Bald Eagle Area football dominates Bellefonte for 48-0 Curtin Bowl shutout victory
Bald Eagle Area has the goal of a district championship in mind.
The team took another step toward that goal on Friday night with a 48-0 shutout of Bellefonte to take home the Curtin Bowl. It was the Eagles’ second consecutive shutout after defeating Philipsburg-Osceola 49-0 last week.
The key to their defensive prowess in this particular matchup was due to their ability to keep Bellefonte out of the opposing territory, a portion of the field they didn’t reach at all in the second half.
The Eagles’ scout team offense follows every offensive key that their opponent of the week follows. They grind game tape, they watch the nuances of their cadences and other quirks of their game that could catch Bald Eagle off guard. It’s a key portion of what head coach Jesse Nagle likes to do each week to prepare his defense for what he calls “the inevitable.”
“Defensively, the scout team does a decent job preparing us,” Nagle said. “I think that without them doing what they’re doing, who knows where we’d be defensively.”
On the offensive end of the ball, quarterback Carson Nagle slung the ball around with ease. The freshman had two more touchdown passes to add to his total on the season. He now has 14 touchdown passes on the year and eight interceptions, a season performance that has solidified the position and given a new hope to the program.
But he still looks to get better each week he touches the field.
“I definitely made some mistakes,” Carson Nagle said. “I left some drives on the field. I started off at first with a really, really good drive. The second drive, we left it on the field. I think if we clean up some mistakes, we’d probably have a little bit more yards and we’d air it out a bit more. Overall, I think it was a great game though.”
Then there’s Garrett Burns. He’s the cog to the offensive machine and has been a standout for his entire time at Bald Eagle. The senior running back and linebacker continued that dominance with two touchdown rushes of his own and came up big in the passing game as both a receiver and as a blocker.
Burns, who carries a calm, cool and collected demeanor off the field, is incredibly vocal on the field. He also lets the play do the talking for him and he wants to make sure that his team plays clean football.
“We have to fix some things up because Jersey Shore is coming here next week,” Burns said. “It’s going to be a tough one and I feel like if we clean some things up on offense, we’ll be pretty good.”
Carson Nagle opened up the game with a 32-yard touchdown pass to Elliot Splain to give Bald Eagle a 7-0 lead with 10:32 remaining in the first quarter. Burns followed up with a 43-yard touchdown rush at the 1:43 mark in the first. Bald Eagle scored their third touchdown with 2:21 left in the first half on Carson Nagle making an 8-yard pass to wide receiver Cam Watkins.
Burns opened up in the second half with a 20-yard rush for a touchdown with 9:31 remaining in the third quarter. Gavin Eckley later took a punt for 30 yards for another score with 7:22 left in the period to give Bald Eagle a 35-0 lead.
While they pulled the starters in the fourth quarter, the Eagles weren’t done scoring. They punched the ball in on a direct snap to offensive lineman Hunter McCool on the 2-yard line for a 42-0 lead with just 3:16 to go in the game. With just 24 seconds left in the game, Bald Eagle backup running back Nicholas Wilbe rushed for 14 yards for the final touchdown to give them a 48-0 lead to go along with the missed extra point.
This story was originally published October 15, 2021 at 11:40 PM.
