Bellwood-Antis was involved in the only forfeit in the school’s history on Oct. 18, 1947. The forfeit came about because of the opposing coach’s displeasure with calls made by the officials and came early in the fourth quarter with Bellwood-Antis leading Greenfield Township of Claysburg 13-7 with eight minutes to play.
B-A took the opening kickoff and quickly 70 yards in eight plays drove for a touchdown, aided by a 15-yard Greenfield penalty on the first play of the series.
Gerry Treese hit the center of the line for a dozen yards and senior end Harold “Pete” Gleichert rambled 15 and 16 yards on consecutive reverses from Roy Pickens. Both Treese and Pickens were juniors. Treese blasted over for the TD from a yard out and Bob Sitman booted the PAT.
Leading 7-0 at halftime, Bellwood-Antis kicked off to begin the third quarter. After the B-A defense forced the Bulldogs to punt, Pickens went around right end on the first play, got into the open, evaded the Greenfield safety and scooted 70 yards for a TD.
Greenfield Township scored on a 15-yard TD rush at the end of the third quarter and added the extra point to cut the Blue Devil lead to 13-7.
To start the final quarter, Greenfield Township kicked off to Bellwood-Antis. On the second down play, senior fullback Harry Campbell passed to Pickens, who according to officials snapped the ball back to Bob Sitman, who scampered 55 yards to the Bulldogs-30. (This was the disputed play.)
Pickens hit left tackle for nine yards, just missing a first down by inches. Campbell moved the sticks for a first down with a three-yard pickup. Pickens again followed through left tackle for 13 yards for a first down at the GT-4.
At this point the Claysburg team was pulled off the field by head coach Morris Quint with about eight minutes left in the game. Quint’s contention was that the second part of the Campbell to Pickens to Sitman play had not been backward as ruled by the officials and was an illegal second forward pass.
The protest was made after three plays had elapsed and the officials refused to reverse their original call. Coach Quint at first said his squad would continue with the game under protest, then after returning to the field from the locker room informed the officials that by unanimous vote his players and coaches had decided not to continue the game. The officials then declared the game a forfeit with Bellwood-Antis (6-1) a 1-0 victor under head coach Duke Burkholder.
On Oct. 18, 1952, Bellwood-Antis (6-0) defeated Captain Jack Joint High School of Mount Union 34-7. This was the Blue Devils 32nd straight game without a loss with the only blemish a 7-7 tie with Hollidaysburg in late 1949 during that streak.
At home for the second of four straight games at Bellwood Memorial Stadium, the Blue Devils waisted very little time in scoring on a two-play drive for the first tally. Albert “Chub” Dillen broke loose for a 45-yard scamper to the CJ-20. Dean Rossi then skirted left end for the 20-yard touchdown and Don Clark added the PAT kick.
Later in the first quarter, B-A marched to the Trojan-22. Then Chub Dillen tossed a pass to his brother Bob Dillen for the TD. Bob had taken over for Don Garman, who was injured in the Huntingdon game and was out for the year.
Captain Jack put up their only score of the game marching 63 yards for the score. The PAT was added on a drop-kick, a lost art today that was common in the early years of the 1900s when the ball was fatter and rounder.
Literally, the ball was dropped from arm’s level and kicked the instant it rebounded off the ground.
The Blue devils increased their lead in the third quarter when junior right end Wayne Campbell blocked a Captain Jack punt, picked up the ball and raced 55 yards for a TD. Don Clark’s PAT kick upped the score to 20-7.
In the fourth quarter, Bellwood-Antis added two more scores. First, Chub Dillen lateraled to Bob Bilka, who handed off to Don Clark, who fired a pass to Dean Campbell for a 20-yard TD.
Clark took a handoff from Dillen for an 18-yard score for the final TD. Clark booted PATs after both fourth-quarter scores for coach Earl Strohm’s Blue Devils.
Bellwood-Antis unreleased a relentless ground attack pounded out 454 yards rushing and seven touchdowns to defeat Claysburg-Kimmel 48-0 on Oct. 18, 1980. This was the Blue Devils largest scoring output since a 53-30 win over Williamsburg in 1973.
Everybody took turns in the spotlight. Steve Walker tallied twice on runs of 74 and four yards, Jim Dorminy added a pair of TDs on dashes of 43 and 22 yards. Sophomore John Youngkin scored on a 25 yard jaunt and picked up 124 yards from scrimmage on just four carries. Todd Bookhamer had a one-yard plunge and Albert Dillen scored on a 12 yarder to round out the scoring for B-A.
Dave DiRoma kicked five successful extra points and sophomore Wally Rossi kicked one through the uprights. Steve Walker, who became the first 1,000-yard rusher at Bellwood-Antis since 1963 with 184 carries for 1,079 yards, had 155 yards against Claysburg on 11 carries and Dorminy added 82 yards on just five carries for head coach John Hayes, who was in his first season at Bellwood-Antis back in 1980. Hayes coaching staff in his rookie season included Port Wiliams, Pat Finochio and Ken Peterson, with Darrell Claar and Todd Guyer coaching the Blue Devil junior high team.
