Blue Devils shut out Panthers; honor loss of Coach Robert Reed
Bellwood advances to 3-0 after shutting out the Northern Bedford Panthers.
September 14, 2021
The B-A football squad picked up their third consecutive win last Friday against the Northern Bedford Panthers at Memorial Stadium. The Devils, now 3-0, move up to second in the District 6 AA standings behind Richland and first in the ICC North.
After a scoreless first quarter, senior Cooper Guyer forced a fumble to fellow lineman Alex Kovac for an early second quarter score. Guyer would also break through the Panther defense with a rushing touchdown to make the score 14-0 before the half.
Senior Brandon Cherry opened the half with a pick-6 to give B-A a healthy lead of 21-0. Running back Connor Gibbons would seal the deal with another rushing touchdown to make the final score 27-0.
The Blue Devil defense was prominent in this matchup, holding Northern Bedford to only 42 rushing yards and 28 receiving yards.
Coach Nick Lovrich appreciated his team’s defensive scores.
“I thought we played pretty well overall Friday night” he said. “We had a lot of guys step up and make some big plays. It is always great when you score on defense so Alex Kovac and Brandon Cherry scoring was a huge lift.”
Following the game, both teams kneeled and joined in prayer in remembrance of coach Robert Reed, a member of the Northern Bedford coaching staff, who was lost a few days prior to the game.
Coach Lovrich the Devils felt sympathy for the Northern Bedford community following their loss. B-A experienced something similar in 2006 when longtime coach Randy Miller died in the week before the Backyard Brawl following a fight with cancer.
“It is tough anytime you lose someone in your family and football teams are definitely like a family” Coach Lovrich said. ” I told Coach Black before the game that we may be opponents on the field during the game, but we are in this together. Our guys handled the situation with class and have a lot of respect for their football program. We just wanted them to know that we truly felt for them and they were in our thoughts and prayers.”
The Devils travel to Everett this Friday to take on the league foe warriors.
