In what was a game of two different halves, Bellwood-Antis knocked off the Moshannon Valley junior varsity 23-12 to remain undefeated at 7-0 at Bellwood memorial Stadium on Monday night.
The Blue Devil junior varsity opened up the offense in the first half, from the very first play on offense. Mo Valley kept the ball for seven plays on the game’s opening series with a 15-yard Jacob Kitko to Alan Hudish pass completion the key call. When Bellwood-Antis stopped the Knights on a seven-yard loss on a tackle behind the line of scrimmage by Josh Peters, who had his number called on numerous tackles, the Blue Devils quickly got moving.
Sophomore quarterback Evan Hughes tossed the ball to Devon Clapper, who then threw downfield to Hughes on a trick play for a gain of 13 and a first down. Jonathan Davila ripped off eight yards and Dan Campbell moved the sticks for another first down with a two-yard plunge before Hughes hit Davila in the right flat and the B-A sophomore fullback took it the distance down the sideline for a 26-yard TD. Evan Celmo’s PAT gave the Blue Devils a 7-0 lead at the 2:38 mark of the first quarter.
Campbell scooted for 10 yards and Hughes connected with Blaze Winterstein for six yards and Jamie Mountain for 40 yards on the next series, but Celmo was short on a 33-yard field goal try.
The Blue Devils then scored on back-to-back possessions in the second quarter to salt away the victory before halftime.
First, Hughes completed a short pass to Jamie Mountain, who turned it into a 38-yard gain to the MV-26. One play later, Davila grabbed another pass for this second 26-yard TD grab. Winterstein caught a Hughes aerial for the two-point conversion.
Then Bellwood-Antis began at their own 35, but a Moshannon penalty put the ball at the 50 to begin the series. Davila took car e of all the yardage to reach paydirt for the third time in the game. Davila cleared the line and scooted down the left side for a 40-yard pickup. Then Jonathan bulled over tackle for eight yards, before covering the final five yards on the following call for the TD. Hughes rushed for the two-point conversion on a quarterback option for a 23-0 lead.
In the second half, Bellwood-Antis coach Randy Miller played a lot of the Blue Devils’ younger guys to give them playing time and rest the regulars, many of whom get a bunch of varsity playing time as backups.
Moshannon Valley scored once in each of the third and fourth quarters, but both times two-point tries were unsuccessful.
Davila led all runners with five carries for 58 yards and grabbed two passes for 52 yards. Hughes finished with nine completions in 18 pass attempts for 162 yards with a pair of TDs and one interception. Jamie Mountain caught two for 80 yards, Brandon Pruznak two for 16, Tyler Elvey two for eight.
“The kids all played pretty well,” said Coach Miller. “We put some real young kids in the second half, trying to keep our kids fresh. The kids who are backups on the varsity, we wanted to get them out early in the game. Mo Valley is a good, but the other kids stepped up and played real well.”
