Bald Eagle Area football routs Bellefonte in latest installment of Curtin Bowl
Friday night saw the final curtain get dropped early as Bald Eagle Area routed Bellefonte in the Curtin Bowl at Rogers Stadium.
The Eagles rattled off 47 unanswered points thanks to their air-raid offense in the 55-7 victory.
“It’s just another game. I know people at home don’t like to hear that,” BEA coach Jesse Nagle said of the win, “but to me every week is the important game. We got to take care of business, no matter who was across from us.”
BEA needed just under three minutes to put points on the board.
It used a seven-play drive — five passes — to grab an early 7-0 lead. Quarterback Carson Nagle, who finished 21 of 27 for 305 yards, found three different receivers on the drive with Nicholas Wible capping it off with a 1-yard grab. Nagle connected with Kahale Burns for two chunk plays on the drive as well.
“We felt athlete-wise we could out-do them on the perimeter,” Jesse Nagle said. “We just knew if we had some protection for Carson, we’d get our athletes the ball and let them go to work.”
The Red Raiders fumbled the ensuing kickoff, which was recovered by the Eagles’ Dakota McCool at Bellefonte’s 21.
One play was all BEA needed. Burns had a 21-yard rushing score to put his team up 14-0. The Eagles recorded a pair of scores in 14 seconds.
“They are a really good football team, and very well coached. We gave them short fields,” Red Raiders coach Tony Confer said. “I said to my kids at halftime, ‘You can’t give a team of that caliber a short field. They are going to take advantage of it. They were the better team tonight.’”
From that point, the rout was on.
After forcing a three-and-out, BEA found the end zone again with 4 minutes, 20 seconds left in the first quarter. It used an eight-play drive that chewed up just over two minutes of clock that saw Cameron Dubbs dive in from 1 yard out.
The extra point was blocked.
Right before the quarter was over, the Eagles found the end zone again.
Carson Nagle connected with Gavin Burns on three straight passing plays of a three-play drive that went for 76 yards. The final pass was a 29-yard score that saw Burns standing in the end zone with the closest Bellefonte defender at the 5-yard line, which made it 27-0.
The teams traded punts, but the Red Raiders fumbled the ball away after BEA’s punt early in the second quarter.
The Eagles started at Bellefonte’s 47, and in two plays were up 34-0. Dubbs had a 41-yard rushing score.
With 5:02 remaining in the first half, Carson Nagle connected with Beau Taylor on a 19-yard score. Nagle’s second touchdown through the air induced the mercy-rule clock to start the second half.
Nagle’s final score of the night was to Kahale Burns on a 23-yard strike with 4:42 left in the third quarter. However, the extra point was missed.
“It’s a B. We got to get better. It’s all about getting better each week,” said Jesse Nagle of the grade for his team. “We gave up a couple of sacks. We got to clean up. They did some good twisting up front. Our guys chased instead of sitting there and trading (the blocks). Our PATs, we had a couple almost blocked, which is uncharacteristic for us. We got to clean that up for next week as we are going to play a really good Clearfield team next week.”
The Red Raiders kept at it even though they were down 47-0.
They were able to put together a 10-play drive, which was capped off with quarterback Liam Halterman sneaking in from 1 yard out. The play before that, Halterman connected with Robert Gabrovsek for a 42-yard pass to get to the 1-yard line.
“It was nice to get that first group in the end zone. I know it was against some of their younger kids,” Confer said, “but we wanted to keep them in to try and get in the end zone to build some confidence with them. It’s hard when you come out and things don’t go real well in the first half. We got to keep coming back.”
Even though Bellefonte gave up 55 points, one of the team’s leaders in Owen Pettina had himself a game.
As Jesse Nagle mentioned his team giving up some sacks, Pettina was one of those twisting defensive linemen giving the BEA offensive line fits. Pettina finished the game with two sacks, which stuck with his coach.
“He’s one of my leaders. I’m very proud of him tonight,” Confer said. “The effort that he gave was second to none. The other kids gave effort too, but he stood out because he made plays.”
Other Centre County scores
Bellwood-Antis 20, Philipsburg-Osceola 7
State College 43, Central Dauphin East 17
Clearfield 35, Penns Valley 7
Bald Eagle Area 55, Bellefonte 7
Friday at Bellefonte
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bald Eagle Area 27 14 6 8 -- 55
Bellefonte 0 0 0 7 -- 7
First Quarter
BEA--Nicholas Wible 1 pass from Carson Nagle (Kaden Burns kick), 9:08
BEA--Kahale Burns 21 run (Kad. Burns kick), 8:54
BEA--Cameron Dubbs 1 run (kick blocked), 4:20
BEA--Gavin Burns 29 pass from Nagle (Kad. Burns kick), 1:37
Second Quarter
BEA--Dubbs 41 run (Kad. Burns kick), 9:06
BEA--Beau Taylor 19 pass from Nagle (Kad. Burns kick), 5:02
Third Quarter
BEA--Kah. Burns 23 pass from Nagle (kick no good), 4:42
Fourth Quarter
B--Liam Halterman 1 run (Halterman kick), 9:50
BEA--Preston Reed 24 run (Grady Fisher pass from Kaleb Irion), 4:11
TEAM STATISTICS BEA B
First downs 18 4
Total yards 434 134
Rushes-yards 17-122 30-65
Yards passing 312 69
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 22-29-0 7-14-1
Punts-avg. 2-32.5 5-38.6
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2
Penalties-yards 1-5 3-30
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Bald Eagle Area, Dubbs 8-69, Reed 2-38, Kah. Burns 2-34, Irion 1-1, Nick McCully 1-(-3), Nagle 3-(-17). Bellefonte, Sherman Lowry 7-28, Ryan Fraley 6-21, Halterman 10-20, Grady Garrison 3-5, Isaac Gall 2-0, Jackson Long 1-(-4), TEAM 1-(-5).
PASSING--Bald Eagle Area, Nagle 21-27-0-305, 3 TDs, Irion 1-2-0-7. Bellefonte, Halterman 5-10-1-54, Quinn Park 2-4-0-15.
RECEIVING--Bald Eagle Area, G. Burns 8-116, Kah. Burns 6-83, Cam Watkins 4-78, Taylor 2-27, Fisher 1-7, Wible 1-1. Bellefonte, Robert Grabrovsek 2-39, Kayden Cooper 1-13, Aden Howell 1-10, Garrison 1-3, Nathan Benner 1-2, Logan Aviles 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS--Bald Eagle Area, Kollin Cunningham 1.
Records: Bald Eagle Area 6-0, Bellefonte 0-6
Next game: Clearfield at Bald Eagle Area, Friday, 7 p.m.; Bellefonte at Philipsburg-Osceola, Friday, 7 p.m.
