There are no moral victories this late in the high school football season.

The finality of a loss in the WIAA playoffs is apparent on the teary-eyed faces of the vanquished as they leave the field.

Bradford suffered its only defeat of the season at the most inopportune time Saturday as Milwaukee Marquette walked away from Indian Trail Stadium with a 35-28 victory in a WIAA Division-1 State quarterfinal.

While all losses at this point of the season are difficult to deal with, the Red Devils and those in attendance Saturday filed out knowing the simple, hard-to-swallow truth.

The Red Devils had the Hilltoppers beat and they let them off the hook.

Bradford began the second half with one of its most dominating drives of the season. The Red Devils went 93 yards on 15 plays, chewing up nearly seven minutes of clock to go up 28-14 on Gino DeBartolo’s 5-yard TD run.

But while there are no moral victories, there can be lessons learned in defeat.

Costly mistakes

With a two-score lead, the Red Devils just had to not make mistakes and answer each Marquette score.

After the Hilltoppers responded quickly to cut it to 28-21, Bradford was back on the march facing a second-and-1 from the Marquette 28-yard line. The Hilltoppers had only one tackle-for-loss up until this point so one yard with two tries seemed like easy pickings. But DeBartolo was hit in the backfield and while struggling to get the yard, he was stripped and the Hilltoppers recovered the fumble.

You can’t fault DeBartolo for the second and third effort, but with a quartet of Marquette defenders in the area and leading the game, living to fight on third down would have been a more prudent move.

Marquette scored on the following possession, but Bradford’s Michael Mayfield preserved a one-point lead by blocking the PAT attempt.

The reprieve was only temporary.

The Hilltoppers executed a pooch kick that could’ve been fair caught by a Red Devils upback, but after a vicious collision Marquette pounced on the loose ball. The ensuing possession didn’t net points as the Braford defense held three-and-out, but it essentially flipped the field in the Hilltoppers’ favor as Marquette pinned the Red Devils at their own 1.

After driving to midfield, Bradford was forced to punt at the 3-minute mark. John Stevens angled the kick, forcing the Hilltoppers to start from their 11. After a pair of incomplete passes, Kevin Fink found Marvin Paine for an 11-yard dig route completion. Unsure if Paine was on a knee or not, Bradford’s Trae Waynes came up and made the hit, drawing a 15-yard unnecessary roughness penalty.

Out from the shadow of its own goalpost, Marquette would need only seven more plays to net the go-ahead and final score.

Expect success

While the Red Devils can’t sugarcoat this one, it was another season-long step forward for Coach Jed Kennedy’s crew.

The Bradford senior class hasn’t known a losing football season, that’s not something many alumni less than 50 years old can lay claim to. The last four seasons, Bradford is 38-9. The last three years under Kennedy 29-7.

But with success comes higher stakes. This is the third consecutive season that the Red Devils lost in the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

It’s on the next wave of varsity players to learn from the mistakes and take the next step.

Mike Larsen can be contacted at mlarsen@kenoshanews.com