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Bellefonte dominates Bison

By Kenny Varner

BELLEFONTE – It was a Friday night homecoming delight for the Alumni of Bellefonte high school as they got to see the Red Raider football team crank out over 500 yards of total offense as they controlled the passing game of Clearfield for a 55-28 victory.
Again, the offense was led by quarterback Dylan Deitrich as he ran for six touchdowns and passed for another , finishing with 177 yards rushing and 140 through the air. He also picked off a crucial interception midway through the fourth quarter to secure the victory for “the Red and Black attack”.
After a very back and forth close first half where Bellefonte held onto a 20-14.
But Bellefonte came back in the third quarter and was primed and ready for any kind of challenge the Bison had for them.
The Red Raiders took the third quarter by storm scoring 21 points in the quarter while holding Clearfield to seven.
“Honestly we had two-way starter on the line tonight that wasn’t here because he was sick and that kind of threw us out of whack for a bit. It really threw off our timing,” Bellefonte coach Shanon Manning said. “Obviously it wasn’t his fault but we had to make some adjustments.”
After holding an early rain shower and wind storm, Bellefonte was able to hold off Clearfield’s strong passing game on its first few possession of the night.
As the first quarter started to come to a close, Deitrich picked up his first touchdown from a yard out. With the Chris Persiko kick, Bellefonte had the first lead.
Clearfield wouldn’t be down for very long as Bison quarterback Isaac Rumery got the hot hand and drove his team down in the final minutes of the first to tie things.
Rumery, who threw for 344 yards, found Michah Heichel on a 31-yard fly pattern to tie things up with 29 seconds left.
In the second, Deitrich was once again let loose on the ground as he capped a 2nd-quarter drive with a 16-yard touchdown run, putting his team back ahead despite a missed PAT.
However, Rumery was just warming up as he gave his team the first lead of the ball game as he went to calling his own number and scampering in from eight yards out, making it 14-13 with 2:19 left.
Ten seconds later, all the Red Raider fans watch in concern as Deitrich went down and had to be helped off the field.
But off the bench came Nick Paloskey, who didn’t drop a beat and led the Red Raiders downfield, highlighted by a 53-yard hook up to Cade Fortney, putting his team in scoring position with the clock running down.
With only 18 ticks left in the first half, Paloskey busted his way into the end zone on a 8-yard touchdown run.
With the seven point turnaround, the Red Raiders were back on top and would get the ball to start for the second half.
“I’ll tell you what was a big shot in the arm tonight was Nick Paloskey coming in right before the half. He hasn’t played since his ninth grade year against Jersey Shore, and than ran the ball down field,” Manning said. “He threw the long pass and ran the ball in before the half. It was probably the biggest play in the football game.”
Coming out of the intermission, Bellefonte added to its lead as it took its opening possession down field and cashed it in on a Deitrich 17-yard TD pass to Ryan Smith, upping the lead to 27-14.
Bellefonte’s defense got the ball minutes later and Deitrich and company rolled down field once again. The quarterback picked up yet another touchdown, this time from 5-yards out, increasing it to 34-14.
For good measures, Deitrich got loose one more time before the end of the quarter and scored on a 30-yard scamper, increasing the deficit to 41-14.
Rumery added a third quarter touchdown late in the third but Bellefonte went into the final stanza with a very comfortable 41-21 advantage.
Just halfway through the fourth, In just one play, Deitrich and his solid offensive line put the game out of reach as he blazed his way to a 57-yard run culminating in a successful PAT and a 48-21 advantage.
Clearfield refused to go down without a fight as Rumery found Caleb Freeland on a 65-yard hook up, closing it to 48-28.
But Deitrich had one more touchdown in him as he went back to the run and cashed in a 7-yard run to end the game at 55-28.

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