The Bellefonte junior varsity team came to Tyrone loaded for bear on Monday night or perhaps we should say loaded for Eagle. The Tyrone Jayvees met the Red raiders and fought them back-and-forth, neither asking nor giving any quarter. When the smoke had cleared, the outmanned Orange and Black had given a super effort in a 10-0 loss.
The teams moved up and down the field, but only one six-pointer was recorded, when Bellefonte pushed in a second quarter touchdown and added the extra point.
Although outmanned, the Tyrone defense was able to hold off several attempts by Bellefonte inside the Red Zone.
Tyler Updike and Richard Updike each saved a score with fumble recoveries in extremely crucial situations.
The Eagle defense gave up some yardage in the middle of the field, but except for that one exception was equal to every effort put forth by the Red Raiders.
“The defense played really well,” emphasized assistant coach Tom Miller. “Several times, Bellefonte had the ball in crucial situations and our guys were able to stop them short of the goal line.”
Loy Bonsell led Tyrone with 25 yards rushing on a slippery surface and Shane Christine added 15 more. Bellefonte was able to intercept several passes to stop drives by the Golden Eagles, when Tyrone tried to move the ball through the air.
Bellefonte added a safety with time running down in the fourth quarter to set the final score against the Eagles, who are undermanned with so many underclassmen starting or accumulating plenty of playing time for the Tyrone varsity.
“I was extremely proud of the defense tonight,” said Tyrone coach Chuck Banas. “We were outmanned, but the kids turned in a tremendous effort against a very tough Bellefonte squad.” Banas commented that the Bellefonte varsity coach told him after the game that the Raider coaches had told their kids that the game with Tyrone was going to be the “beginning of an effort to turn their program around”, a program which has been down recently, despite some excellent skill people on the varsity level.
“I was very happy with the effort of our kids. One of our goals is that we want to get better each game. More than wins at this level, improvement is what we want. To get our underclassmen and those others who don’t get much varsity time ready for when they get the call is one of our most important objectives. Tonight, I feel, that we achieved that particular goal.”
The Tyrone junior varsity travels to West Branch to battle the Warrior jayvees next Monday, Oct. 6, at 6 p.m.
