It’s been a long time since the Blue Mountain Eagles were last truly tested.
The Eagles, sitting at 7-1 overall, ran through their Schuylkill League schedule with little pushback. While there were a couple close quarters and halves, the Eagles ultimately dominated their competition, outscoring league opponents 243-65 with average margin of victory of 40.5 points per game.
The last time they were tested for a full 48 minutes was on Sept. 4 against the Southern Lehigh Spartans. Against the defending Class 4A state champions, the Eagles fell 45-36, going toe-to-toe with the Spartans for all four quarters.
“Came up short in the Southern Lehigh game, which was a great test for us. I think we learned some things from that ball game in regards to cleaning up our special teams and just situational awareness in a game,” Blue Mountain coach Chuck Kutz said. “Third-and-long or whatever it be, knowing where to be. So I think we’ve learned from that.”
Now the challenge awaiting the Eagles on Friday night will be the Shamokin Area Indians. Numerous outlets from around the state rank the Indians as the No. 1 team in Class 4A in the state. It’s easy to see why.
The Indians enter the week with a perfect 8-0 record and have outscored opponents 376-48.
Their closest win of the year was a mere 21-point win over Jersey Shore, 35-14. Across their games, they’ve allowed just 48 points, surrendering an average of 6 points per game while scoring an average of 47.
No opponent has scored more than 14 points against the Indians all season.
Headlining the Shamokin roster is quarterback and future Wake Forest Demon Deacon Logan Steele, who’ll play wide receiver at the college level.
An elite athlete, Steele has thrown for 830 yards and 10 touchdowns while also rushing for 842 yards and 14 touchdowns.
A run-first offense, Shamokin also has three other ballcarriers with 250+ yards this season, including Trey Taylor with 55 carries for 423 yards and Ryan Bickert with 25 carries for 255 yards. Noah Ringes has also had a great season on the ground with 55 carries for 460 yards, but suffered a broken collarbone against Jersey Shore and hasn’t played since.
With the No. 1 team in Class 4A coming to town, Blue Mountain is expecting a packed Eagles’ Nest on Friday night with plenty of fanfare around the game, including radio and television broadcasts.
“I think it’s a great environment for us to play a game,” Kutz said. “Especially it leads up to playoff atmosphere down the road here, as it does with just a quality, quality opponent. The big thing about Shamokin is I don’t know if they’ve lost a regular-season game in two seasons. So the confidence level of that program is very high, and you can’t put a price tag on ability with confidence.”
Over the last two-and-a-half regular seasons, Shamokin has been perfect — a winning streak of 28 consecutive regular-season games.
But that being said, Blue Mountain, winners of six straight, is playing with plenty of confidence of its own coming into this weekend.
“On our side of it, I think we’re playing with confidence as well,” Kutz noted. “And I think we have a pretty solid balanced attack offensively and defensively. So I think it’s going to be a great ball game. It reminds me of — I’m going back to 1999 — but we had two 11-0s, Danville and ourselves at our place going head-to-head. Now it was playoff time, but it was just a great atmosphere and I expect the same this weekend.”
Overall, Friday night’s matchup for Blue Mountain carries weight. The Eagles would love to find a signature victory, but ultimately the game will serve much more as a litmus test for the Eagles than anything.
A loss on Friday night would be a footnote more than anything at this point for Blue Mountain. The Eagles are a virtual lock for either the No. 1 or No. 2 seed in Class 4A and currently sit at No. 1 in the District 11 power rankings with Bethlehem Catholic just behind them.
But a win on Friday night would prove that this Eagles team is not just a District 11 championship contender, but possibly even a state title contender.
Outside of Schuylkill County, not many will be picking the Eagles to win, and understandably so. They’ve proven to be a great football team this season, but Shamokin has an undeniable track record and is a proven state championship contender. In many ways, the pressure isn’t on the Eagles in this game to win, but don’t take that as meaning they don’t care about the final score come Friday night.
“We’ll see this week where that litmus test takes us,” Kutz said. “We want to be competitive. We certainly want the win. The pressure really isn’t on us. We’re not sitting at number one. We have nothing to lose in the sense that, hey, we’re going to bring our best and get us ready for playoff time for sure. But certainly we’re looking to get a W.”