Juniata’s second half surge too much for Bellefonte to overcome in District 6 Class 4A football title game
A team can have one good half, but if the other half of the game isn’t so good, it won’t matter.
That rang true for Bellefonte Saturday night in the District 6 Class 4A championship game against Juniata at Mansion Park.
The Raiders slugged back and forth with the Indians in the first half. In the second half, it was a different story as Bellefonte couldn’t contain a solid rushing attack, and fell 41-12 to the defending champs.
“I think the first half we did a very good job,” Raiders coach Vaughn Donmoyer said. “The second half did get away from us. We were misaligned. Juniata has a nice team. My hat is off to them, and wish them the best of luck next week.”
Bellefonte opened the game with the ball first, and slowly marched down the field. The Raiders got to Juniata’s 10-yard line, but it was 4th and 4. A false start penalty pushed Bellefonte back.
The next play saw quarterback Trevor Johnson drop back to pass, but he was sacked for a 16-yard loss. The Raiders turned the ball over on downs.
Juniata took its possession and, like Bellefonte, got to the 10. However, a holding penalty and an unsportsmanlike penalty brought the Indians back to their own 29. Juniata was forced to punt, and it flipped the field tremendously.
Indians’ punter Trent Martin booted the ball that got downed at the Raiders’ 3, which is where they started their next drive. It didn’t go well for Bellefonte.
Running back Nolan Weaver was stopped for a 2-yard loss as the first quarter came to an end. The first play of second quarter saw the Raiders’ Nicholas Way tackled in the end zone for a safety, and Juniata led 2-0.
“I told these guys, ‘We got to get a defense score, a special teams score or something special,’” Indians coach Kurt Condo said. “It’s how the game opened up for us.”
Juniata took the ensuing possession that started at Bellefonte’s 45, and scored on a Zachary Harr 19-yard run. The Raiders jumped on the attempted extra point, that move Juniata to the one-yard line. The Indians’ Jacob Condo snuck in for the two-point conversion, and it was 10-0 with 10:17 left in the half.
Bellefonte was forced to punt on its next possession. It got a great punt from Johnson that was downed at Juniata’s 8.
The Indians fumbled the ball on their possession that got recovered by the Raiders at Juniata’s 8. However, Johnson threw an interception on the first play of the drive.
The teams traded possessions after the interception, as Juniata got the ball with 1:30 left in the half at its 9. The Indians drove into the red zone, but the drive stalled. Juniata still got points on the drive though as kicker Ben Wagner nailed a 30-yard field goal as time expired to make it 13-0 at the half.
The second half didn’t go so well for Bellefonte.
Juniata took the opening possession and scored just under three minutes into the half on a Waylon Ehrenzeller three-yard run. It was then 20-0 with nine minutes left in the third quarter.
The Indians’ next possession was a seven-minute drive that was capped off with Harr, who finished the night with 11 carries for 175 yards and three scores, scoring on a 16-yard run. It was 27-0 with 32 seconds remaining in the third quarter, and the rout was on.
After a three-and-out from Bellefonte on the next possession, Harr took the ball to the house on a 58-yard run on the first play in the fourth quarter, which was the lone play of the Juniata drive.
“Second half, he had some nice runs. [We had some] missed tackles and missed assignments,” Donmoyer said. “When you have a nice back like 26 (Harr), you can’t give him that opportunity. If you hit him, you got to take him to the ground. You can’t leave gaps open. If you aren’t filling [gaps] correctly, he’s going to see that and take off like he did.”
A muffed kickoff from the Raiders gave the Indians the ball right back after Harr’s score. They drove it down the field with Ehrenzeller earning his second score of the night, this time from 14 yards out, and it was 41-0 with 10:31 remaining in the game. The score forced a running clock.
Bellefonte didn’t give up though being down so many. The Raiders put together two scoring drives late as something to build on going into the offseason.
Johnson marched the team down the field on a six-play drive that saw him connect with Ty Cronin on a 21-yard score with 6:54 left in the game. With 4:24 left in the game, the Raiders had another possession that moved the ball through the air the entire drive.
Johnson hit Dominic Capperella for an 11-yard pass. Johnson followed that up with a 32-yard bomb to Tyler Rice. Johnson and Capperella connected again on the third play for 15 yards. On the fourth play of the drive, Capperella broke free on a slant, Johnson hit him stride for a 26-yard score. The score was 41-12 with 2:41 left in the game.
“I’m very proud of this group. I know it didn’t turn out the way they wanted it to or us on the coaching staff,” Donmoyer said. “They were a hard-fought group, and a close-knit family. They just kept plugging away, which is the story of this season. They never quit.”
Juniata 41, Bellefonte 12
District 6 Class 4A Championship
Saturday at Altoona
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bellefonte 0 0 0 12 -- 12
Juniata 0 13 14 14 -- 41
Second Quarter
J--Safety, 11:57
J--Zachary Harr 19 run (Jacob Condo run), 10:17
J--Ben Wagner 30 FG, :00
Third Quarter
J--Waylon Ehrenzeller 3 run (Wagner kick), 9:00
J--Harr 16 run (Wagner kick),:32
Fourth Quarter
J--Harr 58 run (Wagner kick), 11:32
J--Ehrenzeller 14 run (Wagner kick), 10:31
B--Ty Cronin 21 pass from Trevor Johnson (run failed), 6:54
B--Dominic Capperella 26 pass from Johnson (pass failed), 2:41
TEAM STATISTICS B J
First downs 11 14
Total yards 199 434
Rushes-yards 11-(-40) 44-369
Yards passing 239 65
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 15-27-1 6-12-0
Punts-avg. 4-40.8 3-42.3
Fumbles-lost 2-0 2-1
Penalties-yards 5-29 8-65
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Bellefonte, Nolan Weaver 4-2, Johnson 7-(-41), Nicholas Way 3-(-1). Juniata, Harr 11-175, Seth Laub 14-66, Ehrenzeller 9-86, Caleb Smith 5-42, Heath Hutchinson 2-(-5), Isaiah Staggers 1-1, Wyatt Ehrenzeller 2-4.
PASSING--Bellefonte, Johnson 15-27-239-2 TDs. Juniata, Condo 6-12-65-0.
RECEIVING--Bellefonte, Capperella 7-115, Tyler Rice 3-64, Cronin 2-36, Way 2-23, Sherman Lowry 1-11. Juniata, Laub 2-14, Josh Bomberger 1-7, Makih Hunt 2-10, Harr 1-34.
Records: Bellefonte 2-8, Juniata 9-2
Next game: Bellefonte season complete
This story was originally published November 6, 2021 at 11:53 PM.
