The streaks are over! Bellwood-Antis had won 26 straight regular season games. The Blue Devils had also won 24 straight games against Inter-County opponents. A 25-24 win by Penns Valley in the second game of the 1999 season was the last conference and regular season loss for B-A.
On Saturday at Mansion park, Bishop Guilfoyle laid waste to Bellwood-Antis in very convincing style 21-0. The last time Bellwood-Antis was shut out was the opening game of the 1999 campaign by a Tyrone team that went on to post a 15-0 mark while winning the PIAA Class-AA state championship. This was just the fourth time the Blue Devils have been shut out in 77 games, since the 1994 squad lost a pair of 3-0 games, the second in the district finals against Homer Center.
“We got a good old-fashioned butt-kicking,” said B-A coach John Hayes. “They played with a lot more excitement, a lot more energy than we did.”
Bishop Guilfoyle controlled the tempo of the game, running off 40 plays in the first half to just 18 for Bellwood-Antis and widened that margin by the end of the game to 76 plays for BG and 37 for the Blue Devils.
Bishop Guilfoyle scored on a Tom Forr field goal of 45 yards with 3:23 to play in the opening quarter and had a 49 yard attempt by Forr sail through the uprights a series earlier, only to be nullified on a penalty.
Bellwood-Antis seemed out of sync on their first two possessions going three downs and punt on the first and losing the ball on the first play of the second series on fumble.
Adam Plummer rambled 40 yards on the first call of the series following Forr’s filed goal. Plummer turned the left corner and raced to the Marauders-40. BG forced three pass incompletions and a two-yard gain and the drive died at the BG-38.
Tom Forr contributed heavily to the BG win with both his hands and foot. Forr, a senior wide out, led the Marauders with five catches for 71 yards, booted two field goals and one extra point and kept Bellwood-Antis back in the shadow of their own goal line with his punts and kickoffs. B-A began nine of their 11 offensive series at their own 22-yard line or less, while the Marauders began three series in Bellwood-Antis territory and five more outside their own 30.
In the second quarter, a Forr punt was downed at the BA-1. On the first play from scrimmage, the BG defense trapped Derrick Miller in the endzone for a safety. The two points hiked the Bishop Guilfoyle lead to a strange sounding 5-0 margin.
If you subtract Plummer’s long run, the Blue Devils managed just 23 yards rushing in 11 carries in the first half and Jesse Graham completed two of six passes for 18 yards. B-A never advanced past their own 29-yard line throughout the entire first half, except very briefly following Plummer’s scamper.
“It was a great game for BG,” said coach Hayes. “They played awfully well. We just couldn’t get out of our half of the field in the first half. We would make a play and then have a negative play. It was just a bad night for our offense, we had no consistency. They would throw us for a loss, penetrate and put a lot of pressure on us that we didn’t handle very well.”
Bishop Guilfoyle had 174 yards total offense in the first half and would grind out 267 yards rushing and 366 yards total offense for the game.
Plummer, who led B-A with 69 yards on eight carries, opened the second half with a six-yard gain, but tweaked a hamstring and was done for the rest of the game. Cory Daly had his number called three straight times for 12 yards to net a first down, but the Blue Devil offense sputtered as it would all evening. The Blue Devils last three offensive series ended with BG interceptions.
BG used a time-consuming ground game in the second half to add two Josh DeStefano touchdowns on the board that sealed Bellwood-Antis’ fate. DeStefano, who led all rushers with 142 yards on 22 carries, had gains of 20, 11 and eight twice to keep the stick moving on the Marauders first series of the third quarter, then scored on a 10-yard blast.
“In the second half, they started running the ball like we try to do to wear people down. They had success running the ball, driving it home. Their good play accounted for our not playing so well.”
Forr added his second field goal, a 31-yarder, following the first interception. Matt Georgiana, who had 99 yards on 20 carries, set up the field goal with 15 yards in three carries to set the ball at the BA-14. DeStefano scampered eight yards for his second score to cap a short 17-yard drive following the second interception with 5:27 to play in the fourth quarter.
Both DeStefano and Georgiana are juniors.
“When Adam went down, it just kind of threw a monkey wrench in there,” explained Hayes. “Cory Daly is a great back out there, but when somebody gets hurt, it puts a little hesitation in there. You look for the right mix or grouping. We were really poor offensively and the defense was on the field too much. BG is too good an offensive team to have to play that much defense.
Right now, we have to back up and re-evaluate ourselves. It’s a long season and there’s a long way to go. This certainly hurts our league situation obviously. We need to take stock of ourselves and see what direction these kids want to go. It’s a long time since we’ve been here in this situation.”
Bishop Guilfoyle 21, Bellwood-Antis 0
Score by quarter
Bellwood-Antis – 0 0 0 0 -0
Bishop Guilfoyle – 3 2 6 10 -21
Scoring summary
BG- Forr 45 field goal
BG- safety
BG- DeStefano 10 run (pass failed)
BG- Forr 31 field goal
BG- DeStefano 8 run (Forr kick)
Team Statistics
BA BG
First Downs 6 22
Rushes 18 267
Rush yards 85 104
Pass Att. 19 24
Pass Comp. 7 10
Pass Yards 35 99
Interceptions 2 3
Fumbles lost 1 1
Penalty yards 5-35 7-36
Punts/Avg. 5-43 3-35.5
Total Offense 120 366
Individual Statistics
Rushing
Bellwood-Antis: A. Plummer 8-69. Daly 5-19, Der. Miller 4-13, J. Graham 1-(-6).
Bishop Guilfoyle: DeStefano 22-142 (2 TDs), Georgiana 20-99, Wiley 4-15, Pacifico 6-11.
Passing
Bellwood-Antis: J. Graham 7-19-3-0-35.
Bishop Guilfoyle: Pacifico 10-23-2-0-99.
Receiving
Bellwood-Antis: R. McCartney 2-17, Dam. Miller 1-20, Daly 1-0, Houser 3- (-2).
Bishop Guilfoyle: Forr 5-71, Mathis 2-18, Georgiana 1-13, DeStefano 2- (-3).
