Turnovers doom Bellefonte football in Mountain League matchup with Tyrone
Tyrone football coach John Franco summed up Friday night’s game perfectly.
“Turnovers can make or break a game.”
For Bellefonte, turnovers broke the Raiders in a 21-0 loss to the Golden Eagles in a Mountain League matchup at Rogers Stadium on Friday.
“We made quite a few mistakes tonight. We need to fix them,” Bellefonte coach Vaughn Donmoyer said. “We need to go back to the basics. We need to learn the base plays, and run them well. We win a game, we lose a game as a whole team. The whole team has to bounce back. If we can’t do the little things correctly, we can’t do the more complicated things.”
The game opened up well with the Raiders driving the ball down the field from their own 32. They reached Tyrone’s 9-yard line and were forced to attempt a field goal. The attempt was no good and was only one of two shots that Bellefonte had at scoring on Friday night.
After the failed field goal, the Golden Eagles used a 13-play drive that ate up nearly six minutes of play. The drive was capped off with quarterback Keegan Gwinn hitting Cortlynd Rhoads up the middle of the field for a 37-yard score and a 7-0 lead.
On Bellefonte’s ensuing possession, which started at its 35, quarterback Nicholas Way threw a pass that was intercepted by Dravyn Crowell. Crowell returned it to the Raiders’ 1.
Tyrone’s Brady Ronan, who finished the night with 137 yards rushing on 21 carries, took one play to score and give his team a 14-0 lead. The Golden Eagles scored two touchdowns in a matter of 14 seconds.
“We haven’t been getting them,” said Franco of the three turnovers his team got. “The other teams that played us, they didn’t have any turnovers. This was the first game that we got any. It was nice to see we were able to convert on them, because we just haven’t had the opportunities.”
Bellefonte’s other two turnovers were fumbles, which occurred on back-to-back possessions in the third quarter.
The first came after the Raiders’ defense turned Tyrone away from another scoring opportunity deep in their part of the field. Way was set to take a snap from the pistol formation on Bellefonte’s 25. The snap went high on him.
He knocked it down, but the Golden Eagles’ Joshua Patterson was there to recover. Tyrone took the ball and took just under one minute to score, when Ronan tallied his second score of the night. It was an eight-yard run up the middle for a 21-0 advantage with 5:33 left in the third quarter.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Raiders’ Tyler Rice returned the kickoff and was fighting for extra yards. He was stripped, and again the Golden Eagles recovered the ball.
Bellefonte’s defense like it had done all game long, stood tall and didn’t allow Tyrone to score. It was a drive that started on the Raiders’ 28.
Bellefonte was able to force a turnover of their own early in the fourth quarter, but was unable to cash it in. Ronan was fighting for extra yards, when he was stripped of the ball, which was recovered by Reese Redman.
“Defensively, I don’t think we did that bad of a job,” Donmoyer said. “I just think we got tired because we were out on the field quite a bit. The kids gave a good hard effort. They didn’t quit. They kept playing hard till the end. I’m extremely proud of them in that aspect.”
Tyrone 21, Bellefonte 0
Friday at Bellefonte
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Tyrone 14 0 7 0 -- 21
Bellefonte 0 0 0 0 -- 0
First Quarter
T--Cortlynd Rhoades 37 pass from Keegan Gwinn (Gwinn kick), 2:35
T--Brady Ronan 1 run (Gwinn kick), 2:21
Third Quarter
T--Ronan 8 run (Gwinn kick), 5:33
TEAM STATISTICS T B
First downs 12 11
Total yards 260 192
Rushes-yards 33-157 38-137
Yards passing 103 55
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 7-23-1 7-13-1
Punts-avg. 4-34 3-38.7
Fumbles-lost 1-1 3-2
Penalties-yards 5-62 4-52
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Tyrone, Ronan 21-137, Gwinn 6-7, Corrie Beck 4-10, Kolten Miller 2-3. Bellefonte, Nicholas Way 20-106, Triston Heckman 11-10, Sherman Lowry 4-17, Nolan Weaver 2-5, TEAM 1-(-1).
PASSING--Tyrone, Gwinn 7-23-103-1. Bellefonte, Way 7-13-55-1.
RECEIVING--Tyrone, Beck 2-31, Rhoades 2-46, Ronan 2-20, Miller 1-6. Bellefonte, Ty Cronin 2-14, Wesley Badger 1-9, Lowry 1-8, Trevor Johnson 1-14, Logan Williams 1-3, Weaver 1-7.
Records: Tyrone 1-2, Bellefonte 1-2
Next game: Bellefonte at Hollidaysburg, Friday, 7 p.m
