Bellefonte’s defense continues to shine; drops PO

By rscaife
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Updated: September 8, 2018

LOCK HAVEN – And the winner of this year’s Luther Trophy is……

After holding a tough Huntingdon team scoreless last week on the road, the Red Raider defense was at it again, this time looking even hungrier and stronger in their game against PO than in last week’s win.

Put that together with a fine tuned running and passing offense and the answer to the above question is Bellefonte in a runaway contest.

However, despite being down early in the contest, the Mounties played with pride and showed that it would not go down without a fight earning the respect of most who watched.

But the growing process for the Philipsburg-Osceola football team made a few steps forward in its maturation process despite going against a tough Bellefonte Red Raiders team who were looking to improve to 3-0.

Though the Mounties showed a strong effort, the veteran Bellefonte squad was too much for the young guns on the night, falling 55-7.

“We came out flat. You could see it in their body language in the warm up. We told them you have to pick it up and we told them they better get ready to play. Unfortunately, they didn’t come out ready to play until they got smacked around,” Philipsburg -Osceola coach Mike Soyster said. “But in the second quarter we came out and played Mountie football. I told the guys if we played the entire game like we did in that second quarter it’s a whole new ball game. We had them in that second quarter and it was just all effort. We’re getting better. We’re taking baby steps to get better. It wasn’t the effort I wanted to see tonight against a real tough Bellefonte team. They hung with them for a while and that second quarter we won that quarter. We just need to carry it forward for the whole game.”

Leading them I offensively for the Mounties was Landon McDonald who ran for 52-yards rushing and caught two passes for 35 yards. Quarterback Ryan Whitehead went 7-21 on the night for 135 yards and one touchdown pass.

Bellefonte got a strong running game from CJ Funk and his quarterback Kyle Myers. Funk and Myers finished with 128-yards and 67-yards on the ground, respectively. Coming off the bench for the Red Raiders was running back Chris Paloskey who ran for 64 yards en route to the victory.

Place kicker Chris Persiko reached the 100-point milestone of his career during an extra point midway through the contest.

But the biggest factor of the night could have been the performance of the Red Raider defense.

Bellefonte finishes with seven sacks on Whitehead and allowed just 183 total yards on the night. Caleb Rockey had four of those sacks for his team.

In the opening coin toss, Bellefonte deferred the ball until the second half, giving the Mounties the first shot on offense.

However, that first drive would fizzle and the opportunistic offense of Bellefonte would go right to work.

It didn’t take long for the “Red and Black attack” to get down the field and deep into PO territory.

With 9:22 to go in the opening period, Noah Badger scores on a 2-yard pass from Myers to make it 6-0. Persiko was automatic on the PAT, making it 7-0.

After a second failed drive, the Mounties were once again forced to punt the ball back to the Red Raiders.

Again, the offense went right to work and Bellefonte went on a time consuming drive that would take them to the 11 of the Mounties.

From there, Nick Catalano got the call and caught an 11-yard hook up from Myers, upping the lead to 14-0 after another PAT.

Bellefonte cashed things in one more time before the end of the first as Funk broke through the line and into the end zone from 11-yards out to give the home team a 21-0 lead going into the second.

Early in the period, Funk and company found their way into the end zone once again as he muscled it in from the one, upping it to a 28-0 advantage.

Less than four minutes later, Trae Bauman helped the Red Raiders hit the 35-point mark, on a 3-yard TD run at the 7:43 mark.

Despite being down, the Mounties tried to mount a comeback and was finally able to get things rolling on offense. After a succession of completions by Whitehead, PO scores.

Whitehead hit a wide open TJ Thompson for the 19-yard TD catch, putting them on the board trailing 35-7.

But that would be all the scoring in the half by both teams and they went into the intermission with Bellefonte leading 35-7.

Things did not fair much better in the second half as the Red Raiders continued to dominate both sides of scrimmage.

After another Funk touchdown, teammate and lineman JD Besch got into the scoring act, recovering a Red Raider fumble in the end zone for another Touchdown.

With the game going into a mercy rule status, the Red Raiders put the game away on a Badger 2-yard pass from Myers, ending the scoring and giving the Luther Trophy back to Bellefonte.

Next Friday, Bellefonte travels to Central Mountain while Philipsburg-Osceola hosts Tyrone.

Bellefonte 55

Philipsburg -Osceola 7

Score by Quarters

PO 0 7 0 0 – 7

Bellefonte 21 14 13 7 – 55

First Quarter

B- Noah Badger 2-yard TD pass from Kyle Myers (Chris Persiko kick), 9:22.

B – Nick Catalano 11-yard pass from Myers (Persiko kick), 3:51.

B – CJ Funk 11-yard TD run (Persiko kick), 1:35.

Second Quarter

B – Funk 1-yard run (Persiko kick), 11:24.

B – Trae Bauman 3-yard TD run (Persiko kick), 7:43.

PO – TJ Thompson 19-yard TD pass from Ryan Whitehead (Aaron Parks kick), 3:55.

Third Quarter

B – Funk 27-yard TD run ( kick failed), 8:47.

B – JD Besch fumble recovery in the end zone (Persiko kick), 56.2.

Fourth Quarter

B – Badger 2-yard pass from Myers (Persiko kick), 6:03.

___

Team Stats PO B

First downs; 10. 19

Rushes-yards; 27-50; 35-368

Comp-Att-Int;8-25-133-1 6-9-64-0

Passing Yards; 133; 64

Total Plays-Yards;35-183 41-432

Fumbles-Lost; 0-0 1-0

Punts; 7-39 1-35

Penalties-Yards; 5-43 5-45

___

INDIVIDUAL STATS

RUSHING – PO – Landon McDonald 13-52, Ryan Whitehead 7-(-60), Michah Martin 1-1, Kaleb Stamm 1-2, Matt Martin 2-11, Jeremy Whitehead 3-32. Bellefonte – CJ Funk 12-128, Kyle Myers 6-67, Noah Badger 3-7, Mason Grey 2-29, Nick Catalano 1-0, Nick Capparelle 3-16, Chris Palosky 3-64.

PASSING

Bellefonte — Myers 6-9-64.

PO – Ryan Whitehead 7-21-135, Jeremy Whitehead 1-(-4).

RECEIVING

PO – McDonald 2-35, Aaron Depto 1-12, TJ Thompson 4-88, Matt Martin 1(-2).

Bellefonte – Badger 4-20, Grey 1-11, Trae Bauman 1-33.

INTERCEPTIONS

Bellefonte — Dylan Dann

PO – None