ROBESONIA - After playing favored Conrad Weiser even for a half Friday night, the turning point seemed at hand for visiting Blue Mountain in the debut of Cory Mabry as its head coach.
Unfortunately for the Eagles, the fumble they recovered on the first play of the second half was not a springboard to victory. No, the turning point came three plays later when quarterback Shane Grapsy was sacked and the fired up Scouts went on to score four unanswered touchdowns in coasting to a 48-20 victory.
"We did some really nice things in the first half, but they simply handled us up front and controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage," Mabry said. "Their offensive linemen not only did a good job up front, but got into our linebackers and dominated in the middle.
"Then, when they ran that sweep to the outside, they simply had too much speed. That's a tough combination to contain for any defense."
Doing most of the damage was Aidan Brosious, rushing for two touchdowns in both halves. Three times he scored untouched on delays up the middle after taking a direct snap and rushed for 56 of his 111 yards on his scoring runs.
Alex Guilbe carried 17 times for 151 yards to lead the Scouts (1-0) to 390 yards rushing. He capped the three-TD outburst in the third quarter with a 9-yard run, making the score 35-14.
Conrad Weiser began to dominate the statistics in the second quarter, but the Eagles (0-1) battled back for a 14-14 halftime tie. Zack Yackenchick caught a 15-yard scoring pass from Grapsy with 45 seconds left to cap a 10-play, 81-yard drive. A 31-yard run by Will Bornstein and two Grapsy completions to Tristan Dickey for a combined 29 yards keyed the drive.
Bornstein also had the key play in the scoring drive to open the game, completing a 26-yard option pass to Dickey on third-and-9. Six plays later, Grapsy and Dakota Roberts combined on a 37-yard touchdown pass to cap the nine-play, 80-yard drive.
Blue Mountain had to juggle its lines early in the second quarter when center/defensive tackle Tyler Reber left the game with a leg injury. After he left the game, the Scouts went on a five-play, 65-yard scoring drive, tying the score 7-7 on an 8-yard run by Brosious.
On the ensuing kickoff, the Eagles lost the ball on a fumble and Brosious capped a four-play, 28-yard drive with a 24-yard run for a 14-7 lead. In that drive the Scouts overcame a second-and-28 because of a penalty, getting a 13-yard run from Brosious.
Following the tying TD by Yackenchick, the Scouts appeared to take the lead on a 90-yard kickoff return by Brosious. That TD was nullified by a holding penalty, but the Eagles were unable to take advantage of that break or the fumble recovery to open the second half.
Bornstein carried 15 times for 99 yards for Blue Mountain.
Game Summary
Blue Mtn. (0-1) 7 7 0 6 - 20
CW (1-0) 0 14 21 13 - 48