By BOB MILLER
Daily Herald Sports Editor
— With the football season opening this week, we begin the This Week in Blue Devil Football history articles, highlighting a few of the games Bellwood-Antis played in the past on the same date as this year’s schedules. In the opening article, we go back to the 1999, 1993 and 1982 seasons for your enjoyment.
— On September 3, 1999, Tyrone employed an awesome defense led by Doug Roseberry, Dave McCahan, the McNelis twins and Tom Dry and the Jones Gang on offense to whitewash Bellwood-Antis 24-0.
— The Blue Devils, coached by John Hayes, stopped Tyrone at the BA-6 early when Dave Miller and Joel Focht stopped Jesse Jones for a one-yard loss and Matt Garner sacked Eagles quarterback Brandon Hoover for a seven-yard loss. Scott Gummo calmly kicked a 31-yard field goal for the first score of the game.
— Roseberry set up the first Tyrone TD of the game with an interception of a Travis Martin pass and Jones scored a one-yard TD, his first of three on the evening. Steve Johnson started the drive with a gain of 12 yards on his only rush of the night. Gummo added the PAT kick.
— Jamal Owens picked of a Martin pass with time running down in the first half at the BA-37. Jones, who rushed 28 times for 135 yards, took two plays, sandwiched around an incompletion, racing 30 yards untouched for the score. Gummo’s PAT gave the Eagles a 17-0 halftime advantage.
— There was only one score in the second half and Tyrone got that on the first possession of the third quarter. Jones keyed the march with a 15-yard scamper and ultimately capped the 15-play, 63-yard march with a five-yard TD. Gummo made the final score 24-0 with the extra-point boot.
— On September 3, 1993, coach Hayes bagged his 100th career win as his Bellwood-Antis squad shut out backyard rival Tyrone 25-0 at Bellwood.
— In defeating the Golden Eagles for the seventh straight time, the Blue Devils used a pair of lightning-quick scores at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to turn a close 6-0 contest into a rout.
— Late in the third quarter, B-A defender Darren Warner intercepted a Tyrone pass and the Blue Devils rolled 44 yards with Comanche Garcia scoring on a three-yard blast. The key play in the short march was a 24-yard pass completion from Chris Walker to tight end Pete Stetter, after a B-A holding penalty erased a 40-yard Warner to Mike Kenawell TD pass.
— Tyrone muffed the following kickoff and the ball was recovered by Don Chile at the T-20. Two snaps later, fullback Shawn Ross smashed 12 yards for the score.
— Garcia exploded behind blocks by Justin McCall and the 6-3, 275-pound Chile, for a 70-yard scoring jaunt to provide the first score early in the second quarter. Bellwood-Antis administered the finishing touches in the fourth quarter with a time-consuming 80-yard drive, capped by a one-yard blast by Ross.
— Head coach John Hayes and assistants Port Williams, Pat Finochio, Gene Yingling and Jim Torsell welcomed a roster of 47 for the 1982 opener against Penns Valley at Bellwood Memorial Stadium on September 3, 1982.
— Picture this: There is 2:13 left in the ballgame, Bellwood-Antis trailed 23-20 and had a fourth down-and-10 at the Penns Valley 48.
— On the fourth-down play, Blue Devil quarterback Bob Gill found senior halfback John Youngkin with a step on the PV defenders. The speedy Youngkin took Gill’s pass and raced for the game-winning touchdown to hand Penns Valley their first defeat in a dozen games 26-23, with the Rams going 11-0 in 1981.
— B-A got off to a quick start in the first quarter with Youngkin returning the opening kickoff across midfield to the PV-43. Six plays later, running back Steve Miller burst over left tackle for the 10-yard touchdown. The Rams stopped B-A at the PV-10, but Bellwood-Antis scored again in the first quarter when Tim Kovac dashed nine yards for a score, after Youngkin set it up by bolting 37-yards around left end.
— Although the Blue Devils led 12-0 in the first period, they ended up trailing the Rams 14-12 at halftime.
— B-A put together a textbook drive on their first possession of the third quarter, moving 80 yards in 11 plays, all but the final call on the ground. The payoff came when Gill executed a fake into the line and then flipped a nine-yard TD pass to Kenny Campbell and the same duo connected again on the two-point try to retake the lead 20-14.
— Penns Valley swiftly came back to knot the score and then added a PAT and safety to set the stage for the final B-A comeback.
— Penns Valley attempted their own comeback in the final minutes of the contest, but the B-A defense, led by Dave Buck, Tim Watters, Wally Rossi, and Ron Riley wouldn’t allow the Rams to closer that the BA-37.