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Bald Eagle Advances in Overtime Win, Defeats Bedford 21-20 (Gallery Jodon)

Tagged under: Centre County Report, District 5, District 6, Gameday Hub, News

| November 16, 2019

Trailing 14-0 since the 8:51 mark of the second quarter, the Bald Eagle Area defense came up big when it counted. The Eagle defense forced four second half turnovers, two of which gave the BEA offense good field position that they took advantage of, the last leading to the game tying score with just 1:06 left to play.  Jaden Jones found Gage McClenahan in the corner of the endzone and the pat was good giving them their first lead of the night. Swaim struck immediately on the Bedford overtime possession, but the point after attempt went wide left and BEA escaped with a 21-20 in in the first round of the PIAA Class 3A playoffs at Hollidaysburg.

“We knew coming in they were very fast, very physical and they did a great job of disguising and the did a heck of a job changing up coverages when we were in the red zone that confused our guys” said BEA Head Coach Jesse Nagle. “So we figure them out at halftime, made some adjustments and we got the win.”

Bedford jumped out to a 14-0 lead in the first half. On their second drive the Bison went on a 14 play, 94 yard drive. Miles Washington scored from 6 yards out and Lizzy Martz cleared the uprights to put Bedford up 7-0 with just 30 seconds left in the first quarter.

 

The two teams exchanged the ball several times before Bedford struck again. After stopping BEA on downs at their 31, Steve Ressler took the first play to the house, breaking tackles and racing 69 yards to help put the Bison up 14-0 at the 8:51 mark in the second quarter. “Defensively we had on big breakdown and they got that big run but hats of to Bedford, they’re a good football team” said Nagle.

 

The Eagle offense then found some momentum, driving to the Bedford 22 where Jones hit Kaden Bittinger for an apparent acrobatic touchdown but it was called back on a holding call. That drive stalled on the 30.

 

The BEA defense held and forced another Bedford punt setting up another nice drive for the Eagles. Starting at their 35, Jones led his offense to the Bedford 10 yard line. Another costly penalty with just a few seconds left in the first half moved them back 5 yards to the 15. Nagle reached into his bag of tricks and Jones took the snap, threw backward to Bittinger who then threw back to Jones but the Bedford defense had the play well covered.  With 1 second left on the clock, the Bison defense made a big stop to take a 14-0 lead into the locker room.

BEA got there first score following the second Bison turnover in the second half that gave the Eagles the ball on the Bedford 31. McClenahan ran 4 times for 24 yards in the drive, the fourth a 6 yard td scamper to close the gap to 14-7 with 3:40 left in the third quarter. On the ensuing drive, Bedford’s Steven Ressler took a hand off then pulled up and hit Gregory Edwards for a 31 yard gain to the BEA 13, but the Eagle defense came up big again when Ben Yetsko intercepted a Swaim pass at the 2 yard line. It wasn’t until the 1:06 mark that Bald Eagle made their move and once again it was the defense that enabled the tying score. McClenahan pounced on a loose ball at the Bedford 17 with just over 2 minutes to play. Jones hit Matthew Reese from 10 yards out.

 

Jeff Jodon Gallery

 

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