By Kenny Varner

SPRING MILLS – Round two.

For the second time this season, the Bald Eagle Area football team made the trek to Penns Valley for a Mountain League gridiron contest.

In the first game, the Eagles were able to take home the win, 47-27.

The two met in the second round of the District 6 Class AA action, with the winner moving onto the championship game and a meeting with Bishop Guilfoyle.

The Rams would combine an opportunistic offense and a shut down defense and took home the 34-14 victory.

This time it would be the Rams that would capture the team’s first appearance in a District final since 1991.

The game would not be decided until late in fourth quarter, as the Eagles would battle to the very end, leaving it all on the field.

“They fought really hard. We knew coming in here it was going to be a difficult task,” said Bald Eagle coach Jesse Nagle. “Purchase Line kind of gave them the game plan. Bring as much pressure as you can and hopefully we don’t block it. We struggled doing that. Sometimes you get them sometimes you don’t. Tonight they were the better team.”

The game started out as a defensive contest early on. Neither team was able to score until the second quarter.

Penns Valley struck first, as quarterback Jackson Romig threw a 5-yard TD pass to Hunter Lyons. With the Ty Watson kick at 11:56, the Rams led 7-0.

Minutes later before anyone got to settle back in Bald Eagle lit up the scoreboard

Bald Eagle’s Carson Nagle launched a 25-yard TD pass to Kahale Burns, tied things at seven at 11:14.

The game turned into the track meet as Penns Valley would quickly take the lead on another strike through the air.

Romig took the ball on the and tucked it in and scampered for 41-yard run (Watson kick), 10:03.

This time it was mere seconds before the Eagles would knot the ball game up again. This time Nagle found Cam Watkins for 70-yard pass to Camron Watkins (Burns kick), 9:53.

Penns Valley rounded out the first half scoring when the Rams did an double reverse pass, giving Danin Kerstetter the ball. He was able to find a wide open Romig on a  20-yard TD pass.

As the two teams went into the intermission, the Rams had the 21-14 advantage.

Defense would take center stage in the second half.

Going into the final stanza, Bald Eagle was able to put themselves deep into Rams territory on a Gavin Eckley 88-yard run. However, the Rams defense turned the Eagles later in drive, turning it over on downs at the one.

Penns Valley would put their team up 27-14 on a Watson 6-yard run with 8:27 left.

Late in the contest the Eagles were able to drive once again, getting the ball to the Penns Valley side of the field

KOllin Brungart stepped in front of a the Eagles receiver and rambled to the end zone on an 87-yard interception ending the contest at 0:56.