This
Date in Blue Devil Football
•
October 11th •
By BOB
MILLER
Daily Herald Sports Editor
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For head coach Chet Dillen and assistants Russ Kowalchick, Bob Fowler
Mike Hoffer and Earl Henry, Bellwood-Antis ran over 10 straight opponents
to finish undefeated (10-0) in 1963, including a 46-0 win over Southern
Huntingdon on October 11, 1963.
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B-A used a devastating combination of air and ground attack to subdue
the Rockets.
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B-A jumped out to a quick advantage with 20 first-quarter points and 19
more in the second quarter for an insurmountable 39-0 halftime lead.
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Bill Cherry scored on the first series of the contest on a nine-yard run.
Three plays later, The Blue Devils recovered a Southern fumble. Cherry
ran 16 yards for the score and added the PAT rush.
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Taking over after forcing a punt near midfield, Walter Rhoades threw a
49-yard TD pass to Bud Colyer on the first play from scrimmage. Rhoades
ran for the extra point.
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The second period was all Bill Cherry. First Cherry galloped 65 yards
for a score. On the first play after the kickoff, Cherry pilfered a Rocket
pass and returned it 50 yards for a another TD. Then following a 33 yard
pass completion from Rhoades to Ron Edmiston to set up the score, Cherry
tallied again from the nine.
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A fumble recovery by Denny Guyer led to the only score of the second half.
The Blue Devils drove 65 yards for the final sixpointer with Rhoades scoring
from the two and running in the extra point.
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Cherry scored five TDs and rushed for 152 yards on just 11 carries. The
school record for TDs and points in one game, in case you were wondering,
is six touchdowns and 40 points set against Saxton-Liberty by Ron Raugh
in 1946.
Cherry led Blair County in scoring in 1963 with 148 points and Rhoades
was second with 114 and both Cherry (1,218) and Rhoades (1,195) rushed
for more than 1,000 yards.
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On October 11, 1952,
Bellwood-Antis shut out Saxton-Liberty 21-0 for their fourth shutout and
fifth straight win for head coach Earl Strohm and assistant Wally Fields.
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With Don Garman out for the season due to a broken hand, suffered in the
Blue Devils 6-0 win over Huntingdon, Chub Dillen climaxed a 40-yard drive
early in the game by smashing through the middle and rambling for an 18-yard
touchdown. Don Clark set up the TD with a 22-yard jaunt to the Saxton-Liberty-18.
Dean Rossi raced around right end for the PAT and a 7-0 lead.
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Dillen then stopped a Wildcat scoring threat with a pass interception
at the BA-4 which he returned to the BA-23. On the next play, Rossi dashed
all the way to the Saxton-Liberty 22, a pickup of 55 yards, but the series
stalled.
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In the second quarter, Bob Bilka scooted 26 yards to the Saxton-45. On
the next call, Dillen heaved a 45-yard scoring bomb to Rossi. Rossi made
it 14-0, taking a pitch from Clark and running in the extra point.
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Still in the second stanza, Clark ran an intercepted pass 15 yards to
the SL-40. Dillen fired a pass to left end Dean Campbell who caught the
ball at the 23 and raced for a TD. Dillen then passed to Rossi for the
PAT and all the scoring was on the board before halftime.
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Bellwood-Antis was to go 8-2 in 1952. B-A was undefeated during the regular
season in 1950
and 1951,
although the Blue Devils lost a playoff game in ’51, and were undefeated
in 1953
and 1954.
By those standards, the 8-2 mark in 1952 was a bad year.
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The Bellwood-Antis football team traveled to Mount Union on October
11, 1947
for the Blue Devils third straight game on the road.
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B-A (5-1) came back home with their fifth straight win after a season
opening 14-0 loss to Tyrone. Mount Union gave the Blue Devils all they
could handle, trailing by only one slim point over the stubborn, upset-minded
Trojans until notching an insurance score midway through the fourth quarter
for a 13-6 win in the 2 p.m. start on Saturday afternoon.
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After a scoreless first quarter, Bellwood-Antis was forced to punt. From
the BA-40, Richard Casaday boomed a long kick that hit at about the Mount
Union-10 and bounced and skidded into the MU endzone, where the Trojan
kick returner fumbled it. Earl Henry recovered the ball for a Bellwood-Antis
touchdown and Bob Sitman added the extra point kick for a 7-0 lead.
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Mount Union came right back with a 13-play, 65-yard drive to put six points
of their own on the scoreboard. Bellwood-Antis stopped the Trojans short
of the goal line on the PAT try to keep the 7-6 lead.
—
Roy Pickens fielded the following kickoff and with a beautiful broken-field
run, returned the kick 55 yards to the MU-37. Pickens then went 12 yards
on the first play from scrimmage, but the half ended before there was
any further scoring.
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Early in the fourth quarter, Mount was forced to kick by the hounding
pressure of the Blue Devil defense led by Earl Henry, Harold “Buss”
Carr and Tommy Conrad. Beginning at their own 32, B-A drove all the way
for another tally. Key plays were a scamper by Pickens skirting right
end and then several plays later, hitting off left tackle for a gain of
18 yards. Both runs moved the sticks for important first downs. Gene “Mouse”
Moore bucked over for the two-yard TD to give the Blue Devils a little
more breathing room.
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Mount Union refused to go meekly however, resorting to trying a fake punt.
The Blue Devil defense was up to the task however as Carr steamrolled
the Trojan ballcarrier after a short gain and B-A took over and drove
to the MU-five where the game ended.
—
Under head coach Lemont “Duke” Burkholder, Bellwood-Antis went
11-0 in 1946,
outscoring the opposition 337-6, with the only TD scored by Tyrone in
a 26-6 win in the opener, lost to Tyrone
in the first game of 1947
and then won 10 straight to finish 10-1. The 21 wins over two years was
a school record, that was tied in 1950
(11-0) and 1951 (10-1) and finally eclipsed in 2000
(11-1) and 2001 (11-1).
