The Bellwood-Antis junior high football team dropped an 8-6 decision to the Chestnut Ridge junior high on Thursday in the rain at Bellwood Memorial Stadium.
In what was a defensive struggle in the rain that resembled a monsoon at times and made it tough for the Little Blue Devils to play catch-up.
In a first half that was mostly dry, Bellwood-Antis took the opening kickoff and drove inside the Chestnut Ridge 10-yard line, only to be turned away by the Lions defense. A 44-yard scamper down the left sideline by Travis Taylor was the key play on the drive.
Chestnut Ridge turned around and drove the length of the field to score. The B-A defense actually held Chestnut Ridge and forced a punt from near midfield, but Bellwood-Antis fumbled the punt with the Lions recovering and then moving in for the score. Justin Taylor ran four yards for the score. Chestnut Ridge went for two points on the conversion, and got their second break of the game when the ball was fumbled into the end zone and recovered by Fleagle for an 8-0 advantage.
The Blue Devils were able to move the ball for the most part, but couldn’t score on two trips inside the CR-10 in the rain.
Travis Taylor fielded a fourth-quarter punt for the Blue Devils reversed his field and outran the defenders for 46-yard return for the Bellwood-Antis score. With the wet ball, the Blue Devils couldn’t connect on the two point pass attempt and the score remained Chestnut Ridge 8, Bellwood-Antis 6. That was the first two-point conversion to fail for the B-A junior high all season.
“We played hard, but just made too many mistakes,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach Charlie Burch. “Being so short-handed and having the kids play so hard, it was really hard to take. We practice the two-point plays every day in practice. The wet ball hurt us at the worst possible time.
“We are green, very young, but we played probably well enough to win. You can’t expect to win when you have get inside the other teams’ 10-yard line twice and don’t score. We will be better next year for all the experience these young kids are getting now.”
Bellwood-Antis (5-2) will travel to Houtzdale on Thursday for a 4 p.m. game against the Moshannon Valley junior high.
