Blue Mountain soars high above the Blue Raiders @TASDAthletics1 @BMSDAthletics @BMSD_Football @BMEFootball @570Football @SchLeague @CoalRegionFball

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

Daniel Reed | October 10, 2020

The Eagles came into last nights game losing 6 straight Schuylkill League Division 1 regular season games dating back to last season, you wouldn’t have known that though with the energy you could feel surrounding the air.  Tamaqua took the opening kickoff and marched down the field only to come up short at the Eagles 4 yard line when Blue Mountain’s defense stepped up and made the stop on 4th and goal.  Blue Mountain’s offense didn’t get much on their first series when Tamaqua forced the Eagles to punt.  Later in the first quarter, Blue Mountain’s defense came up huge again when the Eagles Bryce Hensley returned a fumble from a pass that fell behind the line of scrimmage, 65 yards for the score, with 2:07 remaining in the quarter, the Eagles had the lead 6 to 0 after a blocked extra point.

As with their first possession, Tamaqua marched down the field behind their bruising rushing attack, only to turn the ball over once again, this time, a strip sack by the Eagles defense.  Blue Mountain wasted no time, handed the ball to Eman Parker, who then took off for 85 yards to the end zone giving the Eagles a 12 to 0 lead after a failed two point conversion with just under 7 minutes to play in the half.

Following the Eagles score, Tamaqua got the ball again, this time not having much success as Blue Mountain’s defense held strong.  Blue Mountain’s next possession took some time off the clock when Gavin Bartholomew, feeling more and more comfortable at his new position at quarterback as the game progressed, led the Eagles down the field for 68 yards on six plays capped off by a 31 yard pass to leading receiver Bryce Hensley for the score followed by a 2 point conversion from Hensley to give the Eagles the lead 20 to 0 with 1:42 left, eventually being the score at halftime.

The Eagles received the second half kickoff and once again wasted no time, going 50 yards on just 4 plays when starting quarterback Gavin Bartholomew scrambled for a 34 yard touchdown, followed that up by running it in for the 2 point conversion to make the score 28 to 0 in the 3rd quarter, ultimately being the final score at the end of the game.

Blue Mountain used a balanced offensive attack accumulating 361 total yards, rushing the ball 15 times for 161 yards led by running back Eman Parker with 75 yards on 5 carries, 1 touchdown and quarterback Gavin Bartholomew with 54 yards on 9 carries, 1 touchdown, while throwing the ball for 160 yards, connecting on 8 of 13 passes, most of which went to the big wide receiver Bryce Hensley who hauled in 4 receptions for 82 yards and a touchdown.  The Eagles defense kept a very good Tamaqua offense in check most of the night by bending at times but not breaking, allowing just 198 yards in total offense to the Blue Raiders, 190 of those yards came on the ground led by Lucas Schickram with 64 yards on 8 carries, and Nate Curvey with 55 yards on 18 carries. Quarterback Nate Wickersham ended the game 2 of 7 passing for 2 yards, with 42 yards on the ground on 6 carries.

The Eagles(2-3) travel to Lehighton(2-3) next week for a Thursday night game to play the Indians at Lehighton Multi-Purpose Stadium. Blue Mountain defeated the Indians last year 36 to 0.

Tamaqua(3-2) travels to Jim Thorpe(4-1) next week for a Thursday night game to play the Olympians.  Tamaqua defeated Jim Thorpe last year 40 to 7.

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