CENTRE COUNTY — The Laurel Highlands Conference announced its schedule for week 10 where East and West teams are matched up to play against teams of similar records.
The schedule for our local teams has Bellefonte at Richland, Bald Eagle Area at Somerset, Philipsburg at Johnstown and Penns Valley at Westmont-Hilltop.
In the Mid Penn, State College still has a big conference showdown against Bishop McDevitt coming up on Friday, Oct. 25, at Memorial Field.
Here’s a closer look at each team:
STATE COLLEGE 60, CARLISLE 0; NEXT UP, 8-1 BISHOP MCDEVITT
State College quarterback Eddie Corkery threw three touchdown passes in the first quarter, and four overall, as the Little Lions sprinted away from Carlisle in a 60-0 Mid Penn Commonwealth victory on Friday, Oct. 18, at home.
Corkery first connected with Ty Salazer for touchdown passes of 29 and 18 yards and then a third one to Cooper Brushwood that made the score 21-0 with just nine minutes gone on the clock.
On Carlisle’s possession after Brushwood’s score, State College blocked a Carlisle punt, and on the next play Lamar Wilson took it in from two yards out for a 28-0 SC lead.
Things did not slow down for the Lions in the second quarter. Corkery threw his fourth touchdown pass to Daimear Coad, Quincy Smith and Salazer each scored a defensive touchdown and second quarterback Kellen Williams threw a touchdown pass to Darryl Lunon.
When the teams headed into the locker rooms, the score was 54-0, and the Lions were on their way to win No. 8 with just the close loss to Harrisburg in the loss column.
The second half was played under the mercy rule and moved fast with State College scoring only a late touchdown on a pass from Keen Furnamek to Evan Grubbs.
This week, State College takes on McDevitt with Mid Penn honors at stake.
McDevitt is 8-1 with its only loss coming on Saturday, Aug. 31, to Harrisburg in overtime, 35-33.
Other than that, the Crusaders are spotless with impressive wins over teams like CD East, 41-21, Cumberland Valley, 30-8, Central Dauphin, 28-10, and Chambersburg, 40-3.
Senior quarterback Stone Saunders has thrown for 1,760 yards and 25 touchdowns with running backs Nazir Jones-Davis and Maurice Barnes adding a combined 1,050 yards and 12 touchdowns. Darius Diaz-Ellis is the top receiver with 35 receptions for 673 yards and seven touchdowns.
McDevitt overall averages 368 yards and 35 points per game.
With three teams tied for first place in the Mid Penn Commonwealth — Harrisburg, SC and McDevitt — the winner will at least tie for the conference championship.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. Friday at Memorial Field.
BELLEFONTE (6-3) AT RICHLAND (7-2)
The Bellefonte Raiders pulled away from Huntingdon on Friday, Oct. 18, and improved their record to 6-3 with the 49-26 win over the Bearcats.
The game started back and forth with the Raiders taking an early 7-6 lead, but Bellefonte got rolling with two more first-quarter scores and then four more in the second quarter for a comfortable 49-12 halftime lead.
The Bellefonte running game was in top form all night, finishing with 327 total yards and six touchdowns.
Aden Howell ran four times for 115 yards and a 79 yard touchdown, quarterback Liam Halterman ran four times for 78 yards and two touchdowns, and Jackson Long carried twice for 70 yards and a touchdown. Isaac Gall and Noah Weaver also scored running touchdowns, while Halterman completed six of eight passes for 172 yards and a touchdown pass to Jaedan Gabrovsek.
The win put Bellefonte at 6-3 for the season and ranked No. 2 in the District 6, 4A bracket just behind Juniata.
Richland will bring a 7-2 record and a long history of success into the game.
The Rams only losses came to top-ranked teams — Penn Cambria and Clearfield — and they had a six-game winning streak from Friday, Aug. 30, to Friday, Oct. 4.
Last week, Richland beat Chestnut Ridge, 23-10, in New Paris, and they come into the game averaging 306 total yards per game — 203 on the ground — and 23 points.
The Rams are led by quarterback Grayson Mahla who throws for 142 ypg and running back Joe McAneny who has run for 491 yards and seven touchdowns.
This will be the final regular-season game for both teams.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Richland.
BALD EAGLE AREA (4-5) AT SOMERSET (3-6)
The Bald Eagles were outscored 24-12 in the second half on Friday, Oct. 18, at home against Bellwood-Antis and took a 32-14 loss to the Devils.
The game was close early with B-A taking an 8-6 early lead, but two consecutive Devil scores (with two-point conversions) made the score 24-6 early in the fourth quarter.
BEA responded, though, with a 52-yard pass from Carson Nagle to Beau Taylor that closed the gap to 24-12 at the 8:40 mark in the fourth quarter.
BEA needed a stop here, but the Eagles could not get it. B-A drove for another score, with another two-point conversion, and boosted its lead to 32-12 with just three minutes to play.
BEA added another touchdown on an 11-yard run by Nagle, but it was too late and the Devils came out with their sixth win against three losses.
For BEA, the loss dropped the Eagles to 4-5 with their final regular-season game coming up on Friday night at 3-6 Somerset.
The game is important with BEA ranked ninth in the D6, 2A bracket just behind No. 8 Bishop McCort.
Somerset has wins over Greater Johnstown, Westmont-Hilltop and Penns Valley this season, but the Eagles lost a close one last week to Forest Hills, 17-14.
The two teams are close in total yardage, 329 per game for BEA against 325 for Somerset, and points, 22.0 to 22.6, but Somerset may have an advantage playing on its home field.
Nagle could be the difference as the senior has thrown for over 2,000 yards and 23 touchdowns this season.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Somerset.
PHILIPSBURG-OSCEOLA (3-6) AT GREATER JOHNSTOWN (2-7)
The Mounties squared off against undefeated Bishop Guilfoyle on Friday, Oct. 18, and played a spirited first half that saw them creep to within 13 points of BG as time was running down in the second quarter.
But Guilfoyle reasserted itself with a 65-yard drive that ended with a 6-yard run and a 28-7 lead over the deflated Mounties.
P-O could not get anything going in the third quarter, and BG took full advantage by pushing across three touchdowns and taking full control of the game.
Quarterback Jake Kissell threw two touchdown passes in the quarter and Taurean Consiglio ran one in from 36 yards out to complete the scoring.
The Mounties added the final score in the game on a 16-yard Archer Baughman pass to Sam McDonald with 10 minutes to play.
The loss for P-O dropped it to 3-6 for the season and matched the Mounties with 2-7 Greater Johnstown in both teams’ final regular season game on Friday, Oct. 25.
Johnstown has two wins, over Central Cambria and Westmont-Hilltop, but the team will come into this upcoming Friday’s game on a four-game losing streak.
Trojan quarterback Julius Reed is a threat and throws for over 200 yards per game and also runs for over 70, while the teams gains 324 and scores an average of 21.4 points per game.
P-O averages 250 total yards per game with 156 coming on the ground, and the Mounties average 17 points.
This game shapes up to be close and possibly high scoring, and both teams would love to finish their years on a winning note.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Johnstown.
PENNS VALLEY (0-9) AT WESTMONT-HILLTOP (0-9)
Something has to give in this game.
Both PV and Westmont are still searching for their first win, and that will happen for one of them on Friday, Oct. 25.
The Rams come into the game after giving up two defensive touchdowns to Tyrone on Friday night as well as a 95-yard kickoff return and five unanswered touchdowns in the second quarter.
The final score was 82-26 with Tyrone getting both defensive touchdowns and the kick return in the third quarter and a final touchdown on a run in the fourth quarter.
Penns Valley actually tied the game in the beginning of the second quarter, 14-14, but everything fell apart after that.
The Rams did gain 280 yards (620 for Tyrone) and score four touchdowns, but they could not stop the Tyrone offense.
Westmont-Hilltop has had an equally difficult season and is coming off losses to Philipsburg-Osceola, 44-14, and Central Cambria, 40-18, in the past two weeks.
Westmont does have a big advantage in yards per game rushing, 224-22, and offense overall. But PV can score as well, this one could go down to the final minutes.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. at Westmont.
