Bellwood-Antis simply doesn’t lose football games in the month of October. Since the 1996 season, the Blue Devils have lost just five times in 41 ballgames during the month. Three of those losses came in 2003, when the Blue Devils had their worst season in nine years, finishing 5-5. The fifth loss was last week’s 14-13 decision at Philipsburg-Osceola. During the remainder of that period, Bellwood-Antis is 36-1.
On Friday, the Blue Devils look to begin add to one win streak and to continue their good times in October. Chestnut Ridge comes to Bellwood and the Blue Devils hope to make this Friday the 13th extremely unlucky for the Lions.
Although close games that decide conference championships have been the norm in this series, B-A has won all 10 games in the series. Bellwood-Antis began the 10-game series with back-to-back 42-0 and 44-20 triumphs in 1984 and ‘85, after which the two schools parted ways. In 1990, the two met at Fishertown, home of the Lions to decide the championship of the now defunct Mid-Penn league. Although finishing 9-2, the Blue Devils were out of the district playoffs that year. They used the Mid-Penn game to make their point thrashing Chestnut Ridge 35-6. In 1991, Ridge jumped out to a 21-7 advantage, only to have Bellwood-Antis mount a comeback to win 27-21.
Since the last restructuring of the ICC, the teams have played each year. In 2003, although only 5-5, the Blue Devils scored in the final minute to upset the once-beaten Lions 13-10. In each of the last two seasons, the once beaten Blue Devils have knocked previously undefeated Ridge from the ranks of the unbeaten-21-14 in 2004 and 35-21 in a real donnybrook last year. Chestnut Ridge has gone 15-3 over the past two years during the regular season with two of the three losses coming at the hand of the Blue Devils.
The current edition of the Lions opened their 2006 season by dropping their opener against Bishop Guilfoyle 26-12, then knocked off Mount Union 33-12 and Claysburg-Kimmel 40-6. After losing a 27-13 decision to Penns Valley, Chestnut Ridge has been on cruise control the last two weeks, demolishing Glendale 35-14 and Everett 45-0 for head coach Dan Wilkins, in his eighth season at Ridge.
“Chestnut Ridge uses a Pro-I offensive set most of the time,” explained Bellwood-Antis coach John Hayes. “They like to run tailback lead and tailback toss plays, inside and outside and will run a crossbuck out of it as well. They will lead with the tailback as a blocker and run the fullback off tackle. They will run the fullback trap and they often use a two-tight end set with one wide out. They have enough diversity to successfully run the ball.
“They also have a quarterback with a nice strong arm, a first-year guy. They like to locate the tight ends and have two nice ones who are not the typical big slow blocker, but who can get downfield on deep patterns.”
Sophomore Josh McDannell (5-10, 215) was all set to be the big runner for the Lions, running for 100 yards on eight carries in just one quarter against BG in the opener, but injured a knee and probably is lost for the season. McDannell tried to come back briefly in game two against Mount Union, but has not played since.
In McDannell’s absence, senior Mike Tomovich (6-0, 165) has stepped in to lead Chestnut Ridge with 90 carries for 773 yards and a team-best nine touchdowns. Senior Kyle Hess (5-8, 165) has 287 yards and six TDs on 51 carries, and junior T. J. Miller has run 22 times for 168 yards and two scores.
Sophomore Jace Deffibaugh (5-11, 180) took over the quarterbacking chores this season after last year’s signal caller Max Kauert suffered an arm injury. Deffibaugh has completed 41 of 99 passes for 607 yards, six TDs and four interceptions.
Junior Jordan Soliday (5-11, 175) has 18 receptions for 333 yards and three TDs. Kauert, who has converted to tight end has eight catches for 128 yards and a touchdown, and Tomovich, who does a little of everything has completed two of three tosses for 87 yards with one interception, and caught seven passes for 110 yards and one TD.
Chestnut Ridge has averaged 232.8 yards rushing and 119.5 passing for a total yardage mark of 352.3 per game. In the past two weeks against Glendale and Everett, the Lions have accounted for 982 yards of total offense.
The Ridge defense has given up 134.5 yards rushing and 90.5 more passing for an average of 225 yards per game for their opponents.
“Chestnut Ridge runs a 6-2 or 4-4 on defense,” said Hayes. “They are a lot like us on defense. They will bring their outside backers close to the line. They will stay in an even look almost exclusively. They will stunt a little, but mostly they will hit and flow to the ball, using a three-deep secondary. Dave Baker is an assistant at Ridge and they use what he used at Williamsburg, when he coached there, with success.”
Bellwood-Antis has averaged 215.3 yards rushing and 60.5 passing, while giving up 136.8 yards on the ground per game and 50.8 passing.
Josh Kleinfelter needs just 33 yards to become the first rusher at Bellwood-Antis to total three 1,000-yard rushing seasons. Kleinfelter (2004, 2005), Chris McCartney ((1989, 1990), Walter Rhoades (1962, 1963), Steve Walker (1980, 1981), Dave Miller (1999, 2000) and Matt Garner (1999, 2000) have all done it twice at B-A. Kleinfelter has rushed 117 times for 967 yards and 14 TDs, and has also added a score on a kick return. Jon Davila has run 31 times for 118 yards.
Senior Evan Hughes has completed 31 of 70 passes for 363 yards, with two TDs and seven interceptions. Devon Clapper has 11 catches for 123 yards, Blaze Winterstein has five grabs for 51 yards, David Burns has four receptions for 54 yards and one TD, and Brandon Pruznak has four for 80 and one TD.
Evan Celmo booted his 89th PAT against Philipsburg-Osceola to pass Chris Miller for the top spot in PATs at Bellwood-Antis. Celmo earlier in the season booted a pair of field goals against Bald Eagle Area to become the Blue Devils’ leader in field goals with nine in his career. Celmo had been tied with seven with Dan Graham (2000-02). Celmo’s 126 kicking points are also a record for the Blue Devils.
“Last week we controlled the ball, except for our own mistakes, it was the classic game that got away,” described Hayes. “We hurt ourselves, couldn’t make the play we needed. We can still go on. Most of the goals we set are still within out sights. We need to focus and go. We need to use that game as a motivator and bounce on to bigger and better things.”
