GAME FIVE B-A Blue Devils: 46 Southern Huntingdon Rockets: 0 Friday, September 26, 2008 • Three Springs, Pennsylvania
By Bob Miller | Daily Herald Sports Editor
— After a slow start on offense at the beginning of the season, everything has been clicking for the Blue Devils of Bellwood-Antis. The Devils scored on offense all six times that the first team was in the game in racking up a 46-0 victory over Southern Huntingdon, while the defense tossed their third straight shutout in holding Southern Huntingdon to just 52 yards total offense. — The Blue Devils struck quickly in building a lead against Southern. — Taking the opening kickoff, B-A took just four plays to get on the scoreboard. Zach McCaulley got loose over the right side behind some devastating blocking that freed up the entire side and raced 64 yards untouched for the opening score of the game. — Southern Huntingdon, playing without standout quarterback Zach Crull who broke his arm in last week’s Southern Huntingdon loss to undefeated Mount Union, was no match for the Blue Devils. Crull had a hand in 12 of the 14 touchdowns the Rockets had a scored in the first four games. The Rockets managed just one first-half first down and that wasn’t until the final minutes before the break, with Bellwood-Antis in front 33-0. Southern punted five straight times in the first half. The Bellwood-Antis defense forced four straight three-and-outs before SH finally ran six plays on their last series of the half. — Starting from their own 45, Nate Gray hit Tim Collier for a 32-yard gain. A play later, McCaulley, who led all runners with 113 yards and three TDs on just 11 carries, dashed 12 yards for his second score. — On their next series from scrimmage, the Blue Devils started from the SH-38 after a six-yard Southern punt. Gray found Collier all alone behind the Southern secondary for a 33-yard TD. Tyler Geis kicked the PAT for a 19-0 advantage after one stanza. — In the second quarter, Buddy Shaw returned a Rocket punt 30 yards to the SH-15. McCaulley carried once for four yards, then for the 11-yard TD, and Geis added the extra point. — Bellwood-Antis scored once more in the quarter when Gray located Collier alone for a 26-yard TD pass. Geis connected on the PAT for a 33-0 lead at the half. — “We were really happy with the way we have been playing defensively the last couple weeks,” said Bellwood-Antis coach John Hayes. “The kids have really been on top of things, haven’t given up anything cheap or dumb. That is big, if you make a team have to work every down to get something, sooner or later mistakes happen. It does make the offense easier when you have a short field like our defense kept giving the offense tonight. It lets you do pretty much what you want to do.” — Bellwood-Antis kicked off to Southern Huntingdon to begin the third quarter, forced another Southern punt and got the ball at the SH-28 after Gray intercepted a Daniel Goshorn pass. McCaulley raced 12 yards for a first down on his final carry of the night. One play later, Gray hit Geis over the middle for an 11-yard TD and first team offense was done for the night. Geis kicked the PAT and the mercy rule was invoked at the 9:56 mark of the third quarter. — Mark McCracken recovered a Rocket fumble at the SH-17. Two plays later, Buddy Shaw raced up the middle for a 15-yard TD. — “The line was a big key tonight. I think that’s where a big part of our improvement has come,” said Hayes. “We have started to be able to take charge both ways at the line of scrimmage, both blocking on offense and controlling the opponents offense when we are on defense. Nate Gray (five of six pass completions for three touchdowns and 118 yards passing) had a big game tonight. We had a couple automatics where he was able to take advantage of some things. — “Everybody was at the top of their game. That was real good to see. It was something we talked about coming out. We wanted to have a fresh, excited attitude about playing. Every play was to be a big play and going 100 percent on everyone of them. We did that early and got momentum, we got ahead and it got easier as the game went on.”
BLUE DEVIL NOTES: The shutout victory was the third straight for Bellwood-Antis. The last time the Blue Devils had three straight shutouts was the 2001 team that had four consecutive shutouts among 11 straight wins before dropping the District 6-AA championship to Bishop McCort… McCaulley has now scored 11 TDs in the last four games and rushed for over 100 yards for the third time this season totalling 581 yards on 66 carries, an average of 8.8 yards per carry… Gray now has eight 100-yard passing games, tied with Gary Hribik (1972-74) for third place on the B-A list. Gray’s three TD passes ties several B-A quarterbacks for the best single-game effort… Tim Collier has eight catches for 192 yards and two TDs.
