On Oct. 31, 1942, speedy Blue Devil running back Steve Hatfield turned the football game with Roaring Spring at Bellwood into his own personal track meet in a 19-0 Bellwood-Antis win.
Hatfield scored all the points in the game.
First, Hatfield took a lateral and dashed 74 yards for the touchdown and then ran in the extra point for a quick 7-0 B-A lead.
In the second half, Hatfield scored twice more on touchdown passes. The first came in the third quarter on a toss by Dale Wolfkill. The second followed in the fourth quarter from the arm of Mike Rodgers.
With World War II being waged an ocean away from high school football, gas and rubber were rationed and many schools didn’t play or played schools closer to home than normal. Bellwood-Antis, with new head football coach Lamont “Duke” Burkholder, who would soon become a legend, first at Bellwood-Antis and then later at Dubois in his first season of coaching, played neighbor Tyrone twice. The first time was termed “an exhibition” by area newspapers and was played on a Thursday night, Oct. 8 at Tyrone. The second, “a counting contest” was played on Saturday night, Nov. 7, at Bellwood. The Eagles easily won both games by shutout 33-0 and 27-0 on the way to their third straight Western Conference title.
Because of a request from the War Transportation Committee in Harrisburg, all eastern grid teams started their football games at 2 p.m. or 2:30 p.m. at the very latest because of the early arrival of darkness during the late fall to conserve electricity and avoid the use of lights.
B-A lost faculty manager, the 1940s and 50s equivalent of today’s athletic director, Charles Hetrick, head football coach Bob Killen and assistant football coach and head basketball coach Lew Myers to the armed forces.
Bellwood-Antis and senior quarterback Scott Hunter exploded against Claysburg-Kimmel on Oct. 31, 1975.
B-A led just 2-0 at the half with the only scoring a safety when big Blue Devil lineman Miles Endress blocked a Claysburg punt and it rolled out of the endzone, but took out the frustration of a season-long inability to put points on the scoreboard with a 44-point blitz in the final two quarters of a 46-6 win.
The Blue Devils have had 12 head coaches, but only one, Steve Hayes, was there for just one year. In 1975, when Bellwood-Antis lost their first four ballgames and suffered 17 turnovers, Hayes dropped the Wishbone, he had tried to insert on offense and switched to a Wing-T formation. With junior Scott Hunter at the controls, Bellwood-Antis surged back to win three and tie another of the Blue Devils’ final six games.
Hayes had been an assistant under Mike Hoffer in 1973 and 1974 before assuming the head job. Assistant coaches were Bill Hurt, Bill Riley and Russ Quay.
After a slow start against Claysburg, Hunter had the second half of his career, throwing five touchdown passes and passing for a total of 235 yards. The TDs are still a record and the yardage was eclipsed just this year when Shawn Weiand passed for 249 yards on Sept. 6, 2003, against Mercyhurst Prep. Hunter’s TD pitches were to Sam De Fazio for 29 and 47 yards, Joe Orolin for 20 and 11 yards and to Tom Jackson for 26 yards.
Scott Hoffer scored one TD and rushed for 48 yards on 13 carries and Chuck Benton added 46 yards on a dozen carries.
Bellwood-Antis outgunned a powerful Bedford squad 35-34 on Oct. 31, 1986.
In an offensive shootout, B-A gave up the early lead and trailed 34-15 at halftime. If however, anybody thought the game was over, they were badly mistaken. Nobody had bothered to tell the Blue Devils they were through.
The decided favorite that had just a two-point loss in the mud to a tough Richland team and assured of two playoff games, the Bisons went right out and played like a playoff team on both sides of the line of scrimmage in the first half.
Jack Dorminy picked up 50 yards, including the one-yard TD and Dave Claar scampered 44 yards for another score, but Bedford was on the scoreboard for 22 second-quarter points and a big lead at halftime.
Dorminy started things in the third quarter with a 50-yard punt return to the Bison-26 and Claar covered that for the TD on the first call.
Bedford didn’t need to punt in the first half, but the Blue Devil defense forced three in a row and Dorminy set up two TDs with his returns.
Dorminy and Claar took turns toting the pigskin on the next series with Jack notching his second one-yard TD as the Blue Devils drew to 35-29.
B-A benefited from a Bedford penalty on the PAT to try an onsides kick at midfield. Joe Schmidt fell on the ball for the Blue Devils. Dorminy, who became just the sixth B-A runner to rush for 1,000 yards in a season earlier in the game, picked up two first downs and with the help of another 15-yard Bison penalty, scooted the final seven yards to complete the miracle comeback for coach John Hayes.
Dorminy rushed 33 times for 146 yards and Claar added 102 yards on just 10 carries.
