2006 was another super season for Bellwood-Antis football. The Blue Devils won 10 games or better for the third straight year and played in the District 6-A championship game in each of those years. Since 2000, the B-A football program has compiled a 67-16 overall mark, going 54-10 during the regular season. Five times since 2000 the Bellwood-Antis grid machine has played in the district finals. Subtract a subpar (for Bellwood-Antis) 5-5 season in 2003 and the record is even more remarkable.
In 2006, the Blue Devils went through a 7-2 regular season, allowing backyard rival Tyrone to score all its 16 points in less that two minutes at the end of the second quarter in a 16-0 season-opening loss, and having an extra point kick blocked at Philipsburg-Osceola, that resulted in a 14-13 loss to the Mounties.
Wins came over Penns Valley 27-3, Bald Eagle Area 27-6, Mount Union 43-0, Southern Huntingdon 27-9, Chestnut Ridge 33-22, Moshannon Valley 46-6 and Bishop Guilfoyle 20-0.
Using an extremely tough defense that led all area teams in fewest points scored until the Southern Columbia Eastern Final game, and a smash-mouth rushing attack on offense that ate up huge chunks of yardage, Bellwood-Antis actually then turned up the defensive performance in the district playoffs to waltz through three straight wins over Glendale 32-0, Southern Huntingdon 24-7 and Juniata Valley 22-8 in contests that were never as close as the final scores might indicate.
The memory of their fine, young assistant coach Randy Miller, who lost a courageous fight with cancer shortly before the beginning of the season was always fresh in the minds of the young men Randy had helped to form in both mind and body. This season and all it brought, was dedicated to Randy Miller. Football players, fellow coaches, students and people throughout the Bellwood-Antis community felt the great loss, but went on with the season and with their lives as they knew Randy would have wanted.
In the first round of the PIAA state playoffs, Bellwood-Antis totally dominated a Steelton-Highspire squad 28-8, at Mansion Park for the school’s first-ever PIAA win. The defense played an almost perfect game, and the offense was never stopped by the Steel-High defense.
In the Eastern Final against four-time defending Southern Columbia, who would go on to win a state record fifth straight title, Bellwood-Antis gave the Tigers their toughest competition of the year, before falling 35-0 to the Southern juggernaut. For comparison, Bellwood-Antis trailed only 14-0 at halftime, and was inside the 20-yard line twice. A week later in the state final at Hershey, Southern Columbia held a 42-6 lead against West Middlesex at the half.
Honors continue to pour in for the 2006 Blue Devils, both team-wise and individually. B-A won their third straight Inter-County Conference Nittany Division championship, and their 18th ICC league or division title overall. The Harrisburg Patriot-News poll ranked Bellwood-Antis number two in the state. Pennsylvania Football News put the Blue Devils in the number three slot. Sportsfever.com had Bellwood-Antis number eight. Bellwood-Antis had never finished higher than third in any poll previous to 2006.
Bellwood-Antis and Tyrone dominated the Mountain Athletic Conference All-Star selections getting 12 of 14 offensive selections between the two northern Blair County high schools and the Blue Devils had a total of 17 all-star picks in total.
Bellwood-Antis had Josh Peters (center), Chad Coho (guard), Anthony Jenkins (tackle), Devon Clapper (wide receiver), Josh Kleinfelter (running back) and Evan Celmo (place-kicker) on the first team offense. On defense, Blaze Winterstein (end) Tyler Narehood (D-Line), and Clapper and Kleinfelter as defensive backs made the first team. Winterstein was a second team tight end on offense and Peters (end), Coho (D-line), Jenkins (D-line), Jon Davila (linebacker), Bruno DeGol (linebacker) and Brandon Humphreys (punter) made the second team defense.
The Blue Devils also had 13 selections to the ICC All-Star Team: Kleinfelter (running back), Winterstein (tight end), Peters (O-line) and Coho (O-line) on offense; Narehood (D-line), Jenkins (D-end), Davila (linebacker), Kleinfelter (D-back) and Clapper (D-back), Humphreys (kick returner) and Celmo (kicker). Evan Hughes (quarterback) and DeGol (linebacker) made Honorable Mention.
In addition to those picks, a high school athlete’s most treasured individual award is to be selected to the All-State Team.
Bellwood-Antis was privileged in 2006 to have three players honored with selection to the Associated Press All-State Team.
Running back Josh Kleinfelter, becomes the first Blue Devil football player to be chosen to the First Team in back-to-back years. Several B-A athletes have been named to the All-State Team twice, but never to the First Team on two occasions.
Joining Kleinfelter as Second Team selections are junior Anthony Jenkins on the offensive line and senior Evan Celmo as a place-kicker. Only once before in the history of the Bellwood-Antis football program have three players made the All-State Team. That was in 1946, when an 11-0 B-A team that gave up just one touchdown in 11 games and limited those 11 opponents to just 820 yards total offense, had Charles Barr chosen to the Second Team All-State squad as an offensive lineman and Ron Raugh and Ken Woodhall selected Honorable Mention in the backfield.
Kleinfelter and his senior classmates have taken the proud B-A football standards and improved on them. The senior class of 2007, played in three district finals, winning two, won the school’s first PIAA playoff game, recorded three straight 10 plus win seasons, with a school record total of 32-7 during those three years. Perhaps more important than the accumulated win totals is the responsibility they took as sophomores to help turn around a program that had gone 5-5 the previous year and then began the 2004 season by getting demolished by Clearfield in the final scrimmage, and dominated by Tyrone in the season opener a week later 40-13, after trailing 34-0 in the third quarter. The rest is history. That 2004 team won their next 11 games before falling to Camp Hill in the state playoffs. The 2005 team went 10-2 with 10 more wins in between a 31-19 loss to Tyrone and a 27-10 loss to Bishop Carroll in the D-6 finals. Fans had been waiting for this team since they showcased their talent by wiping out everybody they faced in an 8-0 junior high season as ninth graders.
Only the seniors of the Class of 2002 played in three district finals before this year, and that group was 0-3.
This team of destiny did not fail to be the team everyone expected. Bellwood-Antis lost that final ballgame, but the showing in that contest against questionably the best team in the state, any class, the way they played to get there and the heart they showed throughout the 2006 season will be remembered by coaches, team and community for a long time to come.
“They’re going to be remembered. They’re going to be used as a measuring stick for other teams,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach John Hayes.
Bellwood-Antis will graduate 15 seniors, with at least a dozen of them starting on at least one side of the ball.
Any discussion of this group must begin and end with Josh Kleinfelter. Quiet and unassuming, Josh is always giving first credit to his teammates. Nevertheless, Kleinfelter in the past three seasons has gone about resetting practically all the offensive records at Bellwood-Antis, not just taking over the lead, but moving the step so far ahead that there may be none who can match the effort in the future.
Kleinfelter is the only B-A back to eclipse the 1,000-yard rushing mark three times, the only one to reach the 2,000-yard mark, and he did that twice. Josh finishes with 2,289 yards in 2006, and a career total of 5,932 yards, the 18th-best total in the history of Pennsylvania football. Kleinfelter has rushed for 100 yards or better 29 times, including a 307-yard effort against Marion Center in D-6 playoffs as a sophomore in 2004. Eight times Josh has rushed for 200 or more yards. Josh scored 79 career touchdowns and a total of 476 points. Add in 6,374 yards in career total offense (rushing+passing+receiving), and 34 touchdowns in 2006. All are B-A records. The scoring record Josh broke was set by Albert “Chub” Dillen in 1954, having stood for 52 years.
Bellwood-Antis was not a one-man show in 2006. Jon Davila added 451 yards rushing and was a monster on defense leading the Blue Devils in tackles with 124. That total includes team-best efforts with 73 solos and 52 assists.
Devon Clapper, a 5-foot-5, 145 pounder, who played every game with the heart of a lion, like he was six-foot and 185-pounds, accounted for 264 yards rushing and was the Blue Devils leading receiver with 19 catches for 305 yards. Though bloodied from the effort, everyone will remember Clapper tackling All-World fullback Henry Hynoski (6-foot-2, 240 pounds) numerous times in the Eastern Final. Brandon Humphreys, next year’s probable starting tailback, rushed for 201 yards and junior Justin Manning had 151 yards rushing. All averaged nearly six yards per carry or better. (Kleinfelter 7.2, Humphreys and Manning 6.3 each, Clapper 5.9 and Davila 5.8)
In addition to Clapper, Brandon Pruznak had eight receptions for 127 yards, David Burns had eight for 95, Blaze Winterstein caught six passes for 60 yards, Manning had five for 36, Alan Wertz had four for 47, and Davila added four for 46.
Evan Hughes in his only year as a starter, completed 56 of 132 passes for 742 yards with 11 interceptions and seven touchdown passes.
Evan Celmo kicked three field goals in 2006, to set a career record with a total of 10 field goals. Celmo also took over the career lead in extra points from Chris Miller, finishing with 106.
Joining Davila on defense, Chad Coho (107) and Bruno DeGol (100) also passed the century mark in tackles. Winterstein had 85 tackles, Humphreys added 85 and Jenkins had 73. Kleinfelter and Clapper each had 68 tackles and Tyler Narehood had 63.
Coho led the Blue Devils with six sacks and Jenkins had five. Davila and Winterstein each had three sacks. Jenkins and Narehood each had 12 hurries to lead the team.
Danny Campbell, Kleinfelter. Clapper and DeGol each had four interceptions, and Winterstein and Narehood both had two fumble recoveries. Humphreys blocked both a punt and two extra points.
The Blue Devils senior class of Kleinfelter, Narehood, Davila, Celmo, Hughes, Clapper, Josh Peters, Mike Guinard, Coho, Pruznak, David Burns, Winterstein, Caleb Stephens, Campbell and Alex Miller will be the standard for other Blue Devil teams to try to emulate, to match and even attempt to better.
