Mirror photo by Patrick Waksmunski
Penn Cambria’s Luke Shuagis (4) celebrates his touchdown reception with Carter McDermott.
CRESSON — Bedford senior Ethan Weber came into Friday night’s game against Penn Cambria averaging 14.5 yards per carry and somehow pushed that average even higher in the first half.
But with the game hanging in the balance in the fourth quarter, Penn Cambria senior Garrett Harrold — known for his versatile skills as a quarterback — made a huge play defensively to lower that average a bit.
With Bedford down seven and facing a second-and-9 late in the fourth quarter, Harrold tackled Weber for a 7-yard loss to stall Bedford’s final legitimate drive in the Panthers’ 27-20 victory.
“He’s a phenomenal football player,” Penn Cambria coach Nick Felus said. “I remember his sophomore year, the defensive (coaching) staff kept asking me to let him play some defense, and we just we’re there yet with him. We wanted to make sure physically he could grow and mature a little bit. With the offense we run, it’s hard to play both ways. There’s a lot going on with our offense, so defensively last year he found his niche at linebacker. He’s around the football, he’s physical, he has a nose for the football and he makes plays.”
Penn Cambria’s win pushed its record to 6-0 while Bedford suffered its first loss of the season and now stands at 5-1.
Play of the game: As big of a play as Harrold’s tackle was, a controversial muffed punt with 7:05 left in the second quarter with the game tied set up a 21-yard Harrold touchdown run just two plays later.
Officials ruled Harrold’s punt nicked a Bedford return man and Penn Cambria recovered it, though Bedford’s players never went for the ball and denied anyone touched it.
“The officials make the calls,” Bedford coach Kevin Steele said. “It’s over now. It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t make a difference at this point.”
Harrold’s touchdown put Penn Cambria up, 21-14, and the Panthers led the rest of the way.
Player of the game: Harrold was 9-for-21 for 140 yards and threw a 34-yard touchdown pass to Luke Shuagis and also rushed the ball 20 times for 122 yards in addition to his big defensive play.
Unsung hero: Weber lived up to his hype and average coming into the game and finished with 206 yards rushing on 19 carries (10.8 yards per carry) and had three touchdown runs, including ones of 86 and 55 yards.
Defensive turnaround: Weber had 179 yards rushing in the first half and just 27 in the second half.
“We made a couple minor adjustments on formations,” Harrold said. “Ultimately, it just came down to heart. We wanted it in the second half. We weren’t happy with how the first half happened, and we were determined to make a stand on defense. Everyone was talking about their run game. We had something to prove, and we did that in the second half.”
Grove in a groove: Just as he did against Central to seal that game, Penn Cambria senior running back Zach Grove dominated late and finished with 128 yards rushing on just 13 carries. He also had a pair of touchdown runs.
“What can you say about Grove?” Felus said. “He just gets stronger and stronger as the game goes on. We knew in that fourth quarter, it was his time. Teams key on Garrett, and you’ve got Grove and our receivers blocking downfield. I’ve never been around a group of receivers that block downfield like they do.”
Most vital statistic: Bedford fumbled three times and lost two and also threw an interception. Penn Cambria had no turnovers.
Felus: “This group we have here on the mountain, they are explosive and we’ll go to war with them every Friday night. We have played in big games all year. We have been ahead, we have been behind and we’ve had chances to close out games against very good teams where we didn’t do it. The word is resilient. These kids take a lot of pride, and they have prepared and opened some eyes.”
Steele: “Obviously when you play good teams like that, you’re not able to make mistakes the way we did. I’m disappointed that we made the turnovers. We had numerous mistakes that certainly had a big impact on the game, but credit to them, they were able to make enough plays to win. We’ll learn from it and get back to work on Monday and get better.”
Harrold on the possibility of winning the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference: “It would mean the world. Our guys have worked so hard for this. From where we began to where we’re at now — my freshman year, this program had its faults. But we have slowly progressed and worked our tails off to get to where we’re at right now.”
Notable: Gavin Harrold had an interception for Penn Cambria. … The Panthers had a chance to put the game away in the red zone on their final two drives, but Bedford held them to no points. The first drive ended with a pass breakup on fourth down by A.J. Koontz and the second was a pass breakup on fourth down by Quincy Swaim. … The Bisons nearly tied the game on fourth-down from the Penn Cambria 24-yard line with 1:05 left in the third quarter, but Weber couldn’t come up with a pass with an open field in front of him. … Lily Sheehan was named homecoming queen. The Penn Cambria king was to be announced at a dance following the game.
Records: Bedford (5-1); Penn Cambria (6-0).
Next week: Bedford travels to Richland, and Penn Cambria hosts Somerset.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Bedford 7 13 0 0 — 20
Penn Cambria 7 14 6 0 — 27
First Quarter
PC–Grove 7 run (Dillon kick), 7:56.
B–Weber 9 run (Horne kick), 1:41.
Second Quarter
PC–Shuagis 34 pass from Gar. Harrold (Dillon kick), 8:54.
B–Weber 55 run (Horne kick), 8:00.
PC–Gar. Harrold 21 run (Dillon kick), 6:40.
B–Weber 86 run (kick blocked), 6:20.
Third Quarter
PC–Grove 2 run (kick failed), 7:45.
TEAM STATISTICS B PC
First downs 16 16
Total yards 348 398
Rushes-yards 40-311 36-258
Yards passing 37 140
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 5-15-1 9-21-0
Punts-avg. 3-40.3 3-36.7
Fumbles-lost 3-2 0-0
Penalties-yards 5-27 7-40
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING–Bedford, Weber 19-206, Ressler 14-73, Washington 4-19, Sheppard 1-8, Swaim 2-5. Penn Cambria, Grove 13-128, Gar. Harrold 20-122, Gav. Harrold 1-7, McDermott 1-4, TEAM 1-(-3).
PASSING–Bedford, Ressler 5-15-1-37. Penn Cambria, Gar. Harrold 9-21-0-140.
RECEIVING–Bedford, Weber 3-15, Washington 2-22. Penn Cambria, Chirdon 3-27, McDermott 2-61, Grove 2-4, Shuagis 1-34, Gav. Harrold 1-14.
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