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Bald Eagle Area defeats Sharon 21-20 to reach Semifinals

By: STAFF REPORTS

CLARION– Bald Eagle Area used a bend but don’t break defense while coming up with a pair of big plays on offense and on special teams which all added up to a 21-20 victory over Sharon on Friday evenings PIAA quarterfinal round matchup at Clarion University.

With the score tied 14-14 Gage McClenahan returned a line drive punt 40 yards with 8:07 remaining in the third quarter giving the Bald Eagles a 21-14 lead.

Sharon would respond with a 23 yard touchdown pass from Lane Voytik to Marcel Smith-Austin with 4:11 to play in the third. The PAT attempt was blocked to keep Bald Eagle Area in the lead at 21-20.

The rest of the game the Bald Eagles would struggle on offense, but their defense would come up large when they had to. Late in the third quarter Bald Eagle Area stopped the Tigers on downs from the Bald Eagles 28 yard line.

Sharon used a 10 play drive to move from their own 35 to the BEA one yard line. However, a bad snap over the head of quarterback Voytik was recovered by the Bald Eagles at the 20 yard line.

Following a BEA punt, the Tigers once again drove from their own seven yard line to the Bald Eagles 28. Kaden Bittinger then intercepted a Votik pass at the 15 yard line.

With Sharon still having three timeouts, the Bald Eagles still had to attempt to run out the clock. After the third timeout with BEA faced with a fourth down with 3.6 seconds on the clock, McClenahan took the snap and ran from his own 43 back to the 12 before falling down with no time remaining to give the Bald Eagles the victory.

After a scoreless first quarter, McClenahan got the scoring started with a one yard run early in the second. The play followed a 66 yard pass play from Jaden Jones to Matthew Reese who broke a tackle at the 30 and being tackled at the one.

Sharon tied the score three minutes later on a Votik 23 yard touchdown pass to Ty Eilam knotting the score 7-7 with 8:03 left in the second.

Sharon would take the lead on a nine yard pass from Voytik to CJ Parchman at the six minute mark for a 14-7 lead.

Bald Eagle Area then tied the score 14-14 at halftime on a 14 yard pass from Jones to Reese.

The Bald Eagles rushed for just 21 yards for the game on 23 attempts although the last play ended up putting a huge dent in that stat.

Jones finished the game completing 11-of-24 passes for 148 yards with one touchdown..

Reese caught five passes for 105 yards with a score while McClenahan added five receptions for 37 yards.

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