Winning football games at Bellwood-Antis has been a constant. As the years pass, rarely have the Blue Devils been susceptible to the cycles of good seasons followed by bad as most small school districts go through. Fifty-three times in the 68-year history of the Bellwood-Antis football program, the Blue Devils have produced non-losing seasons. Of the 13 losing seasons, six of them came in a row from 1955-60 and two more came back-to-back in 1975-76. The other five have been few and far between.
Bellwood-Antis football players must have developed a sense of deja-vu as the 2005 season progressed, especially those who were members of the 2004 squad as well. The 2004 team got trounced by Tyrone 40-13, in their opener and then got better each week, culminating in 11 straight wins and a District 6-A championship win over Bishop Carroll.
A year later, the 2005 edition of Blue Devils (10-2) lost to Tyrone in the opener, in a game not really as close as the 31-19 score indicated, then went on another long run to win 10 straight games and a place in the district title game opposite Bishop Carroll. Although the 2005 season ended one game sooner, the Blue Devils finished 10-2, adding another great page to the 68-year history of the Bellwood-Antis football program. This was the 13th time a Bellwood-Antis football team had at least 10 straight wins during a season.
Bellwood-Antis immediately turned around to shut out Penns Valley 37-0 and then proceeded to steamroll their way to nine more wins, averaging 33 points and 340 yards total offense per game. The Blue Devils won the Nittany Division of the Inter-County Conference for the second year in a row and a record 16th title overall, and were second to Tyrone in the Mountain Athletic Conference Nittany Division.
Although falling short of the crown in the district championship game, 2005 marked the 10th time, B-A has been in the finals since the inception of District 6 championships in 1985.
Leading the way, or rather the rush, was Bellwood-Antis junior Josh Kleinfelter, who already has begun destroying the B-A record books. Kleinfelter rushed for 2,023 yards, the first Blue Devil runner to reach the 2,000-yard mark and scored 30 touchdowns for 180 points. Both the TDs and points scored are new B-A records. Formerly Albert “Chub” Dillen held the record of 173 points (1954, in nine games!) and Don “Booker” Moore had scored 27 TDs (1985). Adding 1,620 yards rushing from 2004, Kleinfelter takes over the career rushing standard at B-A with 3,643 yards, moving past the former standard set by Chris McCartney of 3,170 (1988-90). After setting a single-season total offense (rushing+passing+receiving) record with 1,866, in 2004, Josh reset the mark again adding 216 yards in receptions to his rushing total this season for 2,239 yards total offense in 2005 and a two-year total of 4,105 yards. Both are B-A records.
Devon Clapper, a junior, who did a little bit of everything and did it with a skill that was much larger than his 5-5. 150-pound frame, rushed 39 times for 251 yards, caught 20 passes for 330 yards, and picked up a team-best 482 yards returning kicks and punts to total 1,063 yards of total offense for the season. Included in those returns was a 66-yard punt return against Tyrone to set up a touchdown, a 48-yard punt return for a TD against Penns Valley, an 86-yard TD on a kickoff against Moshannon Valley and an 82-yard kickoff return for a score in the district semifinal game against Portage. On defense, Devon led the Blue Devils with four interceptions and had a fumble recovery, and was sixth on the team in total tackles with 51 from his cornerback position.
Jon Davila 217 yards on 40 carries and Brandon Eger carried 32 times for 184 yards.
Kleinfelter, Clapper and Davila form a solid nucleus in the backfield for 2006.
Kyle Drost took over at quarterback late in his junior year when senior Zach Tomchick was injured, to get a long audition through the Blue Devils run to the district title last year and then guided B-A to 10 wins in 2005. In a little over a year, Drost led Bellwood-Antis to a 15-3 mark when he was the starter under center. Drost completed 68 of 138 passes in 2005 for 1,278 yards with 11 TDs and 11 interceptions.
Drost started slowly passing for only 45 yards and four interceptions in his first two starts, but rebounded with three 100-yard passing games in the 2004 playoffs, then added six more this season to trail only Chuck Benton (‘99-’01) with 13 and Todd Hirt (‘86-’88) with 10, both of whom had many more starts to compile their totals. Kyle completed 92 of 203 passes at Bellwood-Antis for 1,703 yards with 13 TD passes and 17 interceptions. Drost’s 68 completions and 1,278 passing yards are both third for a season at B-A and 92 completions for his career tie Bo DelGrosso (’68-’70) for fifth place, and his 1,703 yards passing are the fifth highest total as well.
Senior wide out Dan Kovac caught 26 passes for 573 yards and nine TDs. Kovac fell just short of Jason Lamertina’s season mark of 581 yards, but holds the school record for season and career (11) touchdown passes, career receiving yardage (876) and receiving yardage in a game (167 against Philipsburg-Osceola). The receiving yardage in a game of 132 yards, had been previously held by Max Kneidinger against Northern Cambria in 1955. Kovac’s 26 receptions this year are the fourth best B-A figure.
Kovac had the opportunity to perform a rare trilogy in the Mount Union game in 2005, scoring on a pass reception, punt return and intercepted pass all in the same game, and was second in scoring with 11 touchdowns for 66 points. Dan also averaged 35.2 yards on 20 punts, recovered two fumbles, intercepted two passes and had 50 total tackles, including one sack.
Clapper and Kovac become just the second pair of receivers at Bellwood-Antis to have 20 or more receptions in the same year, joining the 1997 duo of Zack Fay and Dan Tubbs, who each caught 21 passes in 1997. With the combination of Clapper and Kovac picking up 903 yards receiving, they broke the record formerly held by Lamertina and present B-A junior high head coach Charlie Burch (229) of 810 yards in 1988.
Junior place-kicker Evan Celmo booted 42 of 44 PATs in 2005 to total 75 extra points in his first two years and added four field goals. Celmo is tied with Dan Graham (’00-’02) with seven career field goals and is third (42) in PATs in a season and third in career extra points. Celmo joins Graham as the only Blue Devils to kick four field goals in a season.
The B-A offensive line of Anthony Jenkins and Adam Martin at guard, Brian Dougherty, Tony DelGrosso and L. J. Seidel at tackle and Josh Peters, Mike Guinard and DelGrosso at center opened holes in opponents defenses for the Blue Devils to rush for 2,732 yards and pass for 1,357 more, an average of 340.8 yards total offense and 32.8 points per game. The 2005 Blue Devils offensive numbers of 394 points are fifth, rushing totals of 2,792 yards are ninth, passing totals of 1,375 are third and total offense of 4,167 are sixth on the Blue Devils’ all-time lists.
Jenkins, Peters, Guinard, Kleinfelter, Davila and Clapper return on offense in 2006.
In 2005, the Blue Devils won 10 straight games for the second straight year and for the 13th time overall.
After a 5-5 season in 2003, the Blue Devils senior class of 2006 dedicated themselves to gturning the program back around. The results are two straight district final games and a 22-4 record over the last two seasons.
“This group of seniors was instrumental in turning our program back in the right direction two years ago,” explained B-A head coach John Hayes. “They made it great to be a part of. Hopefully this will carry over. I told the younger ones they need to remember how they felt after our loss to Bishop Carroll in the finals and build on that for next year.”
The B-A defense of Blaze Winterstein and Kovac at outside linebacker, Troy Brunner and Jenkins at defensive end, Martin and Tyler Narehood at tackle, Tony DelGrosso and Evan Hughes at inside linebacker, Kleinfelter and Clapper at cornerback and Brandon Pruznak at safety limited opponents to 115.6 yards rushing and 91.6 yards passing and 15.4 points per contest.
Winterstein, Jenkins, Narehood, Hughes, Kleinfelter, Clapper and Pruznak return for 2006.
DelGrosso led in solo tackles for the third straight year and total tackles for the second time in three years with 129, and recorded a total of 361 tackles at B-A. Tony, who along with Josh Kleinfelter was selected to a spot on the AP First Team All-State squad anchored the defense and also held down a starting spot on the offensive line. Adam Martin was second in tackles with 87 total stops and Evan Hughes was third with 86.
Martin, Kovac, and Kleinfelter were unanimous selections to the MAC Nittany Division First Team Offense and DelGrosso, Martin, Kovac and Brunner were First Team Defensive picks and Kovac was a three-way First Team selection being named as a punter as well.
DelGrosso, Brunner and Evan Celmo were Second Team picks on offense and Hughes and Clapper were Second Team defensive selections.
Inter-County Conference All-Star picks for the Blue Devils included: Kyle Drost, Kleinfelter, Brunner, Martin and DelGrosso on offense and Martin, Tyler Narehood, DelGrosso, Hughes, Kleinfelter and Clapper on defense and Celmo on special teams.
Long-time B-A head coach John Hayes celebrated his 200th victory when Bellwood-Antis bombed Mount Union 55-14 on Sept. 23. Hayes will begin 2006 with a 207-73-2 mark.
“I have a life of wonderful memories,” Hayes said. “I’am very blessed to have been here and have the opportunity to work with these kids and this school district. The one I was really worried about was the first one long ago against Penns Valley. The 200 wins is a sign that you’ve been around a long time, but I’ve been blessed to have good kids and good coaches to make this possible.”
