Looking more and more like a legitimate contender for the WIAA Division-1 State crown, the Bradford football team continued its dominating season in authoritative fashion on Saturday afternoon.

The Red Devils rolled on with a 56-20 victory over Tremper in a second-round playoff matchup at Ameche Field. It was the second time in 11 days that Bradford defeated its crosstown rival by a convincing margin.

After trouncing the Trojans by 29 points in the regular-season finale on Oct. 21, Bradford scored early and often in the rematch.

In 48 meetings between the schools, the 56 points were the most ever scored by the winning team, besting a 54-6 victory by Tremper in 1978.

“No doubt in my mind,” Tremper coach Frank Matrise Jr. said, “I think it would be pretty devastating to them if they didn’t win the State championship.”

Advancing to the State quarterfinals for the third year in a row, second-seeded Bradford (11-0) will play top-seeded Marquette (11-0) in a powerhouse matchup either Friday or Saturday at a time to be announced. Bradford athletic director Steve Knecht said that he was “99.9 percent sure” that the game would be played at Indian Trail Academy.

Unlike the tightly-contested second-round playoff game between the rivals in 2007 (a 21-13 Bradford victory), the Red Devils jumped out to a 42-7 halftime lead on Saturday and never looked back.

“That was about as good of a first half as we’ve played all year,” Bradford coach Jed Kennedy said.

The third-year coach was asked if an opposing team has to play a perfect defensive game to defeat his high-powered option offense.

“I think they have to play pretty darn good,” Kennedy said. “We’re pretty good offensively. We have a pretty good defensive team coming in next week, so we’ll see where we’re at.”

With 404 yards on 51 carries (7.9 avg.), Bradford rushed for 400 yards or more for the seventh time this season.

After Gino DeBartolo rushed for 221 yards in the last meeting between the teams, the junior quarterback let his friends handle the rock this time.

Speedy junior Melvin Gordon had 14 carries for 129 yards and two touchdowns along with a 36-yard TD reception. Fullback Cody Brady finished with 16 carries for 111 yards and a TD, while Torrie Tyson made the most of his four carries, picking up 98 yards, including a 48-yard touchdown. DeBartolo and Jacque Turner also scored TDs on the ground.

“The thing about our offense is we don’t know who’s going to get the carries,” Kennedy said. “Gino hurt them pretty bad last time. I think their game plan was to make someone else beat them. On our option plays, the reads were to give it to the fullback. So, we’re going to take what the defense gives us. It was a lot of fullback early.”

Tremper (6-5) was forced to punt on the game’s opening possession and Bradford went right to work with a 10-play, 83-yard drive that was capped on a 2-yard run by Gordon. Brady had six carries for 43 yards on the drive.

The Trojans had the first of their three turnovers on their next drive when Billy Sangbusch recovered a fumble by Andrew Gray at the Bradford 40.

The Red Devils capitalized with an eight-play, 60-yard drive that was capped on a 4-yard run by DeBartolo with 2:26 left in the opening quarter. Brady had three carries for 27 yards on the drive.

“I told the kids before the game, ‘You can’t have miscues,’ ” Matrise said. “Turnovers killed us.”

Tremper went three-and-out on its next possession and the Red Devils responded with another penalty-free, nine-play, 68-yard drive. Brady’s 3-yard run helped make it 21-0 with 10:07 left.

The Trojans got on the scoreboard with 5:33 left when quarterback Jake Snell scored on a 7-yard keeper on third-and-2. Gray highlighted the 10-play, 65-yard drive with a 25-yard run.

Any flicker of hope for the Trojans was quickly snuffed out when Chris Millard returned Matt Vecchitto’s ensuing kickoff 79 yards for a touchdown.

Things continued to unravel for the Trojans when David Sauceda recovered a fumble by Snell two plays later at the Tremper 31.

One play after Clayton Boyer tackled Gordon for a 5-yard loss, DeBartolo completed a pass to a wide-open Gordon 10 yards downfield and Gordon turned on the jets for a 36-yard TD.

Gordon ended his busy first half with a 45-yard run with 1:17 remaining. He blasted over a potential tackler in front of the Bradford sideline and sprinted to paydirt to help make it 42-7.

Millard closed out the first half with an interception on the final play.

With the running clock in effect for the start of the second half, the teams played a scoreless and snappy third quarter.

On the first play of the fourth quarter, Tremper’s Doug Carlson recovered a fumble at the Tremper 3 and Gray scored on the next play.

Tyson brought the running clock back into play three plays later when he ripped off a 48-yard run, but Gray answered with a 72-yard run of his own.

Turner closed out the scoring with a 13-yard run with 4:04 remaining.