Central pressures, pummels Bald Eagle Area

Tanner Kresovich felt the pocket collapse and took off.

The Bald Eagle Area quarterback sped past two Central defenders lunging toward him in the backfield, evaded another defender and accelerated toward the sideline for a 5-yard gain.

On the next play, Central linebacker Dominik Emerick drilled Kresovich as he threw. One play later, he was pressured again before throwing an interception.

It marked the end of the Eagles’ first offensive drive, but the pressure kept coming in a 50-0 loss to the Scarlet Dragons on Friday night. Central limited BEA to negative-9 rushing yards in the first half and negative-7 rushing yards in the first three quarters while giving Kresovich little time in the pocket.

“Unfortunately, I think sometimes you go to a fight and you fight, and other times you get punched and you kind of just keep on getting punched,” BEA coach Jesse Nagle said. “And tonight was one of those times we just kept on getting punched.”

While the Eagles (3-2) couldn’t move the ball — they converted four first downs and finished with 63 total yards — Central (4-1) had little trouble piling up yards and points en route to the blowout victory. Star running back Alex Hoenstine led the way, rushing for 129 yards and four touchdowns on 17 carries and hauling in five passes for 44 yards.

But Central’s defense set the tone.

On BEA’s first drive, the Dragons’ line got after Kresovich and stuffed the Eagles’ lone rushing attempt for no gain. Kresovich completed his first pass on a quick pass on the team’s second drive, but it stalled after a pair of rushes went for losses.

It was more of the same on BEA’s third drive.

After Kresovich completed a pass rolling to his right for a first down — the Eagles’ second and final first down of the half — Central’s Benjamin Kurtz flew into the backfield unblocked for a sack, setting up second-and-18.

Three plays later, the Eagles were punting.

Central coach Dave Baker shrugged after the game as he said his defense simply has good players.

“That’s what you can expect those guys to do,” Baker said.

And Kresovich was starting to expect the pressure after the rough start.

When Central picked him off the second time, Kresovich threw off his back foot. The quarterback finished 6 for 17 for 35 yards.

“I think any kid that’s put to his back every single play is going to have a time clock in his head,” Nagle said. “I think that had a big part in it.”

Hoenstine provided the bulk of the scoring to support the defense’s stellar effort.

He accounted for 57 of the team’s 65 yards on its opening scoring drive, capped by his 14-yard touchdown run. He scored again on 16-yard and 23-yard touchdown runs in the second quarter to send the Dragons into halftime with a 28-0 lead.

The Eagles couldn’t stop him.

“He’s a lot faster than I even expected on the field,” Nagle said. “A lot of times we were in position and he just outran us so I think that the game speed for the kids, they weren’t ready for a kid that athletic.”

Central quarterback Preston Karstetter complemented Hoenstine, completing 12 of 16 passes for 178 yards and two touchdowns.

The Dragons finished with 460 total yards.

“Defensively, we threw everything but the kitchen sink at ‘em,” Nagle said. “We tried to do anything possible to slow ‘em down.”

Offensively, they tried to adjust, replacing a wide receiver with a tight end to try to give Kresovich more time.

But Central overwhelmed the Eagles from start to finish.

“When you don’t make plays, kids kind of deflate,” Nagle said, “and they just kept on deflating.”

This story was originally published September 24, 2016 at 12:04 AM with the headline "Central pressures, pummels Bald Eagle Area."