Young Bald Eagle Area football squad unable to close out Central Cambria in finale
Bald Eagle Area football coach Jesse Nagle knew this year was going to be tough after losing 22 seniors — three of which were all-state players — from a team that reached the PIAA state semifinals last year.
The Eagles’ youth showed on Friday night in their season finale, as they gave up two late scores in a 22-19 loss to Central Cambria.
“That was pretty tough. We had play after play that could have been made, and we just didn’t do it,” Nagle said. “The kids were in position, but they just weren’t making the plays. Any of the previous years, we were like, ‘Hey, they are going to make that play,’ and they made the play. We just got to get older and understand who wants to be the guy.”
According to Nagle, BEA has just three seniors who see regular playing time. The rest of the team is made up of sophomores and juniors who barely saw any playing time last year.
After Carter Stere kicked his second field of the game, BEA led 19-7 with 5:27 remaining in the game. From that point, it all went down hill for the Eagles, fast.
The Red Devils scored two touchdowns in a matter of 28 seconds to set up the final score.
After BEA was unable to capitalize on its second interception of the game deep in Central Cambria’s end of the field, the Red Devils started a drive from their 20 with 3:19 left in the game.
The first play of the drive saw running back Hobbs Dill throw a pass to Nolan Wyrwas for a 23-yard gain. Central Cambria kept driving and saw another big play from Dill, who was on the receiving end of a 36-yard pass from quarterback Ian Little. The 13-play drive ended with 55 seconds remaining in the game when Wyrwas threw a scoring pass to Ethan Gillin from 20 yards out.
The Eagles lead was 19-14 as the Red Devils lined up for an onside kick.
BEA had several players have an opportunity to fall on the ball during the onside kick, but it just didn’t come to fruition. Instead, Central Cambria ended up with the ball on the Eagles’ 21 with 53 seconds remaining.
“We dropped it three times. Honestly, we can’t catch it for them,” Nagle said with a chuckle. “I think three guys had it. I told them going in, just fall on the ball. I don’t want you to pick it up and run it. We fall on the ball, the game is over.”
The first play of the drive for the Red Devils saw Little connect with Gillin to get to BEA’s 8 yard line. Two incomplete passes and a pass interference call on Central Cambria, put the Red Devils back to the BEA 23 with them facing a third and goal with 37 seconds remaining.
The next play, Little hit Dill on a wheel route for the winning score with 27 seconds remaining. Little and Dill connected for the two-point conversion to make it 22-19.
“I was just telling them, we fell down, got back up and fought through adversity,” Red Devils’ coach and former Penn State quarterback Shane McGregor said. “That game was the 2020 football season, boiled down into one Friday night, all the way through. This senior class has been through some tough times the past couple of years. They kept working and fighting, and found a way to end it with an explanation point here at the end.”
The game started out well for BEA as it dominated most of the night.
On Central Cambria’s first possession of the game, the Red Devils went for a fake punt and fumbled the ball on the play. Senior linebacker Kyler Cunningham scooped the ball up for the Eagles and rumbled 30 yards to the house. It gave BEA a 6-0 lead just over three minutes into the game.
Another quick three and out forced by the Eagles defense saw the offense get to work again.
BEA went on a 10-play drive that lasted nearly seven minutes long. On the drive, the Eagles went for it on fourth down just over midfield and picked up a first down on a Garrett Burns pass to Hayden Vaughn.
Burns and Vaughn hooked up again to cap the drive off on a 40-yard score through the air to give BEA a 13-0 lead with 59 seconds remaining in the first quarter.
As dominant as the defense was all night, the offense just wasn’t able to compliment all night long. The Eagles gave up a total of 273 offensive yards, but only 23 yards were on the ground. In the first half, BEA only gave up 16 rushing yards.
“We didn’t capitalize offensively. We had multiple offensive plays that we missed passes and runs,” Nagle said. “I’m not trying to be mean, it shouldn’t have been a game at halftime. We just let teams hang around. We don’t know how to finish yet. When plays need to be made, we allow people to make plays rather than us make plays.”
Even in the loss, Nagle believes the offseason is going to pay big dividends for his young squad. Yes, he’ll have most of this year’s squad, which means they’ll have another year to grasp the offensive and defensive schemes.
His squad will hopefully get an offseason next year compared to this year where they didn’t because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nagle feels really good about his squad’s future.
“We had multiple teams that were undefeated (when we played them), and had them on the ropes every single week,” he said. “No offseason with a young team this year really hurt us. We definitely got to figure out the quarterback position. We pride ourselves, that we are going to out work everybody in the offseason. We didn’t have that opportunity this year. I’m not making excuses, it’s just reality. It doesn’t hurt that we got a really good freshman class coming in, so mix that with good work ethic, I think we’ll be OK.”
Central Cambria 22, Bald Eagle Area 19
Friday at Wingate
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Central Cambria 0 7 0 15 — 22
Bald Eagle Area 13 0 3 3 — 19
First Quarter
BEA—Kyler Cunningham 30 fumble recovery (kick blocked), 8:47
BEA—Hayden Vaughn 40 pass from Garrett Burns (Carter Stere kick), :59
Second Quarter
CC—Nate Wyrwas 65 pass from Ian Little (Adam McGlynn kick), 5:21
Third Quarter
BEA—Stere 25 FG, 1:45
Fourth Quarter
BEA—Stere 34 FG, 5:27
CC—Ethan Gillin 20 pass from Nolan Wyrwas (McGlynn kick),:55
CC—Hobbs Dill 23 pass from Little (Dill pass from Little),:27
TEAM STATISTICS CC BEA
First downs 10 11
Total yards 273 286
Rushes-yards 24-23 35-68
Yards passing 250 218
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 16-31-2 13-25-1
Punts-avg. 6-30.7 4-30.8
Fumbles-lost 3-1 2-0
Penalties-yards 7-82 6-61
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING—Central Cambria, Dill 12-34, No. Wyrwas 3-14, Levi Keiper 3-10, Little 2-(-12), Gillin 1-(-3), Na. Wyrwas 1-(-3), Team 2-(-17). Bald Eagle Area, Vaughn 12-52, Burns 9-6, Tyler Bumbarger 4-18, Max Yetsko 3-2, Gavin Eckley 3-1, Owen Irvin 1-1, Tre Greene 1-0, Team 2-(-12).
PASSING—Central Cambria, Little 14-28-207-2, No. Wyrwas 1-1-20-0, Dill 1-1-23-0. Bald Eagle Area, Burns 10-19-172-1, Yetsko 3-6-46-0.
RECEIVING--Central Cambria, Na. Wyrwas 7-121, Dill 3-63, No. Wyrwas 2-33, Gillin 4-33. Bald Eagle Area, Vaughn 5-146, Eckley 4-42, Irvin 3-25, Gabe Milward 1-5.
Records: Central Cambria 4-3, Bald Eagle Area 2-6
Next game: Season complete for BEA
