Bellefonte girls outlast rival Bald Eagle in Thursday meeting

By Kenny Varner Jr.
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Updated: September 18, 2025

By Kenny Varner

WINGATE – In typical rivalry style, the Bellefonte and Bald Eagle Area girls soccer team met up to renew acquaintances Thursday night at Alumni Field at Bald Eagle Area High School in Laurel Highlands action.

Like most times these two teams meet you can use many cliches to describe the competition.

Thriller, nail biter and throw away the record when these teams meet were all accurate statements in the long time feud of these two schools.

For much of the contest, the Lady Raiders clung to a 1-0 lead.

But with only three minutes to go, the Red Raiders would post two goals to ice the contest and secure the 3-0 victory over the Lady Eagles.

“I feel like we dominated possession and had the ball in our half most of the game,” said Bellefonte coach Stacey Miller. “We just couldn’t find the back of the net. We had the shots but we just couldn’t put them in. At the end it looked like it started opening up for us. We were able to find the back of the net.”

Bellefonte opened the game and took it down to the Eagles side of the field. The Lady Raiders had the momentum early on but wasn’t able to put a goal across.

The Eagles were able to take the ball down the field on single quick runs but wasn’t able to get a good look at the goal area.

Bellefonte’s defense kept the Lady Eagles in check, allowing only two shots on goal. Both were snagged by Bellefonte goalie Scotti Spotts. Sports finished her day with six total saves.

The Lady Raiders outshot the home team 22-6.

Bald Eagle Area goalkeeper Cami Walker finished a busy day with 11 saves.

Bald Eagle’s backline of Madison Donley, Lily Johnson and Addison Tice were stingy and held the Red Raiders scoreless as the game dipped below the 10-minute mark.

However, with 9:55 left in the half,

Bellefonte’s Kaylee Knepp plastered an unassisted goal, putting the visitors in the lead 1-0.

That would be the only scoring in the first half as the groups went into the intermission with Bellefonte holding tight to a 1-0 advantage.

Coming out of the half, the Lady Eagles came out with high intensity and took the ball down towards the Red Raiders side of the field.

As the game got older, it also grew more intense as each trip of the field were numerous near misses on offenses by both teams kept the game stalled at 1-0.

“It was close. It was a good game. They have young players and we have young players,” said Bald Eagle Area coach Jared Moore. “Sometimes there’s just some mistakes that happen and tonight we paid for them,unfortunately.”

Both teams went back and forth up and back the field as there were numerous near misses by both teams.

With the ticking of the clock winding down to the final minutes of things, the Red Raiders were able to secure the game when Madyson Miller got loose and had a wide open blast, sending it through the net at 2:48.

A little over a minute later, Reese Patterson put the game out of reach as she hit the final goal at 1:15.

Bellefonte 3, Bald Eagle Area 0

BEL 1 2 – 3

BEA 0 0 – 0

First half

BEL – Kaylee Knepp unassisted, 9:55.

Second half

BEL – Madyson Miller unassisted, 2:48

BEL – Reese Patterson unassisted, 1:15.

Shots on goals: BEL. – 22. BEA – 6.

Corners: BEL. – 4. BEA – 1.

Saves: BEL. – Ronni Spotts 6. BEA – Cami Walker 11.