By BOB MILLER
Daily Herald Sports Editor
— On September 7, 2001, Bellwood-Antis turned a determined Bishop Guilfoyle back without points after the Marauders put the ball inside the BA-1, then scored 31 unanswered points in the second half for a 45-7 win.
— In 2000, B-A held an undefeated BG squad to minus rushing yardage in a 31-0 win at Mansion Park. Then in 2001, in a battle of ICC division winners from the previous year, with Bellwood-Antis leading only 14-7 and Bishop Guilfoyle driving for a tying score or at least a potential field goal to narrow the led to 14-10, the Blue Devil defense rose up and prevented a point from being scored. Faced with BG having the ball at point-blank range inside the BA-1, The Blue Devil defense shook the Marauders for one yard in losses on the next two plays and a fourth-down field goal attempt went wide right, devastating BG.
— B-A began red-hot with a pair of first-quarter scores. Senior linebacker Josh Evans fell on a BG fumble at the Marauders-40. Facing a third down and 18, senior quarterback Chuck Benton, who completed nine of 17 passes for 162 yards, waited and waited, courtesy of an offensive line that gave him an ocean of time, to spot Troy Beaver all alone for a 47-yard pass connection to the BG-1. Fullback Duane Ehredt bulled for the TD on the following call and Dan Graham’s PAT gave the Blue Devils a 7-0 advantage.
— Adam Plummer, Zach Bobak and Troy Beaver each made a defensive stop on the next series, forcing a BG punt and B-A moved 71 yards for another tally. Eric Kustaborder dashed 22 yards, Benton completed passes to Beaver, Ryan McCartney and finally to Beaver again for the seven-yard score.
— In the second half, Kustaborder scampered a dozen yards for a TD. Dan Graham tied a school record for longest field goal with a 37-yard boot. Ehredt zipped 44 yards for his second score of the night. Sophomore Dan Houser moved the sticks for a first down on a 12 yard jaunt, then two calls later went right and outran everybody for a 43-yard TD. Derrick Miller capped the scoring with a one-yard smash following a 26-yard pickup by Cory Daly to set up the TD. Dan Graham kicked six PATs in addition to the field goal to round out the scoring.
— Ehredt, who was the only Blue Devil to score in each of the first 10 games in 2001, led all runners with 91 yards on 11 carries, Daly added 74 on four carries, Kustaborder had 65 on 11 carries and Houser had 55 yards on three totes.
— Defense keyed the Bellwood-Antis 27-6 win over the visiting Mount Union Trojans on September 7, 1990.
— The B-A offense put two touchdowns on the board in each of the first two quarters and the Blue Devil defense was one play short of completely dominating the Mount Union offense. Take out one long touchdown play and Mount Union ran just 10 offensive plays, not counting punts in the entire first half.
— B-A slotback Bo Lardieri set up the first Blue Devil score, dashing 29 yards on the first play from scrimmage. Chris McCartney, who is the all-time B-A leader in rushing yards and total offense, ran the ball twice for six and nine yards, the second, his first of three TDs in the game. Jamie Gummo added the PAT and with three minutes played, B-A led 7-0.
— B-A went into their bag of tricks for head coach John Hayes. Mike McFarland recovered a deliberate on-sides kick at the BA-48 to get the ball back. McCartney climaxed the 52-yard drive with a six-pointer from one yard out and Gummo tacked on the PAT.
— Bellwood-Antis forced a Mount Union punt and the Blue Devils got the ball at their own 22. Lardieri took a handoff on an inside reverse and took off like he had been shot out of a cannon, outrunning everybody for a 78-yard TD scamper. Gummo’s extra point kick increased the Bellwood-Antis lead to 21-0 with just one play run off the second quarter clock.
— Mount Union was forced to punt again, accumulating just four yards rushing all night, giving the Blue Devils the ball at the MU-42. Using Ohio State coach Woody Hayes’ (no relation to John) theory of three yards and a cloud of dust, Bellwood-Antis ground out their final score of the evening. Actually a sudden and very soaking shower made it impossible to see any dust, but Woody would have been proud of the way the Blue Devils marched down the field. Using 11 plays in which there were only two rushes and one pass that covered more than four yards, McCartney slipped into the endzone for his third score of the game from a yard away.
— Mount Union’s only score came on the next series. The Trojans moved back first with Andy Mock and Gerald Whitaker sacking the MU quarterback on consecutive plays, before a short pass to the tight end resulted in the B-A defense going for the interception and failing. When that failed, the Mount Union receiver motored 82 yards for the score. a “muddle huddle” attempt for two was stopped by the Blue Devils and neither team scored in he second half.
— Lardieri had 123 yards on just six carries and McCartney added 93 more on 26 carries.
— On September 7, 1984, Bellwood-Antis crushed Southern Huntingdon 34-0, holding the Rockets to just seven net yards rushing and 25 passing with a defense led by Chuck Erickson, Art Partner and Bob Noye.
— Bellwood-Antis, under head coach John Hayes, immediately set the tone for the game by marching 60 yards in five plays, the first time the Blue Devils touched the ball. Jim Woodring picked up a first down with a 17-yard burst and Adam Claar ran an inside reverse 41 yards for the TD behind blocking you could have sent your grandmother through for a long gain.
— Following an exchange of punts (Southern Huntingdon would end up punting nine times), the Blue Devils drove through the Southern defense for another score. Woodring had his number called four times for 60 yards, including the 15-yard TD and Steve Miller added the first of four PAT kicks.
— Woodring, who rushed 20 times for 160 yards, picked up a pair of first downs, and Claar, who added 71 yards on just four totes, added a couple more, going seven yards for the first of three third-quarter scores that broke the game wide open.
— Three plays later, Jack Dorminy fielded a punt at his own-47, picked up some blocking around the left side and raced 53 yards for a TD.
— B-A kicker Fred DelGrosso did double duty on the following kick, first kicking off, then hustling downfield to recover a Southern Huntingdon fumble to put Bellwood-Antis in business again. Quarterback Shannon McCaulley tossed a big 37-yard completion to wideout Rick Kensinger, and Woodring bulled the final seven yards with time running out in the third quarter. MillerÕs PAT kick finalized the score with no further scoring in the fourth quarter.
— In this installment, we begin with a 10-7 loss to backyard neighbor Tyrone on September 7, 1979. One of the largest ever crowds at Bellwood Memorial Stadium in recent years witnessed one of the better contests between Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone.
— Down 7-0 at the end of the first half, the Blue Devils charged back to knot the score at 7-7 in the third quarter. Mike Rhoades rambled 57 yards with the second-half kickoff to put an electrical charge into fans and B-A football alike. With the ball all the way to the Tyrone-37, Don Erickson got the first call and responded by bolting off tackle to pick up 23 yards to the T-14. The only pass completion all game, from Butch Riggleman to Jim Fowler on a fourth and six call went for eight yards and a first down and set up Riggleman’s two-yard plunge on a quarterback sneak for the touchdown. Dave DiRoma followed with a the PAT to tie the game.
— The score would remain the same, until with the game clock running nearly out, Tyrone began a long, time-consuming march from their own 13-yard line for nearly four minutes of clock time to get the football to the BA-15, with just eight ticks left. Todd Templeton, the Eagles six-foot-four, 205 pound fullback, who had scored Tyrone’s touchdown and extra point, stepped back and boomed the 32-yard field goal that spelled victory for Tyrone and doom for the Blue Devils.
— Don Erickson gained 75 yards on nine carries to lead the Blue Devils. Ron Hubler added 24 yards on nine carries and Mike Desch had 20 yards on seven totes.
— On September 7, 1951, Bellwood-Antis opened the season by defeating Tyrone 19-7 for the Blue Devils’ third straight win over the Golden Eagles, under coach Earl Strohm, after losing 10 of the first 11 games in the neighborhood series.
— For the three previous seasons, the opening game between these backyard rivals had been a springboard for one of them to claim a Western Conference championship. In 1948, it helped Tyrone win the Class-A title, in 1949, it started the Blue Devils on their way to a Class-B crown and in 1950, B-A used the opening game triumph to begin an assault that brought Bellwood-Antis their first Class-A championship with the Blue Devils choosing to step up a class.
— After Tyrone scored to take an early 7-0 advantage, Don McCabe picked up an Eagle fumble at the T-19 to put B-A in business. Don Roth swept right end from the 14 to the goal line, and when he fumbled, an alert B-A left end Don Garman fell on the ball in the end zone for the TD.
— Late in the second quarter, Bellwood-Antis began from the T-40 following a short Tyrone punt. Jim Yingling circled left end to cap a 12-play drive on a fourth-and-one play, from the six for the TD. Three times in the drive , B-A moved the sticks on fourth-down plays for a first down. The key call was a desperation fourth down-and- nine, when Roth completed a pass to Don Rutledge for 11 yards to the T-15. Gene Houser’s PAT kick gave Bellwood-Antis their first lead of the game 13-7.
— A blocked punt led to the final B-A score. Beginning from the Eagle-30, Houser capped the scoring by blasting over right tackle for six yards and a TD.
— Bellwood-Antis rushed for only 152 yards and completed two of six passes for 16 yards, but enjoyed a 10-2 superiority over Tyrone in first downs. The Blue Devil defense limited Tyrone to 53 yards rushing and 25 more passing.
— Bellwood-Antis evened their record at 1-1 with a 21-7 triumph over Bigler Township on September 7, 1945, in a game that was actually closer than the final score indicated. Bigler Township is now part of the Moshannon Valley School District.
— In a 2:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon start that was customary at Bellwood at that time, the Blue Devils disdained the pass for most of their scoring, despite the fact that B-A was gaining a reputation for their passing and lateralling, under the tutelage of legendary head coach Lemont “Duke” Burkholder, preferring to skirt the ends on the majority of their plays.
— Bellwood-Antis did put the initial tally on the board by virtue of a pass from junior Ken Woodhall to senior left end George Cody. Then B-A scored on a pair of runs by junior Ron Raugh and senior Jack Kustaborder, who presently runs the clock at the Blue Devils home games. The Blue Devil defense added a safety in the fourth quarter, when a Bigler Township runner was trapped and tackled in his own end zone.
— The B-A defense was unscored on with BiglerÕs one TD coming on the 45-yard return of an intercepted pass.
— Bellwood-Antis played all their home games on Saturdays until the mid-1950s and didn’t play night games at home until the first lights were installed later in the 1945 season for the B-A/Greenfield Township game on Oct. 20. It wasn’t yet Memorial Stadium. The Memorial gate, honoring “all those who made the supreme sacrifice so that we might enjoy the freedom of democracy,” along with a flag pole, scoreboard and lights were dedicated at halftime of the opening game against Tyrone in 1949.