Bald Eagle Area football bounces back with a blowout win over North Penn-Mansfield
Against the backdrop of a shutout loss last weekend against Clearfield, Bald Eagle Area took its frustrations out against North Penn-Mansfield on Friday with a 50-7 victory.
Head coach Jesse Nagle was more than pleased with how his team responded after the loss.
“Last week we were close on a lot of opportunities against a good football team,” Nagle said. “We felt we let the game slip away, so we wanted to come out and make a statement that we’re definitely a good football team. I think that the kids did that right off the get go.”
Bald Eagle freshman starting quarterback Carson Nagle had the game of his young career, opening the game with a screen pass to Cam Watkins for a 69-yard touchdown, just a few minutes into the game. He later linked with Watkins once again on a 19-yard back-shoulder fade route for a touchdown in the second quarter.
“It feels good to throw two touchdowns in front of a home crowd and to do it was pretty special,” Carson Nagle said. “[Cam and I] worked together all summer and we developed a bond and we just made it happen.”
Watkins was open early and often throughout the night and made it a point to find the end zone. It was just all part of the plan to put pressure on the North Penn-Mansfield secondary and to keep them guessing with which routes he’d run.
“It’s usually a safety on the opposite side and then when the quarterback trusts in me, I go around them,” Watkins said. “Our line just does a great job of blocking and we attack.”
Bald Eagle stuffed North Penn-Mansfield on three consecutive plays to open up the game before Nagle took over. The freshman needed less than two minutes to link up with Kahale Burns for a six-yard reception, followed by Garrett Burns rushing for 10 yards and then the 69-yard screen for a touchdown by Watkins to give Bald Eagle a 7-0 lead in the first quarter.
With 9:23 left in the second, Nagle found his favorite target in Watkins for a 19-yard back-shoulder touchdown pass to his right to give the Eagles a 14-0 lead. Bald Eagle continued to apply pressure with a blocked punt by Max Yetsko, who returned the ball to the 1-yard line. Michael Snyder punched the ball in on the next play for a touchdown (7:38) for Bald Eagle to give them a 20-0 lead following the missed extra point.
After pinning North Penn-Mansfield on their own 1-yard line, Bald Eagle stuffed running back Cameron Fabian for a safety and a 22-0 advantage with 5:46 left in the first half. Garrett Burns scored his first touchdown on 9-yard rush to give Bald Eagle a 29-0 lead with 3:39 remaining in the half. Gavin Eckley finished off Bald Eagle’s masterful first half with a 46-yard punt return for a touchdown to give them a 36-0 lead.
Bald Eagle wasn’t done yet.
Owen Irvin returned the opening kickoff of the second half for 80 yards and a touchdown to push the Eagles’ lead to 43-0. Garrett Burns scored his second touchdown on a 36-yard rush with 8:00 minutes left in the third quarter for a 50-0 Bald Eagle lead.
The 6-foot-1 senior has shown leadership throughout the week in practice. Instead of his typical No. 3, Garrett Burns wore 31 — a number that exemplifies hard work and an excellence for Jesse Nagle’s teams. The senior’s hard work paid off with a two-touchdown performance.
“[My first touchdown] got the place really electric and we just kept our foot on the pedal,” Garrett Burns said. “We just kept putting it to them.”
North Penn-Mansfield’s lone score came on a Kohen Lehman 55-yard rush to make the score 50-7 with 5:47 in the game.
“We had 24 kids and truly — in the first half — it was 7-0,” North Penn-Mansfield head coach Tom Dickinson said. “They had a lot of good skill kids and if you take away special teams, it could be a different ball game. They’re still a better football team than us — no doubt about it — but we’re so young and we’ve got to learn from it. We have five seniors and one of them is a kicker. We’ve just got to learn from our mistakes. I told them they have to trust us, trust our system and keep getting better.”
This story was originally published September 10, 2021 at 11:39 PM.
