LOCK HAVEN, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles football team erased a 14-point deficit to tie the game in the final minutes, but Lock Haven kicked a game-winning field goal as time expired, as Clarion fell 38-35 to the Bald Eagles at Hubert Jack Stadium on Saturday.
Both teams took turns building leads of multiple touchdowns before watching them wither away, with Clarion opening the game with a 21-7 advantage before the Bald Eagles scored 28 unanswered points to make it 35-21 with under 10 minutes to play.
But the hallmark of the Golden Eagles' season to date has been the ability to score quickly, and that quality showed itself down the stretch. Taking the ball with 9:12 remaining in regulation, Clarion engineered a quick scoring drive, with Jase Ferguson converting a 3rd-and-10 with a 19-yard pass to Davon Jones to crack Lock Haven territory. Three plays later he lofted a deep ball down the right sideline to Austin VanHuss, who was tackled just shy of the goal line. Avante George punched it in on the next play, cutting the Bald Eagles' lead to 35-27.
The Bald Eagles looked like they might seal the win on their subsequent drive, marching down the field deep into the red zone, but a standout defensive play gave the Golden Eagles life. The Clarion defense stacked up Tucker Teats on third down, giving Lock Haven a 4th-and-5 at the Clarion 18-yard line and using their final timeout. Rather than attempt a field goal the Bald Eagles opted to try and convert the first down to seal the win. Disaster struck when Robert Footman's pass was tipped in the air by Ky'ian Mims and brought down by Najhir Kibidor, with the senior safety racing 29 yards down the sideline on the interception return.
A late hit by the Bald Eagles advanced the ball to midfield and the Golden Eagles were in business. Ferguson connected on a deep shot to Jones for 32 yards to enter the red zone, and two plays later hit a diving Tsirell Curry for a completion near the goal line. Ferguson called his own number and rushed into the end zone for his third touchdown of the game, and Ty Woods' extra point knotted things up at 35.
Lock Haven put on their own offensive display on the final drive, moving 35 yards in just 34 seconds to reach Caden Bauer's field goal range. Bauer kicked the winning field goal from 37 yards out as time expired.
The Golden Eagles looked to have everything going on offense early on, with Ferguson connecting with VanHuss on a 72-yard pass play to the goal line on the team's first offensive drive of the game. Ferguson rushed in from one yard out to give Clarion the lead, though Lock Haven responded with a one-yard touchdown run by Ezequiel Johnson. The second drive for Clarion was a 77-yard touchdown drive that consumed 7:29 of game clock, punctuated this time by a 12-yard run from Ferguson. The lead reached 21-7 early in the second quarter on a 20-yard pass from Ferguson to VanHuss.
Lock Haven began to assert themselves late in the second quarter. After Cameron Thomas picked off a Footman pass with under five to play in the first half, the Bald Eagles responded with an interception of their own when Troy Miller pulled down a tipped pass in Clarion territory. It took Lock Haven just two plays for Footman to find Mekhi Watson for a touchdown, and the Bald Eagles scored once more before half to make it 21-20. They took the lead on the first drive of the second half, with Teats scoring from four yards out on a rush to make it 27-21, and he would score again in the fourth quarter to make it 35-21.
Ferguson completed 20 of 43 passes for 348 yards, one touchdown and one interception, with the majority of those yards going to VanHuss. He exploded for his best stat line of the year, pulling down seven passes for 185 yards and a score. Jones, meanwhile, had seven catches for 74 yards. Ferguson was the team's leading rusher with 46 yards on the ground.
Defensively, Kibidor had a big day in the secondary, intercepting two passes and breaking up another. Thomas added a pick of his own to make three for the day, and the veteran safety also had 10 tackles.
