GAME FIVE
B-A Blue Devils: 28
Southern Huntingdon Rockets:0
Friday, October 1, 2004 • Bellwood-Antis Memorial Field • Bellwood, Pennsylvania
By Bob Miller | Daily Herald Sports Editor
It wasn’t as easy as the final score would seem to indicate, but Bellwood-Antis defeated Southern Huntingdon 28-0 on the Blue Devils annual Homecoming. — “Southern really played an inspired game,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach John Hayes. “They played hard. I think we are sitting here, successful with a victory, simply because we made some big plays.” — Several things come easily to mind to back Hayes statement. The Blue Devils employed a goal line stand, a fumble recovery and a pass interception on defense and several key plays on offense, including the return on the pick, which covered 40 yards and gave the B-A offense the ball at the Southern six-yard line. — B-A kicked off to begin the contest and forced Southern to punt. Beginning from the Rocket-49, Bellwood-Antis quick-marched for a fast score. Josh Kleinfelter dashed 15 yards for a first down on the opening play of the short series and a Southern penalty moved the ball 15 yards further down the field. Kleinfelter had his number called again and responded with the 19-yard touchdown. Evan Celmo’s PAT kick gave the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead at the 7:02 mark of the first quarter. — On the ensuing kickoff, the Rockets’ John Neuder matched his number with a 44-yard return to set Southern up at the BA-47. The Rockets drove to the BA-six in quick fashion, carving out seven gains of four yards or more to get a first-and-goal. The Blue Devils defense stepped it up a notch here to thwart the Rockets scoring punch. Finally, with a fourth-down-and-goal at the BA-1, linebacker Dwayne Cherry swept in to drop Southern running back Neuder for a yard loss to hand the ball over to the B-A offense. — “After the first series they were beating us at the line,” said Hayes. “They were getting penetration, forcing losses. They were doing pretty much what they wanted to do on defense.” — With the remainder of the half scoreless, Bellwood-Antis scored on their first three possessions of the third quarter to pretty much wrap up the win. Senior quarterback Zach Tomchick was forced out of the pocket, pulled the ball down and rambled around the left side for a 20-yard gain for a key first down. Then with a fourth-and four, Tomchick hit sophomore Devon Clapper on a middle screen and Clapper outran everybody for a 24-yard TD on another big play. Classmate Kleinfelter made it easy by absolutely leveling the safety on the left side. Celmo booted the second of four PAT kicks, but really had to earn it, when a pair of B-A five-yard penalties forced the sophomore kicker to boot a 30-yard PAT. — On the next series, Southern Huntingdon drove from their own 10 to the BA-43 before defensive lineman Adam Martin came up with a big fumble to stop the potential scoring threat. Senior fullback Travis Ehredt showed off his speed, taking a pitch on the first call around the left side for a 21-yard gain. After Kleinfelter, who led the Blue Devils with 66 yards on 13 carries, picked up five yards, Clapper went over the right side, juked to the outside and motored 21 yards to the Rocket-9. Ehredt covered that distance on the next play for the Blue DevilsÕ second TD of the quarter. — “At halftime, we try to take advantage of what we see,” said Hayes. “It’s not science, but the coaches do a good job observing, seeing what the opponents have been doing to stop us and what we can do to take advantage of that. They came up with the idea, we had to get outside quick. It still wasn’t easy. If Devon Clapper doesn’t make that screen pass, it was still anybody’s ballgame.” — Southern Huntingdon, which was able to complete only one pass to their own receivers, tossed one to the Blue Devils on the first play of the next series. Derrick Hoffer returned the interception 40 yards down the left sideline,tyrone to the SH-6. Mark Rogers, in uniform for the first time, since being injured in the Tyrone game got the four-yard TD two plays later and Celmo’s extra point gave Bellwood-Antis a 28-0 advantage. — “The screen pass was big,” explained Hayes. “The pick, getting us down in there was big. The goal line stand, to be able to stop their answer, at least gave us time and certainly kept us in the ballgame. It gave us some time to regroup and make the other big plays.”
Blue Devil notes: Kleinfelter now has 499 yards on 74 carries for the Blue Devils. John Graham set the school record for sophomores during the 1964 season with 514 yards. Kleinfelter needs 16 yards to break the 40-year old mark and has at least four games to play… With the Southern Huntingdon win, John Hayes has a 190-70-2 record at Bellwood-Antis.
