Bellwood-Antis is hoping the familiar territory of Bellwood Memorial Stadium will be the elixir they need to overcome the malaise the Blue Devils fell into last Saturday night against Bishop Guilfoyle. The Marauders humbled Bellwood-Antis 21-0 breaking 26 game regular season and 20 game ICC winning streaks for B-A.
The Blue Devils cling to one last win streak and hope to improve it, when they play host to Mount Union on Friday night. Bellwood-Antis has won 15 straight home contests over the past three years and will try to turn it around against the Trojans, who come into the game 2-0.
Mount Union opened the season with a 23-0 whitewash over fellow Huntingdon County foe Juniata Valley, then received a forfeit last week by Johnstown Votech
Led by second-year head coach Jeff Roadcap, Mount Union racked up 353 yards of total offense in the opener against Juniata Valley. They divided the total nearly equally with 171 yards rushing and 182 passing, while limiting Valley to 115 yards rushing and 142 yards total offense.
Mount Union and Bellwood-Antis began meeting on the gridiron in 1941 with a 6-0 Mount Union victory. The series has continued off and on since then. B-A won the following dozen tilts in a row before Mount Union won four and tied one of the six contests played between 1956 and 1969, and took five of six when the two schools played every year from 1989-1995. Bellwood-Antis won 28-6 last year and have won six games in a row since 1997 to take a 23-12-3 lead in the all-time series. From 1951-58, the Trojans were called Captain Jack Joint High School of Mount Union.
“Mount Union has only played one game,” cautioned B-A coach John Hayes. “They do a lot of switching on offense, lining up in a basic T-Formation and then switch to a Power-I or Pro-I. They run toss sweeps, run the fullback on the belly series and do some optioning from those plays. They show trips formations also with three wideouts on the same side. They are a team coming in with a lot of confidence and should be a very good opponent.”
In the Trojans’ game with Juniata Valley, junior quarterback Stefan Morgan completed seven of 14 passes for 182 yards, including touchdown bombs of 24 and 87 yards to classmate Isaiah Helton. Morgan also ran eight times for 73 yards and sophomore fullback Trey Rogers rumbled through the Hornet defense eight times for 77 yards, including a 51-yard rush on the opening play of the game. Isaiah Helton caught three passes for 117 yards and two scores.
“On defense,” said Hayes, “Mount Union has runs a basic 4-3 with some 5-2 alignments, which is pretty similar to what Tyrone does, so we have seen it before. Right now, we are struggling a bit on offense. We are working to eliminate the mistakes and become consistent. We have now gone six quarters without scoring and that is very disturbing.”
Bellwood-Antis fell to Honorable mention this week in the Patriot-News rankings and remained in the Teams to Watch in the PA Football News, while with the win over the Blue Devils, Bishop Guilfoyle jumped to Number eight in the Patriot poll and joined the Teams to Watch list in the PFN rankings.
Mount Union’s projected starting lineup includes Stefan Morgan (6,160) at quarterback, with Trey Rogers (6-1,185) at fullback, Drew Aurand (5-9,170) at tailback and trey McClain (5-10,160) and Isaiah Helton (6,185) at halfback. Jonathan Clemens (5-6,145) and Ralphaell Punch (5-10,145) share time at split end while Randy Varner (6-2,180) and Mike McConaughey (6-2,190) are the tight ends. Josh Kirsch (6-2,220) is the center, Jamie Nagel (6-2,195) is the right guard, Brandon Matthews (5-11,160) is the left guard, Levi Johnson (5-11,200) is the right tackle and Ralph Morgan (6-2,220) is the left tackle.
On defense for the Trojans, R. Morgan and Varner are the ends, with Kirsch and Johnson at the tackles. Nagel is the middle linebacker with Aurand and McClain on the outside. Punch and Helton or McConaughey will be the cornerbacks with S. Morgan and Clemens at the safeties.
Aurand, Kirsch, Nagel, McConaughey, Matthews and R. Morgan are seniors, S. Morgan, Helton, Clemens, Punch and Johnson are juniors and Rogers, McClain and Varner are sophomores.
Bellwood-Antis will start the same basic lineup as they have for the first two weeks of the season. Hayes informs that Adam Plummer, who “tweaked a hamstring in the BG game “is expected to be near 100% by Friday,” and the same groupings that have been playing will be ready for Mount Union.
Jesse Graham will be at quarterback, Adam Plummer or Cory Daly at tailback, Derrick Miller at fullback, Dan Graham or Ricky Shannon at slotback, Ryan McCartney at tight end and Ryan Myers or Damion Miller at wide out. Josh Rosella will be the center with Eric Brubaker and Matt Plummer at the guards and Bret McCartney and John Elvey at the tackles.
On defense it will be B. McCartney and Rosella at the tackles, R. McCartney and Elvey at the ends, Myers and M. Plummer at outside linebacker, A. Plummer, Brubaker or De.. Miller at inside linebacker, Da. Miller and Dan Houser at the corners and Daly at safety.
