CENTRE COUNTY — Week 5 of the high school football season saw Philipsburg-Osceola and Penns Valley coming away with close wins over local rivals, while State College stayed unbeaten with a 44-0 win over Cedar Cliff.
This week will feature The Curtin Bowl in Wingate, Penns Valley going after its second win, P-O in a tough one at Bellwood-Antis, and State College going after win No. 6.
Here’s a closer look:
GAME OF THE WEEK
Bellefonte (2-3) at Bald Eagle (3-2)
Curtin Bowl Game
The 2026 edition of the Curtin Bowl Game will take place on Friday night in Wingate when the 2-3 Bellefonte Raiders visit the 3-2 Bald Eagle Area Eagles in a special LHAC contest.
Both Bellefonte and BEA are coming off close losses in Week 5.
The Raiders’ frantic comeback at Penns Valley fell just short in a 26-19 loss to the Rams, while BEA failed to convert on a final-minute fourth-and-goal and lost to the 4-1 P-O Mounties, 22-14.
The Curtin Bowl Game dates back as far as 1956 with this being the 70th game in the series. Bellefonte holds the all-time lead, but the Eagles have won four of the last five, including a 19-14 victory last year in Bellefonte. The Raiders would like nothing more than to take the trophy back to Bellefonte.
Statistically, these two teams will come into the game very evenly matched. Bellefonte runs for 162 yards per game vs. BEA with 188, while the Raiders pass for 115 and BEA for 100. BEA outgains the Raiders slightly, 289 to 278 yards per game.
Bald Eagle averages 24 points per game and Bellefonte comes in at 17 ppg.
Bald Eagle is led by running back Sam Clark, Senior wide receiver Luke Hosband, and quarterback Chase Cane on offense, and LB Drew Nagle and DE James Cowan on defense.
Cane has thrown for 431 yards and three touchdowns and run for 356 yards and 3 more touchdowns.
Husband has 15 catches for 243 yards and 2 touchdowns, and Clark leads the team in rushing with 410 yards and 4 touchdowns.
For Bellefonte, sophomore quarterback Alten Howell had 501 passing yards and 6 touchdowns along with 264 rushing yards and 3 touchdowns. Sophomore Bentlee Hall so far ran for 228 yards and a touchdown.
The top receivers are Parker Jodon (354 yards, 4 TDs) and senior Ashton Howell (11 rec., 135 yds). Jodon (114 ypg) and Ashton Howell (84 ypg) lead in all-purpose yards.
This has always been a throw-out-the-record-book game and this year’s edition seems especially important for both teams at this juncture of the season.
With a win, BEA would move to 4-2 and greatly improve its D6, AA playoff chances with three winnable games coming up on the schedule. The Eagles are presently ranked No. 5 in the AA bracket.
And Bellefonte, with a win, would keep its No. 1 ranking in the District 6, AAA bracket.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Wingate.
State College (5-0) at Cumberland Valley (2-3)
The State College Little Lions are off to an impressive start to the 2026 season, and they have their sights set on improving to 6-0 on Friday night at Mid-Penn foe Cumberland Valley.
In the last four games, SC has outscored its opponents by a combined score of 151-20, and the Lions shut out three of those teams — Chambersburg 38-0, CD East, 42-0 and Cedar Cliff, 44-0. Sandwiched in there is a tough, 27-20 victory over perennial powerhouse Bishop McDevitt.
The Lions are doing it on both sides of the ball and are led by quarterback Connor Kulka, running back Rowan Walker, wide receiver AJ Fry and senior OL/NG Anthony Sheffey.
Cumberland Valley will come into the game with a 2-3 record that includes wins against Carlisle, 35-6 and Chambersburg, 21-0. The losses came against Manheim Township 20-14, Harrisburg, 28-7, and McDevitt, 20-0.
Against McDevitt on Friday night in Harrisburg, CV held tough through the first half and trailed by only 6-0 at halftime.
McDevitt’s defense held on, however, and the Crusaders scored touchdowns in the third and fourth quarters to complete the 20-0 win.
The key players for Cumberland Valley are quarterback Colton Stamy, 110 passing yards per game, Rocco Bushman, 102 running yards per game, and Torin Lang, the top receiver with 54 yards per game.
The team averages 16 points and 192 yards per game, including 103 yards on the ground
State College has won four of the last five meetings between the two teams, including a 24-14 win in 2025. In that game, Stamy completed 20-of-26 passes for 250 yards and a touchdown.
Kulka, however, threw for two touchdowns, and Walker ran for 161 yards and a touchdown on 26 carries. SC scored two second-half touchdowns to take the win.
CV last won over State College in 2023 with a 17-10 win in Mechanicsburg.
State College is on a roll, but road games in the Mid-Penn are never easy. CV will be highly motivated in this one, and it will be important for the Little Lions to get off to a good start.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Philipsburg-Osceola (4-1) at Bellwood-Antis (4-1)
The Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties will take their hard-earned 4-1 record into Bellwood-Antis on Friday night in another important LHAC matchup.
The Blue Devils are 4-1 as well with some impressive wins.
On Friday night, they opened up a 37-0 lead over neighbor Tyrone and rode that to a 37-14 victory, their fourth in five games.
The week before, at Central, the Devils’ late rally fell short in a 28-26 loss, but that came after wins over Clearfield, 26-14, Bishop McCort, 33-6, and Huntingdon, 30-6, to start the season.
By far, the biggest offensive threat for the Devils has been running back Alex McCartney.
McCartney so far this season has run 90 times for 602 yards, an average of 120 yards per game. He has scored 9 touchdowns and averages over 6.5 yards per carry.
Quarterback Brendan McNelis has completed 24 passes for 357 yards and 3 touchdowns, mostly to top receivers Bradyn Partner and Ethan Shawley.
Against Tyrone, McCartney rushed for 73 yards and 2 touchdowns, increasing his touchdown streak to 8 games.
His best performance this year came against McCort where he ran for 182 yards and two touchdowns. He averaged 8 yards per carry that night.
P-O will counter with junior running back Damarcus Law, a speedster who has run for 620 yards so far this season with 7 touchdowns. He also has a punt return for a score and a 90-yard kickoff return.
Archer Baughman handles quarterback for P-O, and he has 266 yards passing so far and 2 touchdowns. His top receiver is Connor Guenot with 150 receiving yards on 8 catches.
Bellwood won three of the last four games between these two teams, but P-O came up with a dramatic 31-28 victory last year in Philipsburg.
P-O could improve its top 5, D6 playoff ranking with a win, but it will have to come against a very physical and motivated Bellwood team.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m.
Clearfield (1-4) at Penns Valley (1-4)
Penns Valley will host LHAC opponent Clearfield (1-4) on Friday night looking for its second win in a row.
The Rams came away with an exciting 26-19 road win over Bellefonte on Friday night for their first win of the season, and they will be looking to carry that momentum into this game against the Bison.
Clearfield so far has a 7-2 win over Bedford in Week 2, but otherwise the Bison have no other win.
They’ve fallen to Bellwood-Antis, P-O, Bellefonte and Huntingdon.
Against Huntingdon, the Bison got 102 yards passing from freshman dual-threat quarterback Dylan Foust and a touchdown as well as 92 rushing yards and another touchdown.
Top receiver Elijah Glunt caught 4 passes for 50 yards and a touchdown.
Penns Valley will counter with it own dual-threat quarterback in sophomore Cael Smith.
Smith has 519 passing yards and 6 touchdowns along with 328 running yards (82 per game) with another 3 touchdowns.
Senior Spencer Althouse is the go-to player for PV with 162 receiving yards and 2 touchdowns. Althouse scored all four touchdowns in the Rams’ win over Bellefonte last week.
Clearfield has had a definite advantage in head-to-head meetings with PV. The Bison have won the last five games, every one by double-figures, and including a 47-7 win last year in Clearfield.
But Penns Valley has shown it can move the ball and score, and teams have shown they can put up points against the Bison.
This one looks like it will go deep into the fourth quarter.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Spring Mills.
