There was a time early in the '97 season that Grove City High School head football coach Jeff Bell was fearful he was going to have to eat his words.

His Eagles were grounded, having commenced the campaign by dropping back-to-back non-league games, and Bell was haunted by an area newspaper's pre-season headline:``First-year coach eyes playoff spot.'' However, after guiding Grove City to seven wins in its last eight games, Bell has the Eagles soaring into tonight's District 10 Class AAA title tilt against defending champion Greenville, beginning 8 p.m. at Veteran's Stadium, Erie.

``After the first couple games, when we started out 0-2, I told myself, `Next year, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut,''' Bell recalled. ``I kept seeing that (newspaper) article. But as the season went on, I told the kids, `We're gonna make the playoffs; we still have a shot at the district title. ...

``I felt, if ever there's a year that we've got a shot, this is it. And here we are, (hours) away from playing for the district championship.''

Although the Eagles' exhilirating 22-20 D-10 semifinal triumph over Titusville may have surprised some, Bell was not among them.

``I felt we had a shot at a 7-2 season, and we're 7-3 at this point,'' he said. ``A lot of people said, `You've gotta be happy.' But to be honest with you, I thought we'd be in this situation. It's like I told the kids: `If you don't believe in it, nobody else is gonna believe.'

``One of the things we had to overcome,'' Bell admitted, ``was people saying, `Same old Grove City.' I told the kids, `You can't listen to that. You have to take care of what happens on the field.' And even after the 0-2 start, the kids believed in me and turned things around. It would've been easy for them to think, `We're 0-2 and this is a first-year coach; this guy doesn't know what he's doing.' ''

But Bell made believers of his club, as evidenced last week.

``The only thing that matters, is look at the scoreboard. If you make enough plays, anything can happen,'' Bell told his players.

Sure enough, a Titusville turnover with 1:49 remaining enabled the Eagles to rally from a 20-14 deficit.

``That has to go down as ... well, it was a great feeling,'' Bell said. ``With 1:40-something left, I was standing there on the sideline thinking, `What am I gonna say to these kids? How am I gonna handle this (loss)?

``But it's something I'll never forget. I really liked the way the kids responded.''

Now Bell is curious to see how his club responds to Greenville (10-0).

``You could get film from five years ago, watch it, and go into a game now and have them pretty well scouted. The only things that change are the names,'' Bell said. ``Bob Stone and his coaching staff, they do a fantastic job; they're good coaches. At the beginning of the year he had to replace about 20 kids from last year's team. When you can do that like they did, they you're doing a great job coaching.''

Bell publicly has said that, in time, he would like to emulate Grove City's program after Stone's successful stint at Greenville: a 163-40-6 ledger in 20 years at the helm, the second- highest victory total in Herald coverage-area scholastic gridiron annals.

Stone has led the Trojans to D-10 titles in '93 and '96 and posted a 13-11 career playoff mark. By contrast, tonight's test will be Bell's second. However, Stone sees no apparent advantage.

``Once you get to this stage of the season, everybody has 10 games under their belt, so I'm not sure how much more experience you need,'' the veteran mentor reasoned.

One point on which Stone and Bell agree was eliminating mistakes.

``You just have to play good, solid football,'' Stone simply stated. ``Turnovers can kill you, (and) missed tackles. You just have to play solid football when you get to this stage.''

``We're gonna have to score. We can't expect one touchdown is gonna win the game, it's gonna take more than one,'' Bell said. ``Our kids are just gonna have to make plays. We can't make mistakes. We can't have 5-yard illegal procedure penalties that put us in a hole. We have to make positive yards on every play. When you're in 3rd-and-long against them, you're in trouble.''

Bell said the Eagles' offense took flight when Jason Russell's blocking for Anthony Errera generated Grove City's ground game. Basically a wing- T team, Grove City has used some I formation of late. And Errera's 120- yard rushing performance, complemented by the 9-for-12 marksmanship of Bell's son, Justin, enabled the Eagles to trim Titusville.

Offensive output will be a key for his club, Bell forecasted.

``Everybody says, `Keep the ball away from Greenville.' But eventually, they're gonna get the ball. The big thing, if they're gonna score, is to make them score on a 15-play drive and, hopefully, something will happen. The longer an offensive team is out there, the closer it may come to making mistakes. We've gotta make them go down the field and hope (Joe Korcinsky) has to carry 40 times, gets tired and fumbles. We have to hope for a break. If we let them score on 4- or 5-play drives, that's not the way to go.

``We're not gonna stop Korcinsky,'' Bell admitted regarding Greenville's senior tailback who could surpass former Sharon standout Michael Archie's career county rushing mark (5,136). ``Nobody has stopped that kid in three years. I told my kids that, if we can keep him to 100, 125 yards, I like our chances. But if he gets up in the 200-yard category, we're beat. We can't let him have those big runs.

``We have to score. A low-scoring game favors them. Their offense is averaging 33 points a game,'' Bell noted.

``I really feel the key to the game is _ Korcinsky is gonna get his yards _ but our offense being able to score on them,'' Bell continued. ``We have to put a couple (TDs) on the board. If we go into the fourth quarter and it's relatively close, I like our chances. But if they get out on top early, we're in trouble. No. 1, we're not a big-play team; and secondly, you're playing into Greenville's hands if we've gotta throw the ball. If you've got them guessing, that's the best position to be in.''

Stone said if his club is not prepared psychologically, ``shame on us,'' but Bell is more blunt.

``To beat 'em, we'll have to play the best game we've played all year. And like I told the kids, `If you can't play your best game in the District 10 championship, chances are, you're probably not gonna play it.' ''