With the football season opening this week, we begin the This Week in Blue Devil Football history articles, highlighting a few of the games Bellwood-Antis played in the past on the same date as this year’s schedules. In the opening article, we go back to the 1982, 1993 and 1999 seasons for your enjoyment.
Head coach John Hayes and assistants Port Williams, Pat Finochio, Gene Yingling and Jim Torsell welcomed a roster of 47 for the 1982 opener against Penns Valley at Bellwood Memorial Stadium on Sept. 3, 1982.
Picture this: There is 2:13 left in the ballgame, Bellwood-Antis trailed 23-20 and had a fourth down-and-10 at the Penns Valley 48.
On the fourth-down play, Blue Devil quarterback Bob Gill found senior halfback John Youngkin with a step on the PV defenders. The speedy Youngkin took Gill’s pass and raced for the game-winning touchdown to hand Penns Valley their first defeat in a dozen games 26-23, with the Rams going 11-0 in 1981.
B-A got off to a quick start in the first quarter with Youngkin returning the opening kickoff across midfield to the PV-43. Six plays later, running back Steve Miller burst over left tackle for the 10-yard touchdown. The Rams stopped B-A at the PV-10, but Bellwood-Antis scored again in the first quarter when Tim Kovac dashed nine yards for a score, after Youngkin set it up by bolting 37-yards around left end.
Although the Blue Devils led 12-0 in the first period, they ended up trailing the Rams 14-12 at halftime.
B-A put together a textbook drive on their first possession of the third quarter, moving 80 yards in 11 plays, all but the final call on the ground. The payoff came when Gill executed a fake into the line and then flipped a nine-yard TD pass to Kenny Campbell and the same duo connected again on the two-point try to retake the lead 20-14.
Penns Valley swiftly came back to knot the score and then added a PAT and safety to set the stage for the final B-A comeback.
Penns Valley attempted their own comeback in the final minutes of the contest, but the B-A defense, led by Dave Buck, Tim Watters, Wally Rossi, and Ron Riley wouldn’t allow the Rams to closer that the BA-37.
On Sept. 3, 1993, coach Hayes bagged his 100th career win as his Bellwood-Antis squad shut out backyard rival Tyrone 25-0 at Bellwood.
In defeating the Golden Eagles for the seventh straight time, the Blue Devils used a pair of lightning-quick scores at the end of the third quarter and beginning of the fourth to turn a close 6-0 contest into a rout.
Late in the third quarter, B-A defender Darren Warner intercepted a Tyrone pass and the Blue Devils rolled 44 yards with Comanche Garcia scoring on a three-yard blast. Key play in the short march, was a 24-yard pass completion from Chris Walker to tight end Pete Stetter, after a B-A holding penalty erased a 40-yard Warner to Mike Kenawell TD pass.
Tyrone muffed the following kickoff and the ball was recovered by Don Chile at the T-20. Two snaps later, fullback Shawn Ross smashed 12 yards for the score.
Garcia exploded behind blocks by Justin McCall and the 6-3, 275-pound Chile, for a 70-yard scoring jaunt to provide the first score early in the second quarter. Bellwood-Antis administered the finishing touches in the fourth quarter with a time-consuming 80-yard drive, capped by a one-yard blast by Ross.
On Sept. 3, 1999, Tyrone employed an awesome defense led by Doug Roseberry, Dave McCahan, the McNelis twins and Tom Dry and the Jones Gang on offense to whitewash Bellwood-Antis 24-0.
The Blue Devils, coached by John Hayes, stopped Tyrone at the BA-6 early when Dave Miller and Joel Focht stopped Jesse Jones for a one-yard loss and Matt Garner sacked Eagles quarterback Brandon Hoover for a seven-yard loss. Scott Gummo calmly kicked a 31-yard field goal for the first score of the game.
Roseberry set up the first Tyrone TD of the game with an interception of a Travis Martin pass and Jones scored a one-yard TD, his first of three on the evening. Steve Johnson started the drive with a gain of 12 yards on his only rush of the night. Gummo added the PAT kick.
Jamal Owens picked of a Martin pass with time running down in the first half at the BA-37. Jones, who rushed 28 times for 135 yards, took two plays, sandwiched around an incompletion, racing 30 yards untouched for the score. Gummo’s PAT gave the Eagles a 17-0 halftime advantage.
There was only one score in the second half and Tyrone got that on the first possession of the third quarter. Jones keyed the march with a 15-yard scamper and ultimately capped the 15-play, 63-yard march with a five-yard TD. Gummo made the final score 24-0 with the extra-point boot.
