By BOB MILLER
Daily Herald Sports Editor
— Bellwood-Antis was simply too much for Mount Union on Friday, October 6, 2000, when the Blue Devils blitzed Mount Union 49-0 at Bellwood Memorial Stadium for coach John Hayes.
— Dave Miller led the Bellwood-Antis ground attack with 126 yards and five touchdowns on just 13 carries and added three pass receptions for another 74 yards. Matt Garner chipped in 82 yards and one TD on 15 carries and had one catch for 11 yards.
— The Blue Devil defense picked off four Mount Union passes and held the Trojans to 46 yards rushing on 29 carries.
— Brian Shura intercepted a Mount Union pass in the first quarter at the MU-45. Miller blasted 27 yards on the first two plays and scored the two-yard TD several plays later. Twin brother Chris Miller kicked the first of four PAT boots. A series later Garner picked up 13 on the opening play and then Miller got loose in the secondary for a 61-yard score. Still in the first quarter, Chuck Benton, who completed six of ten passes for 170 yards, found Shura for a 57-yard pass play and Miller scored his third TD from four yards out.
— Bellwood-Antis had outscored six opponents 97-0 in the first quarter at that point. In the second quarter, Jeff Hostler intercepted a pass at the BA-48. Benton hit Miller out of the backfield for a 36-yard gain, and Garner took it in for a three-yard score.
— Miller added a pair of one-yard touchdowns to round out a five-TD first half. Key plays in the first Miller score were an 11-yard runs by Garner and Tyson Weiand, and a 12-yarder by Troy Beaver. The second began after an interception by Garner and a 33-yard completion from Benton to Miller.
— Bellwood-Antis put the only score of the second half on the board with 2:33 left in the final stanza. Sophomore Adam Plummer came up with the fourth pick of the game and returned it 29 yards to the BA-44. Duane Ehredt took an inside handoff, burst through the line and raced 56 yards for the final tally. Dan Graham booted the PAT.
— Bellwood-Antis (4-2) got back on track after back-to-back losses to Williamsburg (12-7) and Mount Union (28-20) with a solid 26-6 triumph over Moshannon valley on October 6, 1989 for head coach John Hayes.
— Friday night was the Knights Homecoming, but two things severely dampened the spirit at Houtzdale that night. One was a rain the fell throughout most of the game. The second was Bellwood-Antis rambling for 324 yards and a 20-point win.
— The B-A defense limited Moshannon valley to 121 yards rushing and 173 total, far from the 280 they had been averaging.
— On two of their first three series, Mo Valley was stopped by an interception by Brad Snyder and a fumble recovery by Karl Montanaro.
— The Blue Devils got on the board on a 79-yard drive after the opening kickoff. Chris McCartney ripped off 11 yards to begin, Bo Lardieri scooted for 19 on two calls, then eluded several tacklers and sprinted 48 yards for the touchdown.
— Then B-A drove 74 yards in 13 plays Mike Coulter passing to Lardieri for seven yards to cap the march for a 12-0 B-A lead.
— Following the Montanaro recovery at the MV-40, Gordy Darnell blasted 35 yards, before Lardieri added his third score of the half going 16 yards on a revers.
— The final score came early in the second half, with B-A covering 69 yards. A Coulter-to-Lardieri pass netted 16 yards and McCartney zipped 26 yards and then plunged one yard for the score. Chuck Renney added the two-point conversion on a shovel pass from Coulter.
— Mo Valley scored with just 29 seconds left in the third quarter and the fourth quarter was scoreless, although the B-A reserves drove to the MV-12 before running out of steam.
— Bellwood-Antis tacked on win number five on Saturday, October 6, 1951 when the Blue Devils rolled over Saxton-Liberty 39-12. This was their 21st straight game without a loss, going back to a 14-0 loss to Dubois in 1949, and included a 7-7 tie with Hollidaysburg late in 1949. B-A was coached by Earl Strohm, who took over in 1949, when Lemont “Duke” Burkholder left the Blue Devils after seven years after compiling a 65-13-2 mark.
— Under Strohm, who was an assistant in ’47 and ’48 before taking over in 1949, Bellwood-Antis was 24-1-1 at that point and would finish 37-4-1 during the four years Strohm was the head coach of the Blue Devils before he left to take a teaching and coaching position at Altoona.
— In the first road game of the season, after four straight games at Bellwood Memorial Stadium, the Blue Devils Don Roth lit the spark with an 85-yard return of the opening kick and then scored twice more on end-around plays of six yards in the second quarter and 12 yards in the third stanza to help fuel the fire.
— In the first quarter, Wayne Corey wedged through the middle for a two-yard score. Don Garman caught a 15-yard pass for a six-pointer in the second quarter and Don Clark romped 38 yards around left end in the fourth quarter for the final score. Pat Benedetto added three extra point kicks.
— Saxton-Liberty, today part of the Tussey Mountain School District, along with Robertsdale and Broadtop-Defiance, became the only team to score two TD on the B-A defense until undefeated and unscored on Beaverdale scored twice to nip Bellwood-Antis 14-7 in the Inter-County Conference playoff at the end of the 1951 season.
— B-A cheerleaders in 1951, included: Faye Moore, Mary Ann Moore, Beverly Evans, Emma Grace Estep and Perdeta Yohn.
— On October 5, 1951, a full course spaghetti dinner was served to members of the Blue Devil football team, coaches, managers and cheerleaders at the St. Joseph Catholic Church. The meal was sponsored by John Rossi and Michael Bungo of the Bellwood Garage, and Leonard and Ernest Rossi of the Rossi Airport Service Station at Tipton.
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