BELLEFONTE — Chased from the pocket, Bellefonte quarterback Ryan Poorman rolled right toward the sidelines and heaved a pass into the direction of tight end Robbie Irwin and two Central Mountain defenders.
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It was one of those moments that had the Red Raiders football coaches screaming, “No!” But on a dominating night where very few things went wrong at Rogers Stadium, there was Irwin waltzing into the end zone to screams of joy.
Irwin’s 25-yard score capped the Red Raiders’ 25-13 rout of Central Mountain and put the exclamation point on a 215-yard, two-touchdown passing performance from Poorman.
“It was a ‘no, no, no’ and ‘a yes, yes, yes,’” Bellefonte coach Zac Wynkoop said. “That’s football. Sometimes you get lucky.”
The Red Raiders (2-1) used some luck, but they controlled play most of the contest against Central Mountain (1-2).
Set up by a 13-yard punt return from Heath Sprout, Bellefonte drove 43 yards on its first possession and never trailed.
Fullback Bryant James’ 20-yard run on third-and-9 and a 13-yard pass to Irwin set up Poorman’s 1-yard sneak for a score. A botched extra point left the score 6-0.
Bellefonte extended the margin to 15-0 on a 35-yard field goal from Andy Masullo and a 13-yard touchdown pass to Preston Lanager in the second quarter. Lanager took a swing pass, danced down the sidelines, made a nifty cut at the five and dove inside the pylon.
Central Mountain climbed within 15-7 at the half on Caleb Blazina’s 15-yard strike to tight end Josh Allen.
Bellefonte put the game away in the third quarter. Linebacker Zack Ciolkosz’s interception set up Masullo’s 27-yard field goal halfway through the period.
On the ensuing kickoff, Masullo’s squib kick nailed Wildcats’ blocker Cody McKinney and Lanager recovered the ball at the Central Mountain 48.
“We wanted to squib it,” Wynkoop said. “I guess it turned out to our advantage better than I anticipated.”
That sat up Poorman’s heave to Irwin. Two Central Mountain defenders, including linebacker Eric Fetter, had a bead on the ball, but overran the play, allowing the ball to float right to Irwin.
“It was right there,” Irwin said. “I just snagged it out of the air and walked in. I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but Ryan put it out there just far enough over that kid’s head.”
“I saw him at a quick glance,” said Poorman of Irwin. “I just knew he was going to come down with it because he’s a big playmaker. He came down with it like he was supposed. Sometimes, you just get lucky I guess.”
Wynkoop said there’s a bit of skill involved in luck. “We have saying, ‘The harder I work, the luckier I get.’ If the kids keep working hard, maybe good things happen. It was a play by two good athletes. We’ll take those.”
Bellefonte’s defense held Central Mountain 65 rushing yards in 28 attempts. “We just got pressure,” Irwin said. “We stopped their run early and forced them to pass. The defensive line did a heck of a job getting pressure early and stuffing their run.”
Poorman, who spent quite a bit of time on his back in last week’s 13-10 loss to Philipsburg-Osceola, credited his offensive lineman for a 15-for-26 performance, that could have been better without a couple of dropped passes.
“I sat down and had a talk with my lineman and said, ‘Guys, I need a little more time. Gimme a little bit more time and we’ll deliver and pull through some games,’” Poorman said. “Those guys pulled through. I owe them a lot today.”
James, whose 60-yard rumble helped preserved the lead late, led Bellefonte with 87 yards on five carries. Ciolkosz and Matt Fisher had two interceptions each.
Reserve Cody Dolan threw for 105 yards and scored a fourth-quarter touchdown, but was picked off twice.
“We just had too many mental breakdowns,” Central Mountain coach Steve Turchetta said. “You’re not going to win football games when you have those. You have to execute. I hope we take a lesson from Bellefonte with our execution.”
Bellefonte plays at Huntingdon (1-2) Friday.