After watching his Blue Devils demolish Southern Huntingdon a week ago, largely on 35 carries for 258 yards and five TDs by junior tailback Josh Kleinfelter, Bellwood-Antis coach John Hayes commented that his team needed to do some other things in the coming weeks of the season. On Friday night at Bellwood Memorial Stadium, the Philipsburg-Osceola defense pretty much shut down the B-A running game.
That only prompted a pair of Blue Devil seniors to collaborate on the Bellwood-Antis passing attack. When all was said and done, the Blue Devils had mashed Philipsburg 29-0. Senior quarterback Kyle Drost wrote himself into the B-A record books by completing eight of 16 passes for 207 yards. Six of the completions went to senior classmate Dan Kovac for 134 yards and three touchdowns.
“I was very pleased to come out with a victory,” said coach Hayes. “We knew that they were a solid football team, despite their record (1-4) coming in. They are very sound. They play very good tough run defense. We knew if we were going to make some plays and keep things going we were going to have to throw the ball and we got some big plays throwing the football.”
Bellwood-Antis had only three possessions in the opening half of Friday night’s football game, but scored on all three to take a 22-0 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Philipsburg took the opening kick and proceeded to move from their own-26 to the BA-36 in five plays, before the Blue Devil defense stepped up and got tackles from Adam Martin and Tony DelGrosso on first down, Tyler Narehood on second down and finally Troy Brunner on third down, each for losses to force the Mounties to punt from their own 40.
Bellwood-Antis got four yards on two running plays, before Drost dropped back and connected with Drost for a gain of 15 to move the sticks for a first down and two plays later found Kovac all by himself behind the Mountie secondary for a 52-yard TD pass. When Philipsburg failed to cover the muddle huddle on the extra point try, Brandon Eger took the long snap from center Josh Peters and dashed behind a wall of blockers for the two-point conversion and an 8-0 lead with 4:45 to play in the opening quarter.
Sophomore J. D. Mason returned the B-A kick 30 yards to get P-O good field position at the Mounties-44. However, a five-yard motion penalty on a third-and-one play hurt Philipsburg’s chances and then Brunner and Narehood stopped quarterback A. J. Czap for a three-yard loss forcing another punt.
Kleinfelter, who carried a mere 20 times, but still picked up 109 yards, his fifth straight 100-yard performance of the year picked up seven yards on the first play, then Drost and Kovac teamed up again. On a ball that was thrown a little short, Kovac, running behind a P-O defender, reached in front of the defender and took the ball away from him and spun down the sideline to complete a 33-yard reception that carried into Philipsburg-Osceola territory to the PO-42. Drost spotted senior tight end Troy Brunner down the middle for a 21-yard gain. On the following call, Devon Clapper took a wing counter over the left side of the line for a 17-yard touchdown. Evan Celmo’s PAT kick gave Bellwood-Antis a 15-0 lead with 40 seconds to play in the first quarter.
Philipsburg started a long time-consuming, 14-play drive that began at the PO-35 and carried to the BA-4. The B-A defense rose to the occasion on a second-and goal at the four, forcing two pass incompletions and then on fourth down Evan Hughes threw Czap for a 12-yard loss and Bellwood-Antis took over at their own-16.
Turning around, the Blue Devils drove 84 yards for the final score of the half. Kleinfelter scooted 21 yards on the first two plays. Drost hit Clapper on the left side for a pickup of 19, and then came back two plays later to combine with Kovac for a 33-yard TD pass. Celmo’s PAT gave the Blue Devils a 22-0 advantage at halftime.
Philipsburg-Osceola ran 34 plays in the first half, to just 18 for the Blue Devils, yet Bellwood-Antis claimed the three-TD lead.
“Offensively, Philipsburg has done this in just about every game. They have moved the football and one thing or another-they make a mistake, or something happens, and they don’t score,” explained Hayes.
After a scoreless third quarter, Bellwood-Antis put one more score on the board in the fourth quarter and again it was the Drost-to-Kovac combo. The Blue Devils started from the BA-38. Kleinfelter burst through the right side for eight yards and Clapper added 12 more on two carries. A Drost-to-Kovac completion picked up a first down on a gain of 14, and Kleinfelter got loose for 18 more. Philipsburg then pushed the Blue Devils back throwing Kleinfelter for a five-yard loss and Clapper for six more. With B-A facing a fourth-down-and-goal at the PO-20, Kovac managed to get behind the secondary again, grabbing a pass in the end zone for a 20-yard score.
“I’m very glad to get out of here with a pretty win,” said Hayes. “We have those pass plays in (our play book). Sometimes teams take the deep ball away from you. Tonight, they played a lot of people pretty close to the line of scrimmage. We thought with Kovac’s quickness we could get behind them. Fortunately our line gave did a great job to give us time to get the plays off. It usually takes a little extra time. Kyle did a good job of getting the ball there and Danny made the catches. Some of them were pretty easy and some of them were pretty tough. Kovac is a very good football player.”
Blue Devil Notes: Drost’s 207 yards passing are the fifth-best mark at Bellwood-Antis and represent the most passing yardage since Shawn Weiand set the record in the second game of the 2003 season against Mercyhurst Prep with 249…. Drost has now completed an even 50 percent of his passes this year, connecting on 31 of 62 for 632 yards with seven TDs and four interceptions…. Kovac has scored nine TDs, seven on pass receptions and now has 15 catches for 316 yards…. Kleinfelter has rushed for 975 yards on 135 carries, needed 25 yards to tie Steve Walker (1980-81), Walter Rhoades (1962-63), Dave Miller (1999-00) and Matt Garner (1999-00) as the only Blue Devils to rush for two 1,000-yard seasons after rushing for 1,620 yards as a sophomore….Bellwood-Antis (5-1) travels to Fishertown on Friday night for a contest against undefeated Chestnut Ridge (6-0), who edged Everett Friday night 10-8 to remain unbeaten.
Bellwood-Antis 29 Philipsburg-Osceola 0
Philipsburg-Osceola 0 0 0 0 – 0
Bellwood-Antis 15 7 0 7 – 29
First Quarter
BA – Kovac 52 pass from Drost. (Eger run) 4:45.
BA – Clapper 17 run. (Celmo kick) 0:40.6
Second Quarter
BA – Kovac 33 pass from Drost. (Celmo kick) 2:33.
Fourth Quarter
BA – Kovac 20 pass from Drost. (Celmo kick) 11:12.
Team
BA PO
First Downs 14 15
Yards Rushing 25-133 41-130
Pass Att.-Comp. 8-16 4-17
Pass Yards 207 48
Total Yards 240 178
Fumbles/Lost 0-0 1-0
Interceptions by 1 0
Penalties/Yards 7-55 5-25
Punts/Avg. 2-32.5 3-34
Rushing
Philipsburg-Osceola – Marcinko 16-89, Harris 4-21, Shimmel 1-14, Davis 5-13, Barrietos 1-2, Czap 14- (-10).
Bellwood-Antis – Kleinfelter 20-109, Clapper 4-23, Eger 1-1.
Passing
Philipsburg-Osceola – Czap 4-17, 48 yards, 1 Int., 0 TDs.
Bellwood-Antis – Drost 8-16, 207 yards, 0 Int., 3 TDs.
Receiving
Philipsburg-Osceola – Rocco 3-42, Mason 1-6.
Bellwood-Antis – Kovac 6-134 (3 TDs), Brunner 1-21, Clapper 1-19 .
