Bellefonte football’s ‘best performance’ in years powers team to surprising win over Tyrone

Dylan Deitrich took a few seconds to think about Bellefonte’s best performances in the past few seasons and how they compared to Friday night’s blowout win.

But Red Raiders wide receiver Cade Fortney didn’t need to consider previous games to call the team’s 49-14 win over Tyrone its best collective effort in recent years.

“Throughout our years playing football, we’ve had some really good drives throughout games that I won’t ever forget,” Fortney said. “But I think tonight throughout the whole game, this was our best performance.”

Bellefonte (4-1) scored on its first four drives to race out to a 28-0 lead and never looked back in a dominant performance. The Red Raiders executed to near-perfection on offense and bottled up Tyrone on defense to run away with the victory one week after battling for a win over Central Mountain in four overtimes. Though Tyrone went into Friday night with a 1-3 record, the Red Raiders didn’t expect to coast against the Golden Eagles, who have been a perennial power in the past.

“That ‘T’ means a tremendous amount on that helmet,” Bellefonte coach Shanon Manning said. “There’s a lot of history behind it, so it was great to get that win. I don’t know what to say at this point. I did not expect this. This is not how I expected it to go.

“I expected us to be in the football game and have every opportunity to win it. I didn’t expect us to come out and just absolutely explode that way.”

Deitrich and Fortney starred in the win and sparked the fast start. After Fortney fumbled on second down of the first drive, the wide receiver paved the way for a 24-yard Deitrich run with a big block to keep the offense on the field. Fortney capped that drive with a seven-yard touchdown catch to push the Red Raiders ahead 7-0 with 7:45 left in the first quarter.

Bellefonte’s offense returned to the field and marched down the field for its second touchdown — a 16-yard run by Deitrich.

With the early momentum, an assistant coach reminded the Red Raiders to maintain their intensity. They couldn’t be satisfied with the early lead. And the Bellefonte players took the message to heart as the Red Raiders scored on their next play.

Fortney took a jet sweep 80 yards for the touchdown, sprinting down the right sideline and cutting back across the field toward the left corner of the end zone to finish the run. That pushed Bellefonte’s lead to 21-0 with 1:58 left in the first quarter.

“As soon as he cut it back, I knew there was no chance anyone was catching him, not with his speed,” Deitrich said. “Nobody was going to catch him.”

Tyrone couldn’t catch the Red Raiders, either.

They maintained their focus and took a 28-0 lead early in the second quarter on a one-yard touchdown run by running back Dexter Gallishaw, who played with a cast on his right arm.

Deitrich, Fortney and Gallishaw powered the rushing attack as the Red Raiders finished with 328 yards as a team.

Deitrich finished with 126 yards and two touchdowns on 14 carries, Fortney added 94 yards on five carries and Gallishaw had 64 yards on 12 carries.

They had little trouble moving the ball or slowing down the Golden Eagles, who managed 22 yards rushing on 22 carries.

It was a brilliant effort on both sides of the ball for the Red Raiders.

“We expected to win, but what we did tonight we took it to a whole new level,” said Deitrich, who completed 10 of 14 passes for 144 yards. “I think we played really, really well tonight.”

This story was originally published September 23, 2017 at 2:34 AM with the headline "Bellefonte football’s ‘best performance’ in years powers team to surprising win over Tyrone."