Bald Eagle Area and Penns Valley both came away with big victories last Friday, while State College battled back to tie Carlisle at home only to see the Herd strike in the final seconds to take the game, 21-14.
In the Curtin Bowl, Bellefonte was the victim in what was probably BEA’s best overall performance of the season, and Philipsburg-Osceola fell to long-time rival Tyrone.
This week, everyone will be back on the field, with BEA and Bellefonte taking on undefeated Jersey Shore and Clearfield and State College traveling to 7-1 Harrisburg. PV and P-O will meet in Philipsburg.
Here’s a brief look at eachmatchup:
JERSEY SHORE (8-0) AT BALD EAGLE AREA (7-1)
OCT. 22, WINGATE
Bald Eagle Area played about as well in every aspect of the game as it has all season in its 48-0 Curtin Bowl victory over Bellefonte last Friday night.
Carson Nagle threw for 177 yards and two touchdowns, and Garrett Burns ran for 178 yards and two scores as the Eagles took control of the game early and never let go.
And on defense, BEA held the Raiders to zero yards passing and just 7 net yards rushing.
Quite a night.
The victory was the seventh of the season for the Eagles against one loss and it sets up a very interesting non-league contest this Friday against undefeated Jersey Shore.
The Bulldogs are 8-0 so far this season and in their last five games have blowout wins over Lewisburg, Shikellamy, Shamokin, Milton and Danville. Their last close game was a 27-20 overtime win over Montoursville on Sept. 10.
Jersey Shore racks up an average of 425 yards of offense per game (275 on the ground), and it has scored 42 touchdowns.
Junior quarterback Brady Jordan has thrown for 1,186 yards and 11 touchdowns on 65 completions, and he’s run for 643 yards and scored an additional seven touchdowns.
Tailback Hayden Packer is the top runner on the team with 652 yards and 12 touchdowns, while senior Cayden Hess leads the receivers with 528 yards and seven touchdowns.
On defense, the Bulldogs are extremely aggressive and have 23 takeaways and recorded 20 sacks.
The last time the two teams met, in 2019, Jersey Shore prevailed 42-0, although this year’s version of the rivalry shapes up to be much more competitive.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
STATE COLLEGE (4-4) AT HARRISBURG (7-1)
OCT. 23, HARRISBURG
The State College Little Lions, down 14-0 going into the last quarter against Carlisle, scored two late touchdowns to tie the Thundering Herd, 14-14.
The first score was a 10 yard run by Brady Bendik that made it 14-7, and then quarterback Jack Morris hit TJ Yoder with a 21-yard touchdown pass that tied the game at 14-all with just over a minute to play.
Carlisle, however, was not content to play for overtime. Quarterback Matt Trollinger completed two long passes that would ultimately steal the game for the Herd.
The first was a 36-yarder that put the ball on the SC 40 with 30 seconds on the clock, and then Trollinger found Eli Hargrove open over the middle and Hargrove took it in for the winning touchdown with just 22 second left to play.
The loss evened the Lions’ record at 4-4 with another challenging Mid-Penn Colonial game coming up on Saturday afternoon against 7-1 Harrisburg.
The Cougars have wins over Pine-Richland, Hazleton, Manheim Township, Carlisle (34-14), Altoona, CD East (25-20) and Cumberland Valley. Their only loss came at the hands of powerful Governor Mifflin, 49-13, on September 17.
Harrisburg gains over 300 yards per game on offense with a balanced attack split almost evenly between the run and pass.
Quarterbacks Shawn Lee and Zakii Lewis have combined to throw for 1230 yards and 13 touchdowns, while running backs Kyle Williams (529 yards) and Mahkai Hopkins (460) have run for 11 touchdowns.
Williams is also the top receiver with 521 yards and seven touchdowns on 44 catches.
Defensively, the team is very aggressive. It has 77 tackles for loss, 31 sacks (led by junior defensive end Terrell Reynolds with 14), 14 interceptions and eight fumble recoveries.
Last season, Harrisburg prevailed over State College, 41-6, and went on to finish with a 4-1 record.
With State College still filling in for injured players, this will be another difficult assignment for the Lions, but they don’t give up and have shown the ability to come back from behind.
The pressure will be on the SC defense to contain the balanced attack of the Cougars and force the game to go into the fourth quarter.
Kickoff is at 1 p.m. on Saturday.
PENNS VALLEY (4-4) AT PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA (2-6)
OCT. 22, PHILIPSBURG
Penns Valley had little trouble last Friday with Everett in a 55-0 non-league win while Philipsburg-Osceola had a difficult night in a 38-7 loss to improving Tyrone.
The Mounties moved the ball against Tyrone — they had just under 200 yards of offense — but they were unable to get into the end zone until the final quarter.
Tyrone, on the other hand, scored three touchdowns in the first half and took a commanding 24-0 lead at the break.
Ben Gustkey threw a touchdown pass for P-O, and Matt Martin and Andrew Faust ran for a combined 115 yards, but the Golden Eagle defense was too tough to crack inside the 20.
Penns Valley has now won three of its last five games and has begun to score points — PV averaged 30 points per game in that stretch — so much of the pressure here will be on the P-O defenders.
If they can come through, the Mounties could keep this one close.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
BELLEFONTE (2-6) AT CLEARFIELD (8-0)
OCT. 22, CLEARFIELD
For Bellefonte, after being unable to move the ball in last week’s loss at BEA, the emphasis this week will likely be on gaining some yards and scoring some points.
Unfortunately, it may be even tougher this week against Clearfield than it was against the Bald Eagles.
Clearfield has separated itself from the rest of the teams in the Mountain League and is still undefeated at 8-0.
And with just Bellefonte remaining on its league schedule, the Bison will certainly be aiming at finishing the league season without a blemish.
The Raiders have had some successes against Clearfield in recent years, but with a young and rebuilding team, they will come into this game as heavy underdogs.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
This story appears in the Oct. 21-27 edition of the Centre County Gazette.
