Home for the third straight week to start the 1969 football season, Bellwood-Antis faced a Class B opponent for the first time in the season after losing to a pair of Class A foes in Tyrone 34-14 and Penn Cambria 20-0.
Although the result was the same, the Blue Devils had their best offensive performance of the year in a 26-12 loss to West Branch on Sept. 19, 1969.
Sophomore Jim Nolan moved into the starting lineup at right guard for coach Chet Dillen, replacing Jay McCaulley, who shifted over to play left tackle. Dillen noted that he is pleased with the play of the sophomores in the lineup and may be moving more into the starting 11 in the near future if they continue to improve.
Bellwood-Antis picked themselves up after trailing 14-0 with a 74-yard march for a score just before halftime. Senior quarterback Bo DelGrosso scrambled 52 yards on a bootleg for the score.
West Branch tacked on another score in the third quarter and came up with a big defensive play, shaking loose the ball to stop a Blue Devils drive at the WB-20.
The two schools then traded TDs in the fourth quarter with Bellwood-Antis striking first. Tim White capped a 74-yard drive with a 10-yard TD run with 8:21 remaining. B-A actually chalked up more first downs 13-12, but ended up on the short end of the score by two TDs.
Dillen was helped by Bob Fowler and new assistant Darrell Claar, who in the winter began the school’s first wrestling program.
Junior tailback Steve Walker led Bellwood-Antis to a 24-6 victory over West Branch on Sept. 19, 1980.
Walker pounded in scores from four and five yards out for a pair of short touchdown runs, used his open field ability to scoot 22 yards for a third score and also grabbed a pass from Blue Devil quarterback Dave DiRoma for a 42 yard hookup to tally all of the points in the game.
DiRoma, filling in injured starter Butch Riggleman, completed six of nine tosses, including the TD pitch to Walker, for 89 yards and no interceptions. The Blue Devils had been intercepted eight times in the previous two ballgames.
Walker carried the ball 23 times for 114 yards and Jim Dorminy added 72 yards on a dozen carries for head coach John Hayes in his first year at Bellwood-Antis.
On Sept. 19, 1997, Bellwood-Antis rolled Southern Huntingdon from the ranks of the undefeated 26-16.
Playing at Southern Huntingdon, the Blue Devils moved the ball, but kept shooting themselves in the foot in the first half. The Rockets couldn’t stop B-A all night. Every Blue Devil series ended up with either a touchdown or B-A turnover.
Jeremy Guyer, who rushed 20 times for 110 yards rushed twice for 20 yards to begin the first scoring drive. Then after taking turns carrying the ball with Don Lingenfelter, Guyer slammed in for the first of three TDs from the two-yard line to cut Southern’s lead to 8-6.
B-A which limited the Rockets to 46 yards rushing and 50 passing in the second half, stuffed Southern Huntingdon’s first try on offense in the third quarter and marched 72 yards for a score. Matt Miller completed passes to Josh Hayes for 14 yards, Dan Tubbs for 22, Jim Gwinn for 11 and Guyer accounted for 25 yards on four carries, including the four-yard TD.
Tim Tyler came with his third interception in two weeks and returned the pick 26 yards to the SH-19. Miller tossed a nine-yard connection to Hayes and three caries by Guyer, the last for the three-yard score put Bellwood-Antis into a 19-16 lead with the PAT kick by Tubbs.
Southern marched to the BA-28, where the Blue Devils took over and turned around to march 72 yards for their final score.
B-A used five different ballcarriers to deliver the final punch with Hayes notching the 11-yard TD and Tubbs adding the extra point kick.
