Tide rolls in victory over Blue Mountain 47 to 14 at the Eagles Nest to claim 4th straight Clash of 61 Trophy ! @PAHSathletics @BMSD_Football

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Daniel Reed | September 19, 2021

Tide rolls in victory over Blue Mountain 47 to 14 at the Eagles Nest to claim 4th straight *Clash of 61* Trophy !

Pottsville’s day started off the right way, winning the coin toss, deferring to the second half, giving the Eagles the ball to begin the game. On the Eagles first possession, they would struggle to move the ball against the Tide defense gaining just 1 yard on 5 plays after a sack for a 9 yard loss would have the Eagles offense at 4th down at their own 29. Blue Mountain would have to punt, and what a good punt it would be, down to the Pottsville 28. Pottsville wouldn’t waste any time as on the first play of the drive, Jazce Carrabello-Snowell would connect Amari Dunn for a 78 yard touchdown to put the Tide in front early 7 to 0. On the Eagles next possession, things started to move offensively, as they would put together a 6 play, 70 yard drive capped off when QB Jacob Williamson would connect with his receiver for 20 yards and the score to tie the game with 5:31 to play in the quarter. Next possession for the Tide wasn’t as nice as they would eventually have to punt back to the Eagles after just 4 plays, for a net yardage of 22 yards, 18 of that came on 1 play, a pass to Raeff Dicello. The same would be said for Blue Mountain on their next possession of the first quarter, as the Eagles would run 6 plays before having to punt once again on 4th and 26 at their own 24.

In the second quarter of play for Pottsville, the Tide would start the drive at the Blue Mountain 27 following a 33 yard punt return. After a completed pass by Snowell to Jayce Adamick for 24 yards, setting up the Tide 1st. and goal at the Eagles 3. On the next play, Travontai Davis would rumble in to put the Tide back on top, 14 to 7 with 9:29 to play in the first half. The Eagles would again put themselves in a 4th and long situation when QB Will Jacobson would fumble the snap for a 6 yard loss on 3rd down, leaving the Eagles at 4th and 15 at their own 24 having to punt. The Tide again would start in decent field position at their 43. Six plays later, the Tide would extend the lead to 20 to 7 after the extra point was blocked by Guers with 4:25 to play in the second quarter. Blue Mountain would receive the kickoff at the 15 and return it 6 yards to the 21. Pottsville would again sack Jacobson on 3rd down, setting up yet another 4th down and long. The Tide would partially block the Eagle punt that would still travel about 15 yards to the Blue Mountain 31 where Pottsville would have it first and ten. Two plays was all it would take for the Tide to add more points on the board when a 26 yard reception by Dunn, and 5 yard run by Davis to put Pottsville in front by 19, 26 to 7 after a failed 2pt. conversion attempt with 2:05 to go in the half. Blue Mountain would finish the first half with very few yards rushing, by my calculations, just 3 and 20 yards passing, that lone touchdown for the Eagles. Pottsville on the other hand, racked up roughly 225 yards of total offense in the half. After the game, Coach Gallagher said about the miscues on special teams, that, “we are a little bit young but, we been pretty tight with special teams to this point so far so, it was a bit disappointing to see that we lost the field position the entire game and it just showed in the end.”

Coming out of halftime, Pottsville would receive the kickoff and start the drive at their 30. 7 plays, and 64 yards later, the Tide were at the Eagles 1 yard line. On the next play, eventual MVP for Pottsville Snowell would fumble and Blue Mountain would recover at their 1. The Eagles offense would gain some yardage, about 28 for that matter when they were forced to punt once again on 4th and 2. At the end of the third quarter, the score was still Pottsville 26, Blue Mountain 7. The Tide’s next touchdown would come by way of a Dunn run for 8 yards, adding a 2pt. conversion to the score, the Pottsville lead would be extended to 34 to 7. Blue Mountain would fumble the ensuing kickoff setting up the Tide with great field position at the Eagles 31, one play later, Travontai Davis would blast off 31 yards to the endzone, another failed 2pt. attempt left the score, Tide 40, Eagles 7 with 11:43 to play. Blue Mountain would get on the board once more, when they put together a 7 play, 65 yard touchdown drive when QB Will Jacobson would call his own number from a yard out to score with 9:23 to play. Pottsville would score once more after Snowell would take the kickoff from the 6 yard line out to the 30 setting up a 7 play 68 yard drive finalized by a Davis 6 yard touchdown run. Pottsville would end the day with over 450 yards of total offense, lead by senior QB and MVP, Jazce Carabello-Snowell who finished the day with 297 yards passing with 3tds, and 107 yards rushing. With the victory, Pottsville now leads the Clash of 61 series 6 wins to 4 losses vs the Eagles. After the game, Pottsville Head Coach Tom McGeoy said “when you win really big games, special teams usually comes into play, blocked punts, fumbled kickoff returns, put guys in there that can make plays, and they did.” Pottsville looked like a loaded team today with Snowell, Davis, Dunn carrying most of the load for the Tide, but it was a total team effort from my take of things, defense, special teams, o’line, etc etc etc. Total team win for the Tide !

Blue Mountain(2-2) will try to rebound next Friday when they travel to play Saucon Valley(1-3), while Pottsville(3-1) hopes to keep things rolling when they host Lehighton(1-3) next Friday night.