Bellefonte–The Bellefonte Raiders hosted Bald Eagle on Wednesday night in a conference match at Rogers Stadium and defeated the Eagles 5-1 on senior night. In a game where the Eagles took an early lead with a goal in the first few minutes, Bellefonte took control late in the first half and completely dominated the second half.
Both teams got off to a fast-paced, aggressive start in the match. Bellefonte moved the ball up the field quickly but failed to find the back of the net early. While the home team could not score early on, the Eagles decided to take reigns into their own hands. Just over five minutes into the match, Eagles midfielder Connor Maney scored the first goal of the game to put the road team ahead 1-0.
“I thought we played well,” Bellefonte coach Scott Martz said after the win. “We gave them that first goal so I knew we were going to be in a battle to battle back and tie it up, but I thought overall we possessed the ball really well tonight. I thought we got a lot of shots on goal from those guys being unselfish and feeding the balls to everybody.”
Bellefonte midfielders and forwards Brady Wertz, Collin Sharp and Jeremiah Ondrasik all did a good job passing the ball up past midfield to give the Raiders a chance to score. But the Raiders could not get in as the Bald Eagle defense–which corralled five saves in the first 20 minutes–swarmed the Raider forwards.
As the half continued, the Bald Eagles tried turning good defense into offense. But the Raider defensive players–especially Owen Seibel, Ben Hargrove and James Eichenlaub–did a good job keeping out any balls that came their way.
“After they scored that goal, it kind of lit a fire underneath us a little bit,” coach Martz said. “We went to the goal a little bit harder, and we played a little bit tougher up front.”
With under 10 minutes until the half, and Bellefonte totaling seven shots and Bald Eagle eight saves, the Raiders used their pinpoint passing to score. The Raiders found forward Andy Gerasenko, finally adding a goal to make the score 1-1.
After the Raider goal, the Eagles tried to attack back at Bellefonte’s defenders, but the Raiders used their stellar defense to stave off the Eagles from scoring. With just over two minutes left until the break, Bellefonte forward Wertz scored goal number two for the Raiders in the half to put them up 2-1 at the break.
In the second half, the Raiders picked up right where they left off. Just two minutes into the half, Bellefonte forward Sharp scored his first goal of the night to put the Eagles up 3-1. From here, Bellefonte knew they had all control of this one. But even then, the Raiders never took their foot off the gas.
“We worked on that during practice yesterday,” coach Martz said, alluding to great play from their attack and midfielders. “That’s the main thing we worked on, pushing the ball up front and then using our drops or midfielders. We did a good job pushing the ball to our wings on through balls.”
Offensively, the Raiders kept attacking the Eagles hard on offense, almost scoring a fourth goal a few minutes later. Defensively, the Raiders held their own as goalkeeper Elijah Davis made some great plays. Davis made some tough saves to prevent the Eagles from scoring and would be key down the stretch to prevent the Eagles from putting anything else on the board.
“Defensively I thought we stepped up and played well,” coach Martz said. “Elijah being a freshman back there, he had a couple beautiful saves. He played a really good game for us. He does a good job of communicating and talking to the defense too.”
Then, at the 18-minute mark, Bellefonte’s Wertz received a pass and found the back of the net for the second time tonight. With the score now 4-1, the Eagles would not give in, testing Bellefonte’s Davis in front of the goal. But his quick hands and assertiveness allowed for tremendous saves. On offense, the Raiders stayed poised in their attack with strong play from its midfielders.
With just over 10 minutes remaining now, the Eagles committed their first penalty. Not that they needed more momentum, but the Raiders took advantage as Cody Merrill kicked a pretty ball inside the left post to score Bellefonte’s fifth goal of the night, making the score 5-1.
As the game came to a close–and as the Eagles attempted to score one more goal before the game was all said and done–the Raiders kept their defensive edge, not giving the Eagles one chance in the goal. As time wound down and the clock ran out, the Raiders were victorious, winning 5-1.
“Senior night and playing Bald Eagle (are) always two big things. The guys were looking at the seniors like, ‘we got to step up for these guys. We don’t want it (the score) two to one in the last three to four minutes of the game. We want to make this a nice, comfortable night for them.’”
Bellefonte 5 Bald Eagle 1
Scoring: BEA-Connor Maney, 34:35. B- Andy Gerasenko (unassisted), 11:19. B- Brady Wertz (Andy Gerasenko), 2:09. B-Collin Sharp (Jeremiah Ondrasik), 39:05. B- Brady Wertz (Ondrasik), 18:39. B- Cody Merrill (PK), 10:35.
Shots: B-18 BEA-9. Penalties: BEA-1 B-0. Corners: B-5 BEA-2. Goals: B-5 BEA-1. Saves: BEA-16 (Reigh), B-7 (Davis)