B-A will face a tough running attack in semifinals
Devils are looking to make 16th trip to the title game
Sawyer Kline and the Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils face a stiff challenge from Bishop McCort in the District 6-AA semifinals.
November 12, 2016
The Bellwood-Antis Blue Devils have stopped the run when they have had to this season.
After allowing Tyrone rusher Brandon Loose to rumble for 168 yards in a season-opening loss, B-A allowed four other running backs to run for more than 100 yards, but many of those games were blowouts because the Devils either made stops when they had to, like they did in a 49-13 win over Moshannon Valley in Week 5, or because they were able to take away the passing game and make the opponent one-dimensional, like in a 34-6 win over Williamsburg in Week 6.
But B-A has never seen a running attack quite like the one it will face this week in the District 6-AA semifinals at Memorial Stadium.
The No. 2 Blue Devils will face No. 3 Bishop McCort, a team that is quite transparent about what it likes to do on offense.
The Crimson Crushers have run 493 offensive plays this season, and 80 percent of them have been running plays. Last week in a 56-10 win in the quarterfinals over Mount Union, McCort ran the ball 52 times.
There’s a reason for that: Bishop McCort is pretty good with the running game.
The Blue Devils will have to be sharp against McCort, which has accumulated more than 2,900 yards during a 9-2 season.
Six different Crusher backs have run for more than 300 yards this season. The group is headed by junior Anthony Walters, who has 842 yards and 16 touchdowns on 115 carries.
Slowing McCort’s ground attack will be the top priority for the Blue Devils this week as they look to make their first District 6 championship game appearance since 2012, when they defeated Bishop McCort 54-3.
B-A has defenders who can make stops, and they will be tested against the Crushers. Senior defensive tackle Austin Desch leads the team with 89 tackles and 7 tackles for loss, while linebackers Thor Schmittle, Eric Morder, and Adam Bowers all have more than 50 tackles.
They will have to be sharp against McCort, which has accumulated more than 2,900 yards during a 9-2 season. Since a 34-20 loss to Class AAAA Johnstown in Week 8, the Crushers have not been held below 41 points in a single game.
But McCort will have its hands full, as well, in trying to defend a B-A offense that has rounded into a total package as the season has wound on. The Blue Devils have exceeded 40 points five times, and unlike early in the season it hasn’t all been through the Devils’ high-impact aerial attack.
To be sure, quarterback Jarrett Taneyhill and a strong group of receivers led by Brendan Kowalski have played a major role in the Devils’ offensive success. Taneyhill spent his senior season rewriting the records for Bellwood-Antis passers, completing 102 of 181 passes for a record 1,921 yards and 22 touchdowns. Kowalski has been Taneyhill’s top target, with 24 receptions for 722 yards and 8 touchdowns, and his 30 yards-per-catch average has helped to stretch the field. But Nate Friedenberger (406), Ethan McGee (275) and Sawyer Kline (202) all have more than 200 receiving yards, making defending B-A a tough task.
But the emergence of senior Duke Brunner at running back has helped to make B-A a complete offense. Slowed by an ankle injury at the start of the season, Brunner never ran for 100 yards until Week 5, but since then he has reached the number in six of seven games, and last week he topped the 1,000-yard mark for the season.
So while the Devils haven’t seen a run game quite like McCort’s, the Crushers have seen few offenses as balanced as B-A’s, and in those games – against Bishop Guilfoyle and Johnstown – they lost.
B-A is looking to make its sixteenth District finals appearance. The winner of the game will take on No. 1 Ligonier Valley.
