It has been a long time since Centre County High School football teams recorded victories over Huntingdon, Central, Tyrone and Chambersburg all in one week, but that is what happened Sept. 21.
In the process, three teams remained unbeaten — Bald Eagle Area, Bellefonte and State College — and Penns Valley picked up its third win at home against Huntingdon.
The only team that was left out of the festivities was Philipsburg-Osceola when Bishop Carroll used a 90-yard kickoff return to spark a 31-13 win.
This week’s games should be no less compelling.
Central Dauphin East (2-3) at State College (5-0)
Sept. 28, Memorial Stadium, State College
The State College Little Lions began the game against Chambersburg on Sept. 21 with a 53-yard run by Tommy Friberg, a 9-yard TD pass from Friberg to Keaton Ellis and a 29-yard interception return by Nathan Lusk to take a 21-point lead before six minutes had passed in the first quarter.
Chambersburg came back with a touchdown and a safety, but another two touchdowns in the second quarter essentially put the game away for SC in a 35-16 victory.
Friberg finished with 10 completions in 12 attempts for 148 yards and a touchdown, while five runners put up another 210 yards on the ground in the win.
Ellis, a Penn State recruit, had three catches for 25 yards and two scores.
The win was the fifth of the season without a loss for SC and its second in the Mid-Penn Conference.
This week, another Mid-Penn rival, Central Dauphin East, will visit Memorial Stadium for the second of three consecutive home games for the Little Lions.
CD East is 2-3 so far this year with losses to Manheim Township (17-10), Archbishop Stepinac (32-14) and Harrisburg (42-0). The Panthers have a 42-0 win over Lower Dauphin and a heart-pounding 17-16 win over Altoona in overtime on Sept. 21 in Harrisburg.
In the Altoona game, East built a 10-point lead in the third quarter, but the Mountain Lions rallied and tied the game on 25-yard field goal with no time left on the clock.
Stephon Brown put East ahead 17-10 in overtime, and then another Brown — this time Shawn — turned out to be the hero. After Altoona scored on a touchdown run by Connor McCarthy, Shawn Brown rushed in from the edge and blocked the extra point, giving the game to East by a point.
The Panthers in all racked up 398 yards of offense, with 278 of that coming on the ground. Shawn Brown led that attack with 101 yards on nine carries. Quarterback Jeremiah Green completed five of eight passes for 95 yards and had an interception.
Seasonal records aside, East is just a game behind State College in the Mid-Penn standings with a 1-1 record, and this would be an important win for the Panthers if they could pull it off.
Game time is at 7 p.m.
Tyrone (4-1) at Bald Eagle Area (5-0)
Sept. 28, Wingate
Any people waiting for Bald Eagle Area to begin a midseason slump like in 2017 better not hold their breath.
If there was any doubt whatsoever about the Bald Eagles’ potent offense, it disappeared in a 54-28 victory at Central on Sept. 21.
Down by a point after a back-and-forth first half, BEA went on a 28-0 run and outscored the Dragons 35-7 in the second half to take its fifth win of the season and third win in the Mountain League.
The Eagles ran up just short of 500 yards of offense, had 22 first downs and scored almost at will after the break. Quarterback Jaden Jones threw five touchdown passes and ran for another two touchdowns for the night as he increased his touchdown-pass total for the season to 18. Through the air, Jones completed 17 of 26 passes for 235 yards and the five scores and he also ran for 84. Four other runners chipped in a total of 170 running yards, with Trey Foster adding the final points on a 34-yard run.
This week, 4-1 Tyrone will visit Wingate for another big Mountain League showdown.
The Golden Eagles started strong against league-leading Bellefonte on Sept. 21, but the Raiders outscored Tyrone by 24 points in the second half to take a 31-14 win.
Tyrone’s Zac Albright ran 20 times for 166 yards and scored a second-quarter touchdown on a 37-yard run, but he had little help against the Raider defense. Quarterback Denver Light was 12 for 29 for 84 yards and a touchdown, but other than those two, Bellefonte held the Tyrone offense quiet.
Bellefonte’s CJ Funk scored on a 61-yard run to open the third quarter and tie the game, and after that, the night belonged to the Raiders.
Tyrone is now 4-1, 2-1 in the conference, and will be looking to bounce back against the Eagles.
And for BEA, win No. 6 would eclipse last season’s total with almost half the season still to play.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Bellefonte (5-0) at Clearfield (4-1)
Sept. 28, Clearfield
Bellefonte and Clearfield have been Mountain League foes for a long time, but until the 2017 season, the scales were decidedly tipped in the Bison’s favor and double-digit Clearfield wins were the norm.
In 2017, however, the Red Raiders emphatically caught up.
Bellefonte ran up big scores twice against Clearfield last year. The first meeting, in October, ended in a 55-28 Raider win, and then in the District 6 playoffs, Bellefonte doubled down with a 62-21 victory and a spot in the PIAA tournament.
Now, the two teams are eyeing each other again before their meeting Friday, Sept. 28, at Clearfield, and the stakes are just as high.
Both teams are 5-0 coming in and both are 3-0 in Mountain League play.
The Bison have wins over DuBois, 28-3; Penns Valley, 56-42; Central, 42-14; Huntingdon, 42-21; and Central Mountain, 49-7, on Sept. 21 in Clearfield.
The victory over Central Mountain was in many ways typical of Clearfield this season. The Bison ran up 420 yards of offense — 250 on the ground — and built a 35-7 lead by halftime.
Quarterback Isaac Rumery was 10-of-13 passing for 170 yards and three touchdowns in the game — all in the decisive first half — while running back Caleb Freeland ran seven times for 112 yards and a 66-yard touchdown.
Defensively, the Bison allowed CM just 62 yards on the ground and 210 total for the night, with the only touchdown coming on a 40-yard pass on the first play of the second quarter.
Bellefonte has a win over Central Mountain as well, 44-7 on Sept. 14, and is coming off an important conference win over Tyrone, 31-14, on Sept. 21 at BEA.
Bellefonte broke open a very close game with 17 unanswered points in the fourth quarter. Quarterback Kyle Myers began the run with a 12-yard pass to Noah Badger for a 21-14 lead, and then ran one in himself from 3 yards out to make it 28-14 with 7:10 to play. Chris Persiko finished the scoring with a 20-yard field goal as time was running out.
CJ Funk led Bellefonte with 173 yards rushing on 17 attempts, and Myers added 84 yards in the air on seven completions.
Given the nature of the rivalry built between these two teams and their performances so far, this game shapes up as one of the closest and most significant so far this season.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Penns Valley (3-2) at Midd-West (2-2)
Sept. 28, Middleburg
Penns Valley rose over the .500 mark for the first time this season with a 35-18 victory over Huntingdon on Sept. 21 at home.
The Rams used an almost perfectly balanced attack and broke open a close game with 14 fourth-quarter points to claim the victory.
Aaron Tobias threw touchdown passes of 10 and 6 yards to sophomore receiver Mason Lieb and a 60-yarder to Cole Breon as the Ram scored 14 points in the fourth quarter to take the win.
Tobias finished 13-for-28 for 168 yards and two interceptions, while Ryan Ripka led the rushers with 115 yards on 19 carries. Ripka scored PV’s final touchdown on a 67-yard run with just over two minutes to play.
Midd-West is a AAAA school located in Middleburg. The Mustangs are 2-2 so far, with wins over Marian Catholic, 43-20, and Shenandoah Valley, 30-0; and losses to Blue Mountain, 35-0, and Jim Thorpe, 55-7.
On offense, Midd-West averages just under 170 yards per game, but the Mustangs throw for only 29 per outing. Trey Lauver is the leading runner on the team with 71 yards per game, and he’s followed by Kameron Kline who gets just over 37.
Senior quarterback Marc Piccioni completes 48 percent of his passes and has a touchdown with three interceptions.
This is a non-league game for PV that comes at just the right time as the team heads down the stretch towards the playoffs. The Mustangs play good defense — they have 15 sacks so far — so this is no time for a letdown, but PV is crushing it on offense.
Look for the Rams to gang up on the Midd-West running game and try to break this open early.
Kickoff time is 7 p.m.
Philipsburg-Osceola (0-5) at Central (1-4)
Sept. 28, Martinsburg
This is a meeting of two teams that have just one win between them, but, with Central at least, that number could be misleading.
The Dragons have just completed a bruising run of four games against Tyrone, Clearfield, Penns Valley and Bald Eagle Area, and they took losses in each one.
But after romping over Northern Bedford in Week 1, Central is not without talent and the Dragons run a proud program.
The second half of the season seems more manageable, and it starts at home Friday, Sept. 28, against an improving Philipsburg-Osceola.
The Mounties are 0-5, but in the last two outings have shown growth on both sides of the ball, losing to Tyrone, 32-14, in Week 4 and then Bishop Carroll, 31-13, on Sept. 21.
Against Carroll, P-O was again hurt by a big play — this one was a 91-yard kickoff return — but otherwise the Mounties played Carroll almost straight up.
Down by three at the half, Carroll went ahead on the second-half kickoff and managed to hold off P-O for the win.
Central fell victim to the speed of Bald Eagle Area. Lightning-fast quarterback Jaden Jones accounted for seven touchdowns against the Dragons — five passing and two on the ground — as BEA put up 54 points in its fifth win without a loss.
Central began the game playing well, and the Dragons were ahead at the half by a score of 21-20. But Jones and the rest of the Eagles got it going after halftime and coasted out, 54-28.
Central, nonetheless, had 270 total yards of offense, but four interceptions badly hurt its cause. Against P-O it will be about playing a complete game and avoiding the mistakes.
For the Mounties, this will be a real test of how much progress they’ve made so far this year.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
