Victory slips away from Bald Eagle Area football late against Clearfield
“When you are undefeated, the target is huge.”
Those were the words of Bald Eagle Area coach Jesse Nagle on Friday night as he saw his team suffer its first loss of the season, 13-7 to Clearfield.
“Our kids kept on getting punched in the mouth. We punched back, I thought. We just ended up not finishing,” Nagle said. “They made jump ball after jump ball. The kid didn’t do anything special. He just threw the ball up in the air, and they came down with it. It’s sometimes luck. I think Lady Luck went in their favor and not ours.”
Trailing 13-7 and coming off blocking a Bison’s extra-point attempt with just over one minute left in the game, the Eagles looked to go on a winning drive.
BEA started off at its 26 with quarterback Carson Nagle finding his receivers on well-timed corner routes, getting out of bounds to save time. He connected with Gavin Burns four times on the drive.
A big pass-interference call on Clearfield erased an interception, but set the Eagles up at the Bison’s 19. Nagle and Burns connected for a 9-yard completion to get to the 10.
On the next play, Nagle was caught trying to find an open receiver, he went to tuck the ball and take off running, but fumbled the ball. It was recovered by Clearfield, which ended the game.
“Honestly, we put ourselves in that situation. We came off of some coverages that we typically don’t. It is uncharacteristic of us,” Jesse Nagle said, “We either win or we learn. Tonight, we learned as a team. There is only one thing that we crossed off tonight, the undefeated season, which is not a big deal. It depends on how we react and grow from here.”
Both teams struggled to get anything going offensively in the first half. However, the Eagles got something going late in the second quarter.
BEA went on a 10-play drive of nothing but running plays. It started at the Bison’s 24 after a dismal 8-yard punt set it up.
Cameron Dubbs carried the ball 9 of the 10 times. He had a 2-yard run to cap off the drive that ate up nearly six minutes of play.
The Eagles’ 7-0 lead went on to be the halftime score, which was when things took a turn for the worse for BEA.
After Clearfield’s opening series resulted in a punt that was downed at the Eagles’ 3, the Bison’s defense held tough and forced a punt from the 1-yard line.
They went on a nine-play drive that started at midfield with only two plays being passes. Clearfield chewed up over four minutes of play in the third quarter.
Carter Freeland took a jet sweep 24 yards to the end zone to tie the game, 7-7, with 3 minutes, 39 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We definitely had to change our game plan (at half). We decided to go behind the line,” Bison coach Myles Caragein said. “We trusted them. They did a great job blocking. It showed, and we had a great second half.”
After only amassing 48 total yards in the first half — 13 rushing, Clearfield ended up finishing with 261 yards — 138 on the ground.
The Bison took over the lead with another long drive late in the fourth quarter. They chewed off another four minutes thanks to a 10-play drive that was capped off with quarterback Will Domico connecting with Brady Collins on a 5-yard pass, which appeared to be a broken play.
“They kept fighting. It was tough in the first half. We had some bad breaks go against us,” Caragein said. “A couple of miscues, but they kept fighting. They believed in themselves. They did a great job.”
Other Centre County scores
Philipsburg-Osceola 14, Bellefonte 13
Central 28, Penns Valley 14
State College 55, Carlisle 20
Clearfield 13, Bald Eagle Area 7
Friday at Wingate
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Clearfield 0 0 7 6 -- 13
Bald Eagle Area 0 7 0 0 -- 7
Second Quarter
BEA--Cameron Dubbs 2 run (Kaden Burns kick), 2:09
Third Quarter
C--Carter Freeland 24 run (Tucker Scott kick), 3:39
Fourth Quarter
C--Brady Collins 5 pass from Will Domico (kick blocked), 1:09
TEAM STATISTICS C BEA
First downs 13 11
Total yards 261 174
Rushes-yards 37-138 23-65
Yards passing 123 109
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 8-17-1 16-25-0
Punts-avg. 2-32.5 4-39.3
Fumbles-lost 1-0 1-1
Penalties-yards 4-35 4-26
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING--Clearfield, Carter Chamberlain 14-50, Collins 12-50, Freeland 2-23, Domico 8-12, Jacob Samsel 1-3. Bald Eagle Area, Dubbs 18-54, Carson Nagle 5-11.
PASSING--Clearfield, Domico 7-16-1-117. Bald Eagle Area, Nagle 16-25-0-109.
RECEIVING--Clearfield, Samsel 3-76, Cayden Bell 1-17, Isaac Putt 1-12, Collins 2-11, Freeland 1-6. Bald Eagle Area, Kahale Burns 4-50, Gavin Burns 4-31, Nicholas Wible 2-12, Cam Watkins 3-11, Dubbs 1-3, Wyatt Spackman 2-2.
INTERCEPTIONS--Bald Eagle Area, G. Burns 1.
Records: Clearfield 6-1; Bald Eagle Area 6-1
Next game: Bald Eagle Area at Johnstown, Saturday, 6 p.m.
This story was originally published October 7, 2023 at 12:11 AM.
