3 takeaways from a strange Week 2 of Centre County high school football
Friday’s slate of three Centre County games was cut to two after Penns Valley’s matchup against Philipsburg-Osceola was postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test result on Clearfield’s football team — the Rams’ last opponent.
Instead, only Bald Eagle Area and Bellefonte took the field, with mixed results. The Eagles were able to get in the win column against Huntingdon, while Bellefonte fell to 0-2 with a loss to the Central Scarlet Dragons.
Let’s take a look at the key takeaways from those games and what’s to come because of the positive COVID-19 result.
1. Bald Eagle Area rights the ship
The Eagles dominated Huntingdon on their way to a 46-8 victory after an early interception return for a touchdown put them down 6-0. Bald Eagle was led by junior quarterback Garrett Burns, who had a bounce-back game after struggling against Central last week. Burns completed 13-of-28 passes for 246 yards and two touchdowns while running eight times for 81 yards and three rushing touchdowns.
Bald Eagle head coach Jesse Nagle said he thought Burns did really well.
“There were some times he held onto the ball a little bit too much, but he also had four dropped touchdown passes,” Nagle said. “So I thought he did pretty well. He’s growing as a quarterback, and we feel he’s definitely going to get better.”
Burns is the signal caller of a young team that is coming off a run to the state semifinals last season, and trying to carry that momentum through to this season. Nagle said the hope isn’t to rebuild after last year’s team, but to reload.
“It was a huge win for our program just simply because I think some people forgot about us,” he said. “We’re still here. Everyone says, ‘oh you graduated this, you graduated that,’ we’re hoping to, instead of just graduating, to reload every year. So we’re really excited. We know we have a lot of good players and athletes on the field, so hopefully they continue to grow.”
2. Bellefonte doesn’t get back on track
The Red Raiders struggled with turnovers in their 26-14 loss to Central and those mistakes made it difficult to keep themselves in the game. Bellefonte head coach Shanon Manning said those mistakes cost his team any chance of winning the game.
“As far as the turnover battle, I think we were minus-five,” he said. “It’s tough to beat any team when you’re down four or five turnovers, let alone a team the caliber of Central.”
Their inability to hang onto the ball kept them from keeping pace, but Central quarterback Jeff Hoenstine kept the pace they couldn’t reach. The sophomore quarterback kept the chains moving with adept passing and playmaking in the backfield that kept plays alive when it appeared Bellefonte would have a sack.
While that was surely disheartening for the Bellefonte players, Hoenstine is a special player — as a sophomore — and the Red Raider defense won’t run into players like him very often.
3. COVID-19 result throws schedule out of whack
The ripple effect from a Clearfield player testing positive for COVID-19 could impact the Mountain League for several weeks. The immediate impact is the concern for the health and safety of the player and those who came in contact with him, including the Penns Valley players subject to quarantine.
Those players will now be relegated to staying quarantined until Sept. 25. That meant the postponement of Friday’s game against Philipsburg-Osceola and the postponement of next Friday’s game against Bald Eagle, leaving the Eagles without an opponent. Clearfield’s own quarantine forced the postponement of next week’s game against Bellefonte leaving Philipsburg-Osceola as the only team in action.
The potential exists for the Curtin Bowl to move up to next Friday since both Bellefonte and BEA will be without opponents, but it’s just one of many options for the Eagles and Red Raiders as they try to fill the open slot.
The schedule issues may not end there. While the Rams will be out of quarantine Sept. 25, it’s no guarantee they can be ready by their Oct. 2 game against Bellefonte, which could further complicate the schedule.
Scheduling issues will likely be a part of Centre County high school football for the remainder of the season given the intricacy of replacing, at a minimum, four games in an already-shortened schedule.
