Turnovers key in Bellefonte football’s District 6 Class 4A semifinal win vs. Johnstown
Turnovers usually make or break a football team.
For Bellefonte on Friday night in the District 6 Class 4A semifinals, turnovers aided the Red Raiders in a 38-18 victory over Johnstown.
“We tried to exchange a lot of turnovers here at the end of this game, which got pretty ugly,” Bellefonte coach Tony Confer said. “I tell you what, the way we started the game was I think the key. We played a solid first half offensively and defensively. We gave up some things here in the second half and did some dumb stuff, but I’m proud of these guys. This is a huge one for this program.”
The Red Raiders (7-4) forced three fumbles, but also picked off Johnstown’s Julius Reed four times. The Raiders were friendly giving the ball away too, to the tune of three fumbles and an interception.
In the span of two minutes of game play midway through the fourth quarter, the teams traded turnovers on four straight possessions. Bellefonte threw an interception to start the exchange, and then three straight fumbles occurred — one by the Trojans (2-9) when they were on verge of scoring a touchdown.
As Confer mentioned, the start of the game was huge for the Red Raiders. They saw Jackson Long take a reverse from Aden Howell 85 yards down the Bellefonte sideline on the opening kickoff to grab an early lead.
“Jackson Long is fast, but I’ve never seen him move that fast, so that was crazy,” senior quarterback Liam Halterman said. “That might have been the biggest (play), because that got everyone hyped up.”
After the teams traded three straight punts, the Red Raiders went on a 10-play drive that chewed up nearly five minutes. It was capped off with Halterman rumbling in from 17 yards out for his first of three rushing scores. This one gave Bellefonte a 14-0 lead late in the first quarter.
“There’s moments throughout the course of the season where you scratch your head with some of the stuff with Liam. I tell you what, I will take him in a fox hole with me any day,” Confer said. “He just keeps going after you, and always trying to make a play. He’s always trying to do whatever he can to win the football game and push his teammates in that direction. He means a lot to us, especially our offense. But defensively, he does a lot of stuff, too.”
Halterman had one of those four interceptions for Bellefonte.
Johnstown found the end zone with 9 minutes, 51 seconds left in the first half when Reed went untouched on a 37-yard run. It looked to get even closer after a Red Raiders fumble, but Long’s interception halted a drive just past midfield.
Halterman and Co. went 55 yards the opposite direction to go up 20-6. Halterman connected with a wide-open Jaeden Gabrovsek, who ran a nice comeback route in the front corner of the end zone, on a 6-yard score.
On the Trojans’ ensuing possession, Logan Rarrick had a strip sack on Reed. The fumble was recovered by Ian Valimont at Johnstown’s 44.
“Turnovers have been killing us all year,“ Johnstown coach Antwaun Reed said. “That was the year: It sums it up. There were so many tight games we would’ve been in. We’ve got to take care of the little things.”
In response, Halterman and Gabrovsek connected on a 33-yard strike to open the drive, which got Bellefonte to the Trojan’s 11. Two plays later, Halterman rumbled in from 15 yards out to put the Red Raiders up three scores with 4:24 left in the half.
Johnstown took the opening possession of the second half, and went right down the field for a score. Reed had a nice 37-yard run on which he went untouched to the end zone to pull his team to within 26-12.
However, on the Red Raiders ensuing possession, they went back up three scores when Aden Howell went to the house on a 9-yard run.
The Trojans responded with Kaleem Taylor taking the pooched kickoff 62 yards for his team’s final score of the night.
Bellefonte was forced to punt after that score, but Halterman got his team the ball back with the third interception of the night on Reed.
Halterman drove his team back down the field, and capped the drive off with a 7-yard rushing score for the final points of the night.
The Red Raiders will now shift their focus to Juniata, which has beaten them in the past two District 6 Class 4A title games.
For Confer, he sees a big difference this year compared to the previous two years.
“I think our kids believe this year. Last year, we kind of limped into that playoff game. This year, we’ve got seven wins on the board, and these kids believe in themselves,” Confer said. “These kids believe in the coaches, and what we’re doing. I think that’s a big key.”
Halterman echoed his coach’s words: “Ever since day one, we talked about confidence, having confidence that we’re going to be a great team, and get to this point where we were last year, but we were going to be even better than last year. We’re at that point now, we have the confidence that we’re just going to keep moving forward and work toward this championship game.”
This story was originally published November 1, 2024 at 11:38 PM.
