The Bellwood-Antis opened the junior varsity football season on Monday night at Bellwood Memorial Stadium by recording a 43-0 shutout over Everett.
The Blue Devils used a strong overland attack coupled with a stingy defense that returned two Everett pass interceptions in to touchdowns.
B-A played smash mouth football to crunch out 289 yards. The Blue Devil line opened the holes all game long and the running backs shared the wealth. Dustin Harris lead all runners with 81 yards on seven carries. Mark Rogers added 65 yards on 10 carries, just one in the second half. Travis Ehredt chipped in 56 on five totes. Blake Hill carried the pigskin eight times for 39 yards and Dan Kovac chipped in 21 yards on three carries.
After a scoreless opening period, B-A scored four times in the second quarter to put the ballgame away.
Ehredt motored 30 yards on the opening play of a 63-yard march. On the final play of the quarter, Rogers netted a dozen yards over the right side and following a five-yard pickup by Hill, covered the final 16 yards for the TD.
Everett completed a 36-yard pass play, but fumbled on the tackle and Aaron Geis recovered for the Blue Devils at the BA- 40. Harris keyed the drive with a 16-yard jaunt and then went around right end for 16-yard TD.
Everett tried to get back into the game via the pass and Derrick Hoffer picked it off and raced 59 yards for a quick TD and an 18-0 B-A lead.
Everett began their next series at their own 33, but huge losses of 11 and 12 yards and a one-yard gain forced the Warriors to punt deep in their own territory. Bellwood-Antis took advantage of a short punt to get the ball back at the Everett 30.
Zach Tomchick completed a pass to Ehredt for 17 yards and Rogers scooted 10 yards and Tomchick capped the drive tossing a five-yard TD pass over the top to Troy Brunner. Brunner’s PAT kick gave the Blue Devils a 25-0 lead at halftime.
Everett kicked off to Bellwood-Antis to start the second half and B-A drove 64 yards for a score.
Rogers scampered for a gain of 15, his last carry of the game to begin the advance. Ehredt bulled for 10 yards and then seven more a play later, sandwiched around a 12-yard gain for Ian Crist and Ehredt was done the night also. Crist picked up eight and Tomchick went over the right side on a keeper for the seven-yard TD.
Everett marched to the BA-45 where they lost the ball on downs.
Hill blasted for seven and then Harris turned the corner fought off a would-be tackler and raced 30 yards to the E-8. After a three-yard loss and five-yard penalty pushed the ball back to the 16-yard line, Harris picked up half the distance to the eight again and Hill took a pitchout from Tomchick for the TD.
The Blue Devil defense picked up one more sixpointer when Elliot Geist stepped in front of an Everett receiver and raced 44 yards to the endzone for the final score of the game.
Dan Kovac stepped off a 20-yard gain and Harris and Hill each had matching gains of seven yards to put the ball at the Everett-11, but sophomore quarterback Kyle Drost took a knee to run the clock out, rather than run up the score.
“We really tried to emphasize to our kids that they are good and get them to play up to their abilities,” explained Jayvee coach Randy Miller. “Tonight there was leadership, they got charged up, they played smash-mouth football. The front line and linebackers really stepped up tonight. They were out there telling each other they were going 100 percent on every play and I think they did pretty much.”
The B-A junior varsity travels to Moshannon Valley next Monday for a 6 p.m. game.
