Defense carries BEA to win over Phillipsburg-Osceola @CoachJNagle @PO_Athletics (Jodon Gallery)

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

Ron Bracken | October 10, 2020

The Eagles held the Mounties to 153 yards in total offense, 4 yards through the air, and stopped P-O at the 10 and the 18 when a score would have made it a one-touchdown game.
“They played pretty good defense against us,’’ said Mountie coach Jeff Vroman. “Defensively they attacked us in the first half. We did better in the second half. Early on we didn’t do a solid job up front. We had a lot of three-and-outs.’’

But the Mounties were sitting on a 6-0 lead in the first quarter when Aaron Depto jumped a pass in the flat and took it back 52 yards for a touchdown.
The Eagles answered with a 79-yard pass from Garret Burns to Cole Irvin. The pass over the middle was tipped and fell into Irvin’s hands and he took it the distance. Dillon Barnyack put the Eagles ahead for good with the PAT.

In the second quarter the Eagles/drove 64 yards in 13 plays with Burns scoring from the 2.Barnyack’s kick made it 14-6.
The Mounties got the second half kickoff and marched to the BEA 18 but a penalty on third down pushed them back to the 23 and Ryan Wwhitehead’s pass fell incomplete on fourth down.

The P-O defense stopped the Eagles at the20 on their next possession, taking the ball at the 1.
/BEA returned the ensuing punt 27 yards to the Mountie 27 and on the next snap burns found Camron Watkins on a slant over the middle for a touchdown with 5:13 to go in the quarter.
BEA’s final score came on a 20-yard run by Gavin Eckley midway through the fourth quarter.
“Defensivley, we’re playng pretty good football,’’ said Eagle coach Jesse Nagle. “I thought we shut them down on defense. ‘’

Nagle admitted he was concerned with the Mounties after losing a 15-12 heartbreaker to Tyrone and with Bellefonte next up on the schedule.
“I thought this was a trap game,’’ he said. “We kept on the kids to not get their eyes set on Bellefonte. We knew P-O was a senior-heavy team and they would come out fighting. “
Vroman saw that in his team.

“I can’t fault our effort,’’ he said. If we had made a couple of plays in the third quarter…we shot ourselves in the foot a couple of times. We got down inside the 20 a couple of times and couldn’t score. We’ve got to be able to finish things. But that’s all part of the process, the growing pains. This was a tighter game than the score indicates.’’
With the loss P-O dropped to 1-3 while BEA improved to 2-2, The Eagles will entertain Bellefonte in the Curtin Bowl game Friday while P-O will go on the road to take on Tyrone.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews