Bald Eagle football blanks Purchase Line, Penns Valley smokes Bellwood-Antis
Sometimes a football game can come down to one play, other times it can come down to one quarter or one half.
On Friday night, it was one quarter that propelled Bald Eagle Area to victory over Purchase Line, 19-0, in the final game of the regular season.
“We got some open looks, and did some things. We executed how we usually execute the last four weeks,” said Eagles coach Jesse Nagle, who grew up going to Purchase Line as a kid. “Unfortunately, we just didn’t put in four quarters, it was just one this week. We didn’t execute, but you know what, it’s 19-0, it’s a W, plus one, all I care about. The kids fought. I’m proud of them. We’ll get ready for next week.”
The Eagles scored all of their points in a span of just under five minutes in that second quarter.
BEA needed just two plays to take advantage of an interception from Tre Greene. Cameron Dubbs had back-to-back carries for 31 yards. His second carry was for 20 yards and a touchdown to make it 7-0 with just over seven minutes left in the first half.
After a Red Dragons’ drive stalled at midfield, the Eagles used three big plays on a four-play drive to go up 13-0. Carson Nagle found a wide-open Wyatt Spackman for a 20-yard score. The final points of the night saw BEA’s Gavin Eckley take an interception back 55 yards for a score with just under three minutes left in the first half.
“They have a heck of a defense, a heck of a team,” Purchase Line coach Matt Falisec said of the Eagles. “Their coaching staff does a great job. They have great kids. We knew they had speed.”
Defensively, BEA held the Red Dragons to just a total of 86 yards. It gave up just 19 yards in the second half. In all, the Eagles forced eight punts.
With the win, BEA finished the regular season 7-3 to earn the No. 3 seed for the District 6 Class 2A playoffs. It appears as though the Eagles will host Bellwood-Antis, who suffered a 42-0 defeat to Penns Valley on Friday night. All the postseason matchups will be set on Sunday.
“It’s huge. We are getting accustomed to that around here,” Nagle said of having a home playoff game next week, “that’s a good thing to have. There are a lot of good teams in there. It’s time to get ready for the postseason and have some fun. We have to make sure we are ready to go for next week.”
Penns Valley dismantles Bellwood-Antis
BELLWOOD — Penns Valley walked into Bellwood-Antis and disassembled its opponent piece-by-piece on Friday night.
Bellwood-Antis entered the game 6-3 and had no answer for its 7-2 opponent. The Rams had two interceptions returned for a touchdown by Micah Good and Miles Brooks, along with a three-touchdown pass performance by quarterback Jackson Romig to win 42-0 over the Blue Devils.
Their team’s performance was everything that head coach Martin Tobias could’ve asked for and more.
“Our kids really rose to the occasion,” Tobias said. “Bellwood is an excellent football team. They are one of the best football programs overall in the state of Pennsylvania. I have a great deal of respect for them and their players. They do an outstanding job and we knew that our players were going to have to come out and execute because Bellwood wasn’t going to beat themselves.”
Penns Valley’s defense flew around like a heat-seeking missile on Friday night. It seemed that each time that Blue Devils quarterback Gaven Ridgway dropped back, the Rams made him run for his life. Brooks capitalized on Ridgway’s skittishness in the pocket by swooping to the ball and returning it for 30 yards and a touchdown in the third quarter.
It all began with the team’s preparation from Monday-Thursday ahead of the game.
“All I could think about is the work that we put in this week to get to that point,” Brooks said. “We worked hard, we practiced hard, we practiced physically and it paid off and it felt great.”
As for Romig, he saw his defense’s preparation from up close. He saw its dedication to stopping the run, a strategy that Penns Valley understood that Bellwood-Antis would attempt to nullify. Secondly, he had to get the ball into the hands of his playmakers. Not only did he do that, but he hit six different receivers over the course of the game.
“We’ve been working at it all week,” Romig said. “We trust any of them to make a play when we need it.”
The Rams opened up with a 1-yard touchdown rush by Ty Watson with 9:34 on the clock in the first quarter. After a Penns Valley fumble recovery, Romig hit Brooks on a 6-yard touchdown pass at the 8:01 mark in the first. Romig threw his second touchdown pass to Brooks on a 51-yard deep shot for a 21-0 lead with 4:38 left in the first. Good picked off Ridgway for a 45-yard interception return, resulting in a touchdown to lead 28-0 with 2:18 remaining in the first.
Penns Valley’s next score would come with another touchdown pass from Romig, this time to Hunter Lyons for a 36-yard gain and a 35-0 lead at the 1:17 mark in the second. The Rams capped off their scoring with Brooks’ third touchdown on a 30-yard interception with 10:03 left in the third quarter.
Centre County Scores
Brookville 41, Bellefonte 3
Philipsburg-Osceola 56, Ridgway-Johnsonburg 34
State College 36, Chambersburg 7
This story was originally published October 28, 2022 at 11:31 PM.
