the goal line. He lost the ball on the 1 but it appeared that both his knees were down before the ball popped loose.
This time the Bucs couldn’t capitalize and were forced to punt.
Martin broke loose for a 58-yard touchdown run to make it 21-7 and essentially put the game away. Eli Knight added first-half touchdown runs of 2 and 3 yards. Williams scored on a 15-yard run and Martin’s fourth TD covered 45 yards.
Another huge defensive sequence for the Indians came later in the second quarter when they recorded sacks on three consecutive plays. The first went to Noah West before Veltri had back-to-back sacks.
“That felt amazing,” Veltri said. “I was just doing what the coaches have taught us. This was my first varsity start and I had a good time out there and got some butterflies out.”
The Indians added second-half touchdowns on a run of 31 yards from Landen Gillum and a run of 23 yards from Sawyer Culicerto.
Robinette threw another TD pass for the Bucs in the second half.
Martin finished the game with 185 yards rushing on just 10 carries to go along with the four TDs. Williams finished with 90 yards rushing on eight carries, caught one pass for 18 yards and in addition to 8 PAT kicks, all but one of his kickoffs were touchbacks.
Knight finished with 70 yards on six carries and two TDs.
Graham Vincent had 29 yards passing. In addtion to the completion to Williams, he also connected with Jeran for an 11-yard gain.
The Indians will play their home opener next week as Heritage, Va., visits Wayne Jamison Field.
Editor's Note: Top photo shows Martin churning out some yards on the ground. Middle photo is of Veltri (left) and West after a big play on defense and in bottom photo, Eli Knight (23) looks for running room.
