CENTRE COUNTY — As we reach the halfway point of the high school regular football season, State College kept rolling with a big Mid Penn win over Chambersburg, and BEA held on at home against Philipsburg-Osceola.
In Spring Mills, Bellefonte scored a fourth quarter touchdown and edged Penns Valley, 27-20 to take its second win of the season.
Here is a closer look at each of the games and a peek at this week’s schedule:
Little Lions shut out Chambersburg in a warmup for this week’s trip to Central Dauphin.
State College quarterback Connor Kulka threw for 276 yards and four touchdowns and D’Antae Sheffey ran for 115 yards and another touchdown as the Little Lions ran away from Chambersburg 40-0 on Friday night.
Playing at home on Memorial Field, the Lions ran out to a 24-0 halftime lead and never looked back in what became their fourth win of the season against just one loss.
Senior wide receiver Hank Lustig also had a big game for SC with 7 catches for 123 yards and 3 of Kulka’s touchdowns. Anderson Fry caught the other one, and he finished with 3 catches for 98 yards with a long of 69 yards.
The win also moved State College into second place in the Mid-Penn Commonwealth Conference standings, tied with Bishop McDevitt at 3-1. Harrisburg leads the division with a 4-0 record.
This week, SC will travel to old rival Central Dauphin on Friday night for another important showdown against the Rams.
CD is 2-3 so far this season, 2-2 in the Mid-Penn, with wins over Altoona and Carlisle. The Rams’ losses came against Central York, Cedar Cliff and Cumberland Valley, 24-15, last Friday in Mechanicsburg.
Dual-threat senior quarterback Mark Lebo leads CD in both passing and rushing. He’s completed 36-of-68 passes for 391 yards and 2 touchdowns, while running 58 times for 266 yards and another 2 touchdowns.
Senior running back Kah’mani Garcia has scored 6 touchdowns and gained 225 yards on 51 carries.
The leading receiver is Mason Wydra with 15 catches for 194 yards and a touchdown.
This game shapes up as a significant one for both teams.
For CD, a third loss would put it out of contention in the conference, and possibly even harm their playoff chances.
For State College, a win would keep pace with McDevitt (on the schedule later in the season) and Harrisburg and solidify its standing as the No. 1 seed in District 6.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. on Friday, September 26 in Harrisburg.
BEA gets a much-needed win over P-O with arch-rival Bellefonte looming.
The Bald Eagle Area football team held Philipsburg-Osceola to less than 150 yards of total offense and running back Gradyn Fisher ran for 100 yards and 2 touchdowns as the Bald Eagles held on for a 21-14 win over the Mounties at home on Friday night.
BEA took a 14-7 lead into halftime, scored another TD in the third quarter, and then closed out the game after the Mounties crept to within seven points, 21-14, late in the fourth quarter.
P-O’s Colton Chapman, who ran for 85 yards in the game, scored the Mounties’ second touchdown with just four minutes left in the game.
The Mounties, however, would not get another chance as BEA took its second win of the season against three losses.
Quarterback Grady Fisher ran for 98 yards and scored 2 touchdowns, and Nick McCully ran for 78 yards and scored the other BEA touchdown.
But it was the BEA defense that held P-O to just 43 yards passing and 99 yards rushing that turned the tide in the game.
Next up for BEA will be a trip to neighborhood rival Bellefonte in the Curtin Bowl on Friday night at Rogers Stadium.
Bellefonte, also 2-3, will be coming off a tightly contested, 27-20 win over Penns Valley (see story) and trying to even its record at 3-3. The Raiders are presently one game behind Juniata in the District 6, AAAA standings.
The two teams will enter the game almost evenly matched with the Raiders being led by running back Kaven Smith-Kirk, who gains 126 yards per game, and BEA led by Nick McCulley with 101 ypg.
The Raiders do have a slight edge in total yards–278 to 235–but the Eagles defense showed a marked improvement against P-O last week.
Last year, the Curtain Bowl went to Bellefonte in a close, 21-12 victory in Wingate, and BEA would like nothing better than to take it back on Friday.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Bellefonte.
Raiders come back against Penns Valley; Curtain Bowl showdown against BEA is next.
The Penns Valley Rams scored 20 points in the second quarter–14 of them in the last 50 seconds–and took a 20-14 lead over the favored Bellefonte Raiders into the locker rooms at halftime.
But Bellefonte, even with starting quarterback Brennan Huntsinger out with an injury, rallied behind running back Kaven Smith-Kirk and a shut-out defense to come back and take a 27-20 victory.
The Raiders tied the game in the third quarter on a 5-yard run by Smith-Kirk, and then, with time running out, took the lead on a breathtaking, 80-yard scamper by Smith-Kirk that ultimately became the winning score.
The two teams could not have been much different.
PV ran for only 50 yards, but quarterback Carter Ironside threw for 284 yards and three touchdowns.
Bellefonte threw for only 24 yards on 3 attempts, but the Raiders controlled the line of scrimmage with 296 yards on the ground and three touchdowns.
The other Raider score came when Jackson Long returned the opening kickoff 80 yards for an immediate 7-0 Bellefonte lead.
Not much more needs to be said about this game other than it’s for the Curtin Bowl. The importance for both teams goes without saying, and both will show up ready to play.
Kickoff is at 7 p.m. in Bellefonte.
Bellwood-Antis heading to P-O on Friday night.
The Philipsburg-Osceola Mounties were thrown a bit off their game on Friday night in a 21-14 loss at Bald Eagle Area.
Their usual rugged running game was held to under 100 yards and the team came in with less than 150 yards all told.
The Mounties will have a chance to turn that around on Friday night at home, but it will not be an easy assignment.
Bellwood-Antis, 3-2 in the LHAC so far, will be in Philipsburg, and the Devils will bring in a well-balanced team with three impressive victories.
Bellwood so far has wins over Clearfield, 28-21, Central, 20-0, and Tyrone, 26-7, last Friday at Tyrone.
In that game, the Devils took a 14-0 halftime lead and then scored two more touchdowns in the second half to close out win No. 3.
Bellwood relies heavily on its running game and is led by junior Alex McCartney who so far this season has 113 carries for 633 yards and 10 touchdowns.
McCartney ran for 149 yards and 3 touchdowns against Tyrone and has been consistently difficult to stop.
Defensively, B-A gave up over 200 yards to the Golden Eagles, but it allowed just one touchdown and was never really threatened.
For P-O, quarterback Archer Baughman and running back Colton Chapman will be looking to get back to form against the Devils and even their team’s record at 3-3.
P-O presently is ranked fourth in the District 6, AAA bracket, one game behind No. 3 Penn Cambria.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Philipsburg.
Penns Valley is going to 3-2 Clearfield on Friday night.
The Rams can’t get a break.
Penns Valley has been moving the ball, especially through the air, and scoring points, but the team still has not come through with a victory in five outings.
Last Friday against Bellefonte, PV scored 20 points, chalked up 334 yards of offense, and moved the ball all night.
But still, Bellefonte came back to win the game, 27-20.
This week, the Rams will be away at another former Mountain League power, Clearfield.
The Bison are 3-2 so far with wins over Bedford, P-O and Bellefonte, but they were upset last week at home by Huntingdon, 28-27.
Clearfield is led by quarterback Xavier Curry, who threw for 195 yards and 2 touchdowns against Huntingdon, and senior running back Colton Ryan, who ran for 170 yards in the Huntingdon game with another 2 touchdowns.
One bright spot for PV here is that Clearfield gave up more than 100 yards passing to Huntingdon and 2 touchdowns, so Carter Ironside and the PV passing game could cause problems.
Kickoff is set for 7 p.m. in Clearfield.
