Tyrone too much for Bellefonte
By Kenny Varner
TYRONE – Before they knew what him Friday night, the Bellefonte football team found itself trailing by 20 as the end of the first quarter began in their contest against Mountain League leading Tyrone Eagles.
Despite a strong defensive effort in the second quarter, the deficit was just too much as the Eagles cruised to an easy 47-7 victory Friday night.
Coming into the game with numerous injuries and a young team, Red Raiders coach believes that a lot of his team’s problems come from competing physically but from it’s lack of confidence.
“Its hard. Your dressing 30 guys and their dressing 50 its hard. Right now we don’t have enough depth to keep swinging and really get after guys. They came out and jumped on us quick and our confidence wavered and that where it at,” Bellefonte coach Shanon Manning said. “Teams that have won, they can tackle, they fly to the football and they execute. Teams that don’t have confidence can’t execute, they can’t tackle and they don’t get to the football. That’s what this game is about.”
“That’s where we are at. it’s the middle of the season and confident team looks confident and teams that are that aren’t sure look unsure. Right now we are not playing as a confident football team.”
Tyrone’s offense looked tough in the opening quarter, picking up two scores while the special teams unit put the team ahead just seconds into the game.
After winning the opening coin toss, the Eagles chose to receive and put running back Aleic Hunter back to take the kick off.
Hunter took the kick at his own 12, found a hole and blew his way through for an 88-yard touchdown run with 11:44 still left in the opening quarter.
Despite missing the PAT, the Eagles still held a 6-0 lead.
With the early momentum, the Eagles forced the Red Raiders to a 3-and-out on its first offensive possession, putting the ball in their offenses’ hands.
Starting at its own 44, Tyrone rolled down the field using its running game to put the ball down on the Bellefonte three.
On second down, the Eagles went to their fullback Elijah Sleeth to muscle it in from three yards out. With the successful PAT, Tyrone upped its lead to 13-0 with 6:06 left in the first.
Defensively, the Eagles were just as tough, allowing Bellefonte only four total yards in the first quarter.
Tyrone wasn’t done quite yet with the first quarter scoring, putting one more in right before the end of the quarter.
With 12 seconds left, Aleic Hunter posted his second touchdown of the game on a 10-yard TD run.
As the first quarter expired, the Eagles were in control 20-0.
However, in the second quarter, the Red Raiders showed that it could play some strong defense as it held the fast moving offense of Tyrone to only one touchdown.
Bellefonte’s Isaiah Hahn led the way with two crucial sacks that ended Tyrone drive’s cold.
The only score from Tyrone came with 8:25 left in the half when Hunter found Sleeth for a 44-yard TD reception, upping the first half lead to 27-0.
After a third quarter that had the Eagles put 14 more points on the board, the game went into the Mercy Rule.
But despite giving up an early fourth quarter touchdown, the Red Raiders refused to go down without a fight posting a last minute touchdown of their own to foil the shut out.
Tyler Kreger scored the lone touchdown for Bellefonte, ending the scoring at 47-7.