Central outlasts Bishop Guilfoyle in OT Thriller

Tagged under: District 6, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

Brandon Maynard | September 23, 2023

Central beat Bishop Guilfoyle 10-7 in overtime at Roaring Spring Athletic Field Friday night after Hunter Smith kicked the game winning Field Goal. The game ended on a controversial interception in the endzone by Jacob Benton. “The best of High School Football right there”, says Dragon Head Coach Dave Baker.

It was a packed house on a beautiful night in Blair County. A night that the Dragons turned their 50-yard line pink for Breast Cancer Awareness. They started the night off with the ball as well. The first drive ended just 3 plays into it with an interception by the Marauder’s Hamilton Gates. Bishop Guilfoyle went for it and failed to get a fourth down conversion, coming up just short on their first drive. Central’s next possession went all the way down to the goal line behind Eli Muthler 4/5 39 passing yards. Only to be stopped on 4^th and goal by a botched snap that they recovered. It wouldn’t have been so bad if the Dragons didn’t get a personal foul giving the Marauders some breathing room. That momentum switched real fast as Ryan Hagg put the ball on the ground and Lukas Black recovered and returned it to the 2 yard-line. Hunter Smith made quick work for his 9^th touchdown of the year. Smith also added the extra point to make the score 7-0 with 1:02 left in 1^st. BG finished the quarter by getting a first down from a 1^st and 15 with a 16 yard catch after the got a false start penalty.

The 2^nd quarter started off great for the defenses but not so great for the offense. Chase Kissell got sacked by DT Sawyer Howard. The next play Kissell got hit with an intentional grounding penalty for not getting it back up the line of scrimmage. They ended up punting due to the loss of down. The Dragons were on another drive when Gates stepped into his second interception of the game. BG was moving the ball again including a great catch by Gates, when they stalled out on 4^th and 10 with 2:40 seconds left. Smart use of the timeouts by Coach Wheeler and a strip sack by Connor McElheny that Central recovered just to punt it away. The Marauders took the ball to halftime with another drive that ended on the 23-yard line.

Bishop Guilfoyle had a 30-yard return to the 44 yard line by Parker White, to start the 2^nd half. They were driving even got the defense to jump offsides until Braydon Beach intercepted the ball. The next drive didn’t go very far and the punt ended up getting blocked by Kaden Wyandt, setting up first down for BG. The Marauders took advantage of that miscue and Gates ran a sweep to get into the endzone. Michael Cacciotti added the PAT to even the score at 7. The 3^rd quarter was pretty quick do to all the running and stout defense on both sides. BG forced Central to punt again. They kept the ball a little bit and had the ball when the quarter was up.

The 4^th quarter had just as much defense as the rest of the game. BG gave up a sack by Caden Schenk, got a holding penalty and threw an incomplete pass before they had to punt back the Dragons. The first play of the next Central drive was a 45-yard QB run by Muthler. A few plays later Smith fumbled the ball to give back Bishop Guilfoyle. BG couldn’t capitalize on it though. Going for it on 4^th down, and failing to reach it. Central went 3 and out again when bam! The Marauders Will Tobin blocked the punt to set them up for one final drive. With Kissell running for a few yards to get to field goal position. Cacciotti’s left foot push it to the left to miss the 26-yard field goal. Central had one more chance to march down and win the game. After getting a couple of completed passes. Muthler finds Kyle Klotz for 10 yards when he fumbles the ball and recovered by Tobin. BG Kneeled to take it to Overtime.

Overtime is playing such as college. You get 4 downs from the 10-yard line to score. Central was on offense first. They couldn’t move the ball well. They got to 4^th down and brought out Smith for potentially the game winner. He made the 19-yard field goal to go up 10-7. On BG’s possession, Kissell got sacked by Schenk for a 5-yard loss. On third down and goal came the controversy. The Marauders receiver seemed to have been interfered with a drew a flag even though Jacob Benton intercepted the ball. The officials met in the middle and decided it was offensive pass interference and game ended on the pick.