GAME THREE
B-A Blue Devils: 47
Bald Eagle Area:15
Saturday, September 18, 2004 • Bellwood-Antis Memorial Field • Bellwood, Pennsylvania
By Bob Miller | Daily Herald Sports Editor
— The two teams had never before faced each other on the football field. Thrown together because both is now a member of the Nittany Division of the new Mountain Athletic Football Conference, Bald Eagle Area traveled south on what was old Route 220 to Bellwood on Saturday night. Moved back from Friday because of the Hurricane Ivan rain, the skies were clear and sunny, although a bit cool for the middle of September. The Bellwood-Antis offense was anything but cool however, led by sophomore tailback Josh Kleinfelter, who broke the B-A sophomore rushing mark for a game with nine carries for 198 yards in a 47-15 victory.
— B-A rushed for 240 yards and senior quarterback Zach Tomchick didn’t pass much, but was a perfect four-for-four for another 54 yards and a touchdown.
— Kleinfelter opened the Blue Devils first possession with a seven-yard blast and later added a dozen-yard pick-up during the seven-play 35-yard march after the Bald Eagle Area punter shanked a punt to give Bellwood-Antis excellent field position to start their offense. Travis Ehredt crashed in from a yard out for the first of four B-A first quarter scores and Evan Celmo booted the extra point.
— While the B-A offense was in high gear, except for one 40-yard scamper by Jonathon Rishell on the first play following the Ehredt TD, the Blue Devil defense kept the Bald Eagles out if Bellwood-Antis territory, until the second quarter with B-A in firm command of the ballgame 27-0.
— The B-A “D” stopped senior fullback Seth Nyman for no gain after Rishell’s long jaunt, stuffed Angel Resto for a four-yard loss on a tackle by Lance Lafferty and then when BEA quarterback Camdin Crouse tried to go to the air, B-A senior inside linebacker Dwayne Cherry stepped in front of the receiver, picked off the interception and rumbled 74 yards for a touchdown.
— The Bellwood-Antis defense held Nyman, who gained over 200 yards in EACH of his first two games to just 50 yards on 13 carries, including a 16-yard run for a TD late in the game against the B-A reserves.
— Bald Eagle set up with a fourth-down-and-one at their own 37 on their next series when first-year coach Mike Markle decided to go for it on fourth down with his team trailing by two scores. B-A defensive back Aaron Geis dropped Resto for a one-yard loss and the Blue Devils took over at the Eagles-36.
— Kleinfelter turned the right corner and raced 23 yards on first down to key the march and Derrick Hoffer went in from the one for the TD. Celmo added the PAT kick for a 20-0 B-A lead.
— Bald Eagle Area managed one yard in three tries and was forced to punt the ball back to the Blue Devils with time running out in the opening quarter.
— It took just one play for Kleinfelter, who slipped through a hole off the right side, juked a defender out his shoes in the open field, and scooted down the right sideline for a 58-yard TD. With 0:13.8 to play in the quarter, Celmo’s kick improved the B-A advantage to 27-0.
— “Josh had some very nice runs, tonight,” said B-A head coach John Hayes. “The line blocked well and he was able to break some tackles and make some people miss.” Kleinfelter, who had six carries for 178 in the first half, has 347 yards in the first three games of the season for the Blue Devils.
— John Graham holds the B-A rushing record for sophomores with 514 yards (1964). Dave Miller’s 427 yards rushing in 1998 is the most since Graham set the mark, Don Lingenfelter rushed for 405 yards as a sophomore in 1995.
— BEA finally was able to put a drive together against the Bellwood-Antis defense, getting as far as the BA-29, but hurt themselves with a pair of 10-yard penalties, eventually punting from the BA-43.
— The Blue Devils started from their own 13 yard line, but moved quickly, marching 87 yards for another score. Tomchick rolled left to pick up 13 yards after B-A lost two on the first play. Then it was Kleinfelter again, getting loose in the Eagles secondary for a 68-yard sprint to the BEA-8. Hoffer lost two, but then picked up 10, to get the pigskin to the BEA-2. With everybody expecting more smash-mouth football, Bellwood-Antis style, Tomchick faked a handoff up the gut, stepped back and lofted a pass to a wide-open Troy Brunner in the end zone for the TD.
— “Sometimes you have to take what they give you,” explained coach Hayes. “They kind of overplayed the formation side there. It was kind of a ‘gim’me’ and we took advantage of that. The quarterbacks and receivers work hard and we throw the ball a lot in practice, so we have to throw it a little bit in the games.”
— Bald Eagle Area got on the scoreboard with half a minute to play when Crouse hit Rishell with a nine-yard TD pass to climax a 65-yard march. Nyman had the key rush with a 17-yard gain and Crouse completed four passes for 39 yards, including the TD.
— Tomchick connected with Chris Edmiston for 14 yards, and Hoffer for 31, to key a 63-yard Blue Devil drive in the third quarter and Kleinfelter covered the final 12 yards for his second TD of the night.
— The final score for the Blue Devils came at the 1:03 mark of the third quarter when Ian Crist crunched one yard for the six-pointer and Celmo added his fifth PAT of the game.
— Ehredt had a pair of totes for 13 yards to begin the drive and Bald Eagle Area hurt themselves again with three penalties during the series, including two on the same play, one during the play and then a personal, dead-ball foul after the play, to move the ball to the four-yard line. Hoffer picked up three and then Crist burst through the left side of the line for the score.
— Bald Eagle put the final TD on the board against the B-A reserves, with Nyman going over the right side for the 16-yard score after a 15-yard B-A penalty moved the ball from the BA-31 to the 16. Rishell grabbed a pass from Crouse for the two-point PAT.
— Cherry and teammates Lafferty, Brandon Cherry, Adam Martin, Tony DelGrosso, Tyler Narehood and a host of others held the BEA offense to one score against the first team defense after the Bald Eagles had score 60 points in their first two games. Narehood, a 5-9, 275-pound sophomore recorded a quarterback sack and then tackled the BEA running back for a loss on back-to-back plays in the fourth quarter and also had another quarterback sack earlier.
— Junior Dan Kovac and sophomore Brandon Pruznak also had pass interceptions for the Blue Devils.
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