Bellwood-Antis handed Moshannon Valley the pigskin three times in Monday night’s junior varsity contest at Bellwood Memorial Stadium and the Black Knight Jayvees (1-0) took advantage to score a pair of touchdowns in a 10-point 32-22 Moshannon Valley victory.
Mistakes hurt the Blue Devils, who dropped to 1-2, dearly. Mo Valley scored their first TD after a Bellwood-Antis punt went backwards for a negative five yards to give the Knights the ball at the BA-32. Moshannon quarterback Luke Martin completed a 10-yard pass to Matt Ballella and scored on a 14 yard keeper around the left side for an early 6-0 lead.
The Blue Devils came right back to take a slim lead on their next possession. Derrick Hoffer picked up seven yards on the first call and Mark Rogers rambled for 22 more a play later. Matt Sneath capped the five-play march slipping through the line, spinning to avoid a tackler, then racing 40 yards for the tying touchdown. Rogers’ PAT kick moved Bellwood-Antis into a 7-6 lead.
P. J. Keith returned the kickoff 43 yards to set up a go-ahead score for Moshannon Valley and Martin scored his second TD of the game from three yards out for a 12-7 advantage.
On their next series, the Little Blue Devils were moving the ball , advancing from their own 36 to the MV-45, when the first fumble occurred.
Mo Valley took over at their own 45 and drove for a score. P. J. Keith, who led the Knights with 105 yards on just nine carries, started the series off with back-to-back 12 yard gains and capped the drive with an 11-yard TD. Tom Ballella’s PAT kick gave Mo Valley a 19-7 lead with just over two minutes remaining in the first half. A mystery play on which it appeared B-A defensive back John McFalls had intercepted the ball was called a pass completion for Mo Valley to the BA-11 by the officials and Keith scored on the next play.
The Blue Devils quick-marched down the field to narrow the score to 19-14 at halftime.
Starting from their own 25, B-A drove 75 yards, helped along by three five-yard penalties against the Black Knights, including two for face masks?
Matt Sneath had a pair of 10-yard pickups, Mark Rogers had an 11-yard scamper and quarterback Zach Tomchick ran a keeper for 12 yards. Tomchick tossed a fade into the endzone to John McFalls, who made a beautiful catch in the back of the endzone for a score. Rogers booted the extra point to shave the Knights lead to 19-14.
Bellwood-Antis fumbled again on the first series of the third quarter, and Moshannon Valley again took advantage to score points. Keith covered all 58 yards himself, first moving the sticks for a first down on an 11-yard rush, then getting loose in the secondary for 47 yards and a TD. A pass for two points failed, but Mo Valley led 25-14.
Midway through the fourth quarter after the B-A junior varsity had lost the ball on yet another miscue, the Blue Devils started from their own 38.
Rogers had his number called eight times for 27 tough yards and Sneath five times for 32 yards before Tomchick hooked up with McFalls again for a 15-yard pass in the right side of the endzone over a defender for the TD. Sneath bulled for the 2-pt. PAT to close the score to 25-22 with 5:32 to play.
The Knights sealed the win with a time-consuming drive that ended in the endzone with Darren, who ran 20 times for 103 yards crashing in for a 10-yard TD with just 34 seconds remaining.
“Turnovers really hurt us,” said B-A junior varsity coach Randy Miller, “ but I was extremely proud of the way our kids came back and just never quit. They kept pounding away. It’s a tough group and they are getting better each week. We played a pretty good team, Mo Valley has a nice team and their backs ran hard. We had a lot of hits on them, but we didn’t wrap up in the backfield. We just need to learn to wrap up on tackles and we’ll be fine. Our kids played with a lot of heart tonight.”
