Bellefonte takes home 7th straight Curtin Bowl win with 17-7 victory over BEA
Friday night’s Curtin Bowl ended the same way it has for the last seven seasons — with Bellefonte celebrating a victory over rival Bald Eagle. The Red Raiders took down the Eagles, 17-7, at Rogers Stadium to move to 2-3 and knock Bald Eagle down to the same record.
Bellefonte was able to keep the Eagles off the scoreboard until the fourth quarter, and head coach Shanon Manning said his defense was able to counter punch nearly every time Bald Eagle was about to get on the board.
“They just kept battling,” Manning said. “I think when you play a team that’s gonna throw the ball 30-40 times a night, bad things are gonna happen. It’s gonna happen in spots. Some of these kids have played enough football that they know how it is. That’s the ebb and flow of the game. We have to play great defense between the 30s, then when it gets down inside the 30, that’s when the offense has to execute. We did a great job tonight. Our defense executed in the red zone.”
The game started off slow with neither team scoring in the first quarter and Bellefonte failing to get on the board with a field goal attempt midway through the second quarter.
The Red Raiders finally broke the seal on the game with a 36-yard field goal with 2:40 left in the first half. They weren’t done in the quarter after that field goal gave the team some momentum.
They executed a reverse before the ball was eventually pitched back to senior quarterback Ethan Rossman, who hit a streaking Jalen Emel down the field with under a minute left in the half. The result was 56-yard touchdown that gave the Red Raiders a 10-0 lead heading into the half.
The game stayed scoreless in the early part of the second half until backup quarterback Logan Houser hit Emel for an 11-yard touchdown and a 17-0 lead.
The Eagles fought back to get into Bellefonte territory several times, but the Red Raiders held nearly every time. The only Bald Eagle score came in the fourth quarter when junior quarterback Garrett Burns hit junior wide receiver Owen Irvin on a tunnel screen and the wideout took the ball 43 yards to the house.
Bald Eagle head coach Jesse Nagle credited the Red Raiders for playing well, but said his team didn’t do itself any favors in the loss.
“It’s a game of inches,” he said. “We lost the game. We had how many wide open guys that were underthrown or overthrown ... We’re young, we’re learning, but that’s not excuse anymore, it’s Week 5 ... We’re gonna get better. We’re gonna learn from it. Hopefully we get an opportunity at the playoffs.”
The win is a big one for Bellefonte. With its playoff life hanging in the balance, Manning said his team could’ve given up after falling to 0-3 to begin the season. But instead, they came ready to push forward and earn a victory in each of the last two weeks.
“It would’ve been really, really easy for this group with no fans, no nothing, to say, ‘You know what? It is what it is. I’m gonna live with this,’ and just move on,” Manning said. “They didn’t. They came to practice. ... Kids keep asking to get better. That’s where we’re at. We’re gonna go to Philipsburg next week to try to make it three in a row. And then if we can find a way into the playoffs, then we’ll be a handful for everybody.”
Bellefonte 17, Bald Eagle 7
(Friday at Bellefonte)
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bald Eagle Area 0 0 0 7 — 7
Bellefonte 0 10 7 0 — 17
Second Quarter
B — Persiko 36 kick, 2:40
B — Emel 56 pass from Rossman (Persiko kick), 0:34
Third Quarter
B — Emel 11 pass from Houser (Persiko kick), 2:01
Fourth Quarter
BEA — Irvin 43 pass from Burns (Stere kick), 9:05
Top Rusher: B: Emel 10-101 BEA: Rossman 10-66.
Top Passer: B: Rossman 6-15-1 118. BEA: Burns 14-35-1 213.
Top Receiver: B: Emel 3-75-2. BEA: Irvin 6-112-1
Next Game: Bellefonte at Philipsburg-Osceola, Friday. Bald Eagle vs. TBD.
This story was originally published October 17, 2020 at 1:22 AM.
