Bathurst's career night powers BEA to first win

Ron Bracken

HYDE — It may have been Homecominig for Clearfield, but it was a coming out party for Brock Bathurst and his Bald Eagle Area teammates.

Bathurst

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Sparked by Bathurst’s three-touchdown, three-interception night, the Eagles notched their first win of the season as they took down the Bisons 34-21 in a pesky rain at the Bisons Sports Complex.

Bathurst was BEA’s long-distance operator, scoring on a 77-yard pass from Justin Taylor, returning a 91-yard interception for a score and bolting 34 yards on a reverse, to spark the Eagle offense. His three interceptions ties a school record set by Gary

Dyke against Bellefonte in 1963, and the 91-yard return is thought to be a school record.

“I had a lot of help,” Bathurst said of his breakout performance. “Nate (Eisenhuth) must have tipped five passes tonight. Everyone was on their game. Our front line really stepped it up; they did great. Clearfield is a great team and they beat teams we lost to. This (performance) has been there. It’s always been there. We should have done this every time.”

Bathurst jump-started the Eagles when he caught a short pass from Taylor and used his sprinter’s speed to go 77 yards untouched for the score on BEA’s third play of the game. The kick for the PAT was no good.

“Justin (Taylor) and I locked eyes on that play,” Bathurst said. “We knew it was there.”

The Bisons bounced right back as Curtis Frye hit Chad Zurat for a 46-yard strike and Zurat booted the PAT to give Clearfield a 7-6 lead.

Clearfield added to the lead when Frye connected with Trey Campman from 29 yards out on the first play of the second quarter and Zurat kicked the extra point to make it 14-6 with 11:57 still to go in the half.

A Frye fumble set up BEA’s next score as the Eagles took over on the Bisons’ 42.

On the first snap, Taylor hooked up with Kyle Womer down the left sideline and then hit Dillon Schall for the conversion to make it 14-14 with 7:01 to go.

On BEA’s next possession, Taylor’s fumble was recovered by Ryan Hertlein at the BEA 23. Three plays later, Bathurst stepped in front of a tipped pass over the middle at the 9, cut to his left and took off down the sidelines with the go-ahead touchdown.

Again the kick failed, leaving the Eagles on top 20-14 with 1:05 to go in the half.

“That interception return was huge,” said BEA coach Jack Tobias. “That was a huge momentum swing right there. We’ve had that happen to us so many times. It was nice for it to be on the other side for a change.”

“Nate tipped that ball,’’ Bathurst said. “After I caught it I started one way, then saw I had some blockers and went the other way. I had the whole team helping me out. They blocked the rest of the way for me.”

The BEA defense forced the Bisons to punt on their next possession, but the snap was bad and the Eagles took over on the Clearfield 43 with 40 seconds left in the half.

Taylor hit Coleman Hoffman for seven yards, and two plays later he connected with Womer for 32 yards to the Clearfield 4. On the next play, Taylor went off the left side for the touchdown with seven seconds to go. Taylor hit Schall for the two-point conversion to make it 28-14.

But lightning struck on the second-half kickoff as Campman caught the ball at his own 20 and took it the distance to cut BEA’s lead to 28-21 after Zurat booted the PAT.

“You know what impressed me?” asked BEA coach Jack Tobias. “After that kickoff return it was the first time this year I heard our kids say, ‘We are going to get it done.’ It’s the first time I heard that kind of confidence. Guys were saying we were going to come right back and score.”

And so they did. But it took until the fourth quarter when Bathurst broke loose on a reverse from 34 yards out on the first play of the quarter. The pass for the two-point conversion was incomplete.

After that the BEA defense took over, turning back Clearfield’s final chance when Colby Stover broke through and sacked Frye for a six-yard loss on a fourth-and-four call from the BEA 10 with 4:40 left.

“We knew this team (BEA) was going to be a big challenge for us,” said Clearfield coach Tim Janocko. “We couldn’t make a break and we couldn’t catch a break.”

Stover, along with Dillon Schreffler, Nate Eisenhuth, Ruger Brower and Brice Beals, led the BEA defense, which harassed Frye all evening long.

“We had some kids step up tonight,” Tobias said. “Our defensive line did a hell of a job. They came off blocks all night. Ruger Brower was sick as a dog but he stepped up and played for us. Both of our starting defensive ends — Jon Gingrich and Jeremy St. Clair — were out. But like we say, players show up on Friday night.”

Call Bathurst a player then. He finished the night with three carreis for 34 yards, two catches for 89 yards and the 91-yard interception return.

“He’s a great athlete,” Tobias said. “We know if we can get the ball in his hands he can make plays. If you make blocks for a kid with that kind of speed he’s going to score.

“This is a whole new season for us now. We could be 5-0 at the end of the year. We’ve known we were capable of this. This is going to be a nice ride down (Interstate) 80.”