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Powell: Next two games will tell us who Bellefonte Football really is

BELLEFONTE — Do I even need to say it?

Bellefonte High School has been absolutely incredible this year, and were a force against the Central Mountain Wildcats last Friday night.

Running back CJ Funk is dominating defenses (who had a Madden-like 234 yards and four touchdowns against CM), transfer quarterback Kyle Myers has led the team to an undefeated record (including two wins over rivals), and the defense has been spectacular.

Especially DE Caleb Rockey, who already had 11 sacks and 18 tackles for losses before the Central Mountain game. The sack statistic had him tied for first in the nation, yes, nation before kick-off — he currently sits tied at second after the win over the Wildcats. In the Philipsburg-Osceola game alone, Rockey had a crazy five sacks that totaled minus-55 yards last week.

Everywhere you look, the Red Raiders are loaded with talent.

But as we near the halfway point of the regular season, and playoff teams are starting to look clear, what exactly can we make of Bellefonte’s chances in the postseason?

Despite the incredible play from the Red Raiders, something needs to be pointed out here — all four wins for their undefeated 4-0 record are against losing teams.

Those four teams (Jersey Shore, Huntingdon, Philipsburg-Osceola, Central Mountain) have a combined record of 2-14.

Even though the statistics have been mesmerizing, what exactly kind of team is Bellefonte?

Are they really this great of a team?

The next two games on the schedule for the Red Raiders will give us that answer.

FLYING HIGH?

This upcoming Friday, Bellefonte squares off against the undefeated Tyrone Golden Eagles (4-0). Needless to say, this will be the first real test for the Red Raiders without the emotion of a rivalry game — it’s just pure, raw talent competing for a win in a regular season contest between two powerhouses, and on neutral territory (technically). The game will be at Bald Eagle Area High School due to Bellefonte’s stadium still being under construction.

For Tyrone, they have playmakers — something that Bellefonte has a few of themselves in their back pocket.

Senior quarterback Denver Light (love that name) has been testing teams in both the air and on the ground this season. In passing, he’s piled up 659 yards and has thrown for eight touchdowns, and also has a 107.6 QB Rating to go along with it — he’s only thrown two interceptions up until this point. Running the ball, Light has collected 108 yards and has also punched in two touchdowns — putting him at 10 total for the season.

Similar to Bellefonte’s cross-town town rival Bald Eagle Area, Tyrone’s quarterback is loaded with several different weapons in the receiving corps. Four players — Damon Gripp, Tommy Hicks, Brandon Homan, Cory Lehman — have each racked up at least 100 yards in receiving. All four also have at least a touchdown, while Gripp, Hicks and Homan each have multiple.

This will be an interesting test for Bellefonte to see if they can keep up with the multiple effective receivers, and even more interesting due to the Golden Eagles having depth around them.

And that’s not even the scariest part.

The biggest piece of Tyrone’s offense is their senior running back, Zac Albright. In just four games this season, Albright has rushed for a forceful 497 yards, and has also ran in four touchdowns — with 100-yard games nearly happening in every contest, hell, it pretty much did.

Check the stat sheet:

Week 1 (vs. Bellwood-Antis): 95 YDS, 1 TD

Week 2 (at Central): 200 YDS, 1 TD

Week 3 (vs. Bishop Carroll): 93 YDS

Week 4 (at Philipsburg-Osceola): 109 YDS, 2 TDS

Oh man, just thinking about that matchup between Zac Albright and Caleb Rockey gets you amp’d for this game.

But here’s the biggest interesting factor of the upcoming game between Bellefonte and Tyrone: Like the Red Raiders, the Golden Eagles have a very similar narrative entering this game — they haven’t played any legitimate postseason competition.

With the exception of a week one win against a current 3-1 Bellwood-Antis, Tyrone’s competition the next three games have a combined record of 2-10.

Yeah, they got that first win against the Blue Devils, but it was a sloppy football game. The Golden Eagles would only win 16-7, struggling to put points up on the board despite moving the ball. If they fail to execute scoring against the Red Raiders, that won’t do so well against the offense of Funk and Myers in a potential shootout, let alone against Rockey and that dominant Bellefonte defense.

With that being said. we still have no idea who not only the Red Raiders are, but also Tyrone — and that makes this game a complete and utter toss-up.

IN THE CLEAR?

After facing off against Tyrone, the Red Raiders then go on the road to play the Clearfield Bison — another team that currently sits with an undefeated 4-0 record.

And of course, Clearfield has playmakers too.

At the quarterback position, the Bison have an effective Isaac Rumery — a senior who has collected 561 yards and three touchdowns, and is most effective in helping Clearfield move up the field with his consistency and 120.2 QB rating.

And that’s not all, he’s also a dual threat quarterback. He’s racked up 145 rushing yards and four touchdowns on the ground.

And just like Tyrone’s Denver Light, Rumery has weapons for his passing game.

Three wide receivers have collected over 100 yards for the season up until this point for the Bison — Jake Lezzer, Taye Lynch and Spencer Graham. A bright spot for the Red Raiders, however, is that Lezzer is the primary receiver by a wide gap for Rumery.

Lezzer has a total of 285 yards and two touchdowns, and he’s only a sophomore at that — it’ll be interesting to see how he’ll react against Bellefonte’s double teams, because they’re surely coming.

The next best receiver for the Bison is Lynch with 134 yards and a touchdown.

What makes Clearfield so scary though is their platoon at the running back position, this to also go along with Rumery’s effectiveness on the ground.

The senior-junior duo of Caleb Freeland and Brett Zattoni have been extraordinarily dominant this year. They’ve combined for a total of 483 rushing yards and nine touchdowns, with Freeland being more of the red-zone threat punching in seven for the year.

As far as the Bison’s defense, that’s another bright spot for Bellefonte in this contest. Clearfield has let a total of 80 points on the board against them in four games, which have to be concerning numbers for them going against a star in CJ Funk. They’ll need to figure out how to stop him, and Kyle Myers at that.

And just like the Red Raiders’ previous opponent, and Bellefonte themselves, they face the dilemma of looking good against non-winning teams. The Bison’s competition have combined for a total record of 6-10.

Unlike the toss-up game against Tyrone, the Red Raiders have more of an advantage in this one on paper — but Clearfield is still undefeated, and this game is still on the road.

WITH THAT BEING SAID…

Bellefonte is a playoff team, we know this already, but what exactly kind of playoff team are they?

These next two games will tell us that story.

If the Red Raiders can get wins in their next two games against Tyrone and Clearfield, Bellefonte should be able to roll until their last game of the season with an undefeated record. In that game, they square off against their currently undefeated rival, Bald Eagle Area.

If that happens, they’ll look like a legitimate threat for the PIAA Pennsylvania State Championships.

And that’s why the next two weeks are so vital for Bellefonte.

It will tell us exactly who the Red Raiders are, and what exactly we can expect from them in a playoff run.

Can Caleb Rocky and the Bellefonte defense continue the domination against two potent offenses with multiple weapons?

Can CJ Funk continue the “beast mode” play against elite competition?

How will Kyle Myers fare going up against undefeated teams? Can he handle the pressure?

Will they show that the lack of competition has no factor in their performance?

How far can they go into the playoffs against these type of teams?

There are so many questions that we will have the answers to in the next two weeks regarding the Red Raiders.

With that being said, it’s exam time for Bellefonte.

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