GAME TWO B-A Blue Devils: 33 Everett Warriors: 29 Friday, September 5, 2008 • Memorial Field • Bellwood , Pennsylvania
By Bob Miller | Daily Herald Sports Editor
— Bellwood-Antis and Everett were engaged in a war on Friday night at Bellwood Memorial Stadium. The two ICC teams are in different divisions and they used distinctly different methods to pile up the yards. The time-tested ground attack for the Blue Devils proved to be just a little more effective on this night, with Bellwood-Antis jumping out to a 33-13 lead and then holding on as the Warriors mounted an aerial game with a ferocity that few in attendance could remember for high school football. — With the game on the line after Everett came back to score twice and make it a 33-29 ballgame and over seven minutes still to play, Bellwood-Antis was unable to move the sticks for first downs, punting the ball away twice. Everett drove the ball from their own 28 to the BA-22. On a fourth-and-eight, Trey Mock stepped in front of an Everett receiver for an interception at the BA-7 and returned the ball to the 25, where the Blue Devils were able to run out the clock to win the 33-29 thriller. — Everett senior quarterback Brad Swindell will probably have to ice down his arm after throwing 44 passes, completing 18 for 204 yards and all four of the Warriors’ touchdowns. — “It was a long game as a result of the many stoppages due to all the passing Everett did,” said Bellwood-Antis coach John Hayes. “That was one of the best two-minute, no-huddle performances that we have ever faced. I commend them, those athletes did the job. The line did a great job of providing protection, the quarterback did a super job of getting the ball away quickly. Most of the time, we didnÕt even come close to sacking him. We did force him out of the pocket, and then again that wasn’t the best thing to do. That number 8 (Zach Millin) hurt us with his speed to the outside. We knew it was coming and he still would outrun us for yardage. What they did, we knew coming in what to expect, but we didn’t expect it in the flurry at the end of the game.” — Bellwood-Antis utilized a quick-strike offense on Friday, perhaps scoring too quickly, because it gave Everett too many chances to keep coming back. — Junior Zach McCaulley, who led all runners with 170 yards on 19 carries, went over the right side and exploded for 58 yards and the first score of the game on the second series of the game for the Blue Devils. Tyler Geis booted the first of three PAT kicks for a 7-0 lead. — Jason Miller added 34 yards on five carries and Travis Taylor had seven carries for 46 yards as the Blue Devils ran for 246 yards. — Both teams scored twice in the second quarter with B-A taking a 19-13 advantage into the halftime intermission. — Opportunity knocked for the tying tally for Everett. The B-A defense forced a punt, but the ball was muffed and the Warriors got the ball at the BA-25. Swindell tossed a 16-yard completion to Cory Waltman to put the ball and the BA-9 and then on a fourth-and-goal the same duo combined for a two-yard TD pass. Waltman added the extra point for a 7-7 tie. — On the following kickoff, Nate Gray raced 77 yards to the E-9 to give his team excellent field position. Everett held for four plays, and took over at their own 3 yard line. Bellwood-Antis got a break on the first play however, when Everett fumbled the ball into the end zone and B-A lineman Jeff Novak pounced on the ball for a Bellwood-Antis touchdown. A Geis PAT kick was blocked. — Lightning struck on the next series for the Blue Devils when Gray found Tim Collier alone behind the Everett secondary for a 55-yard pass play for a score on the first play of the drive. — Swindell passed and ran Everett 70 yards for the final score of the half. With just 33 seconds left in the second quarter, Swindell hit Waltman from 14 yards out for the TD. The B-A defense had forced Everett to a fourth-and-one when the Warriors scored. — Bellwood-Antis received the kick to begin the third period and struck quickly again. McCaulley raced 55 yards this time for the score, and Geis booted the PAT. — Everett rolled the dice on their next series and lost, when a run on a fake punt was stopped short of a first down at the Everett-29. McCaulley dashed for nine yards and Jason Miller for 10 more, McCaulley got nine and then burst the final yard for the Blue Devils’ second score on just five offensive plays. Geis added the final point for the Blue Devils on a placement kick. — That set the stage for Swindell and Everett to make it more interesting than Coach Hayes and the B-A faithful were ready for, until Mock’s interception and a pair of first downs on the next series drained the clock. — “We had the opportunity to put the game away, a couple plays where we blocked poorly and instead got nothing,” explained Hayes. “Things that we were doing well earlier, all of a sudden, there was a letdown. Their kids stepped up and made a defensive play and then went to that speed-up offense. We really messed it up down close twice. We didn’t block and run the plays the way we know we can. Give credit to the other team, they outplayed us on some plays there.” — The Bellwood-Antis defense had eight tackles behind the line of scrimmage for losses and another 15 tackles for two yards or less.
