By BOB MILLER
Daily Herald Sports Editor
— For head coach Chet Dillen and assistants Russ Kowalchick, Bob Fowler Mike Hoffer and Earl Henry, Bellwood-Antis ran over 10 straight opponents to finish undefeated (10-0) in 1963, including a 46-0 win over Southern Huntingdon on October 11, 1963.
— B-A used a devastating combination of air and ground attack to subdue the Rockets.
— B-A jumped out to a quick advantage with 20 first-quarter points and 19 more in the second quarter for an insurmountable 39-0 halftime lead.
— Bill Cherry scored on the first series of the contest on a nine-yard run. Three plays later, The Blue Devils recovered a Southern fumble. Cherry ran 16 yards for the score and added the PAT rush.
— Taking over after forcing a punt near midfield, Walter Rhoades threw a 49-yard TD pass to Bud Colyer on the first play from scrimmage. Rhoades ran for the extra point.
— The second period was all Bill Cherry. First Cherry galloped 65 yards for a score. On the first play after the kickoff, Cherry pilfered a Rocket pass and returned it 50 yards for a another TD. Then following a 33 yard pass completion from Rhoades to Ron Edmiston to set up the score, Cherry tallied again from the nine.
— A fumble recovery by Denny Guyer led to the only score of the second half. The Blue Devils drove 65 yards for the final sixpointer with Rhoades scoring from the two and running in the extra point.
— Cherry scored five TDs and rushed for 152 yards on just 11 carries. The school record for TDs and points in one game, in case you were wondering, is six touchdowns and 40 points set against Saxton-Liberty by Ron Raugh in 1946. Cherry led Blair County in scoring in 1963 with 148 points and Rhoades was second with 114 and both Cherry (1,218) and Rhoades (1,195) rushed for more than 1,000 yards.
— On October 11, 1952, Bellwood-Antis shut out Saxton-Liberty 21-0 for their fourth shutout and fifth straight win for head coach Earl Strohm and assistant Wally Fields.
— With Don Garman out for the season due to a broken hand, suffered in the Blue Devils 6-0 win over Huntingdon, Chub Dillen climaxed a 40-yard drive early in the game by smashing through the middle and rambling for an 18-yard touchdown. Don Clark set up the TD with a 22-yard jaunt to the Saxton-Liberty-18. Dean Rossi raced around right end for the PAT and a 7-0 lead.
— Dillen then stopped a Wildcat scoring threat with a pass interception at the BA-4 which he returned to the BA-23. On the next play, Rossi dashed all the way to the Saxton-Liberty 22, a pickup of 55 yards, but the series stalled.
— In the second quarter, Bob Bilka scooted 26 yards to the Saxton-45. On the next call, Dillen heaved a 45-yard scoring bomb to Rossi. Rossi made it 14-0, taking a pitch from Clark and running in the extra point.
— Still in the second stanza, Clark ran an intercepted pass 15 yards to the SL-40. Dillen fired a pass to left end Dean Campbell who caught the ball at the 23 and raced for a TD. Dillen then passed to Rossi for the PAT and all the scoring was on the board before halftime.
— Bellwood-Antis was to go 8-2 in 1952. B-A was undefeated during the regular season in 1950 and 1951, although the Blue Devils lost a playoff game in ’51, and were undefeated in 1953 and 1954. By those standards, the 8-2 mark in 1952 was a bad year.
— The Bellwood-Antis football team traveled to Mount Union on October 11, 1947 for the Blue Devils third straight game on the road.
— B-A (5-1) came back home with their fifth straight win after a season opening 14-0 loss to Tyrone. Mount Union gave the Blue Devils all they could handle, trailing by only one slim point over the stubborn, upset-minded Trojans until notching an insurance score midway through the fourth quarter for a 13-6 win in the 2 p.m. start on Saturday afternoon.
— After a scoreless first quarter, Bellwood-Antis was forced to punt. From the BA-40, Richard Casaday boomed a long kick that hit at about the Mount Union-10 and bounced and skidded into the MU endzone, where the Trojan kick returner fumbled it. Earl Henry recovered the ball for a Bellwood-Antis touchdown and Bob Sitman added the extra point kick for a 7-0 lead.
— Mount Union came right back with a 13-play, 65-yard drive to put six points of their own on the scoreboard. Bellwood-Antis stopped the Trojans short of the goal line on the PAT try to keep the 7-6 lead.
— Roy Pickens fielded the following kickoff and with a beautiful broken-field run, returned the kick 55 yards to the MU-37. Pickens then went 12 yards on the first play from scrimmage, but the half ended before there was any further scoring.
— Early in the fourth quarter, Mount was forced to kick by the hounding pressure of the Blue Devil defense led by Earl Henry, Harold “Buss” Carr and Tommy Conrad. Beginning at their own 32, B-A drove all the way for another tally. Key plays were a scamper by Pickens skirting right end and then several plays later, hitting off left tackle for a gain of 18 yards. Both runs moved the sticks for important first downs. Gene “Mouse” Moore bucked over for the two-yard TD to give the Blue Devils a little more breathing room.
— Mount Union refused to go meekly however, resorting to trying a fake punt. The Blue Devil defense was up to the task however as Carr steamrolled the Trojan ballcarrier after a short gain and B-A took over and drove to the MU-five where the game ended.
— Under head coach Lemont “Duke” Burkholder, Bellwood-Antis went 11-0 in 1946, outscoring the opposition 337-6, with the only TD scored by Tyrone in a 26-6 win in the opener, lost to Tyrone in the first game of 1947 and then won 10 straight to finish 10-1. The 21 wins over two years was a school record, that was tied in 1950 (11-0) and 1951 (10-1) and finally eclipsed in 2000 (11-1) and 2001 (11-1).