Bellwood-Antis beats West Branch in a thriller
Gaven Ridgway had 132 yards rushing against West Branch.
October 25, 2022
Bellwood-Antis beat West Branch 41-35 on Friday in a game that came down to the very last play.
In a critical game for both Bellwood-Antis and West branch, the two teams battled in Morrisdale at LT Drivas Memorial Field trying to earn their spots in the district playoffs. Both teams were coming off conference losses, Bellwood-Antis to Moshannon Valley and West Branch to Mount Union
Bellwood-Antis started out the game strong with a deep pass from quarterback Gaven Ridgway finding Eli Pluebell 24 yards down field setting up a first and goal.
Running back Nick Kost found the end zone on a 4-yard rushing touchdown. The Blue Devils were first to score putting them up 7-0 only 2 minutes into the game.
West Branch returned the favor with a 6-yard passing touchdown from quarterback Tyler Biggans to junior Wyatt Schwiderske.
The first quarter was filled with touchdowns, with another one coming from Ridgway on a 23-yard keep, putting the Blue Devils up 13-7 to end the first.
Bellwood didn’t let off going into the second quarter, starting off with another rushing touchdown from Kost to put the Blue Devils up 21-7.
The Bellwood-Antis, meanwhile, stood strong, and forced West Branch to punt 4 times in the first half.
Ridgway led the Blue Devils on a solid drive down the field resulting in his own touchdown on a 7-yard rush up the middle to give the Blue Devils a promising 28-7 lead. Schwiderske had a 7-yard rushing touchdown cutting the Blue Devils lead to 14.
Ridgway picked up his third rushing touchdown right before the half to put the Blue Devils up 35-14 going, and it looked like the second half would be a formality.
However, West Branch came out to start the second half strong with a 34-yard pass from Biggans to Kyle Kolesar resulting in a Warriors touchdown. West Branch then came up with a big stop on defense, leading them to another touchdown from Biggans on the ground. Closing in on the Blue Devils while still inthe third quarter, the Warriors were able to cut down the lead to 7.
Ridgway once again showed why the Blue Devils were the better team with his fourth rushing touchdown in the fourth quarter. This run was a quarterback keep for 45 yards.
West Branch didn’t back down, and Biggans was able to score with 5:20 left.
As Bellwood-Antis tried to run time off the clock, sophomore quarterback Holden Schreier made a big-time pass play to allow the Devils to run time off the clock.
“Holden made a big time heads up play,” said Head Coach Nick Lovrich.
West Branch got the ball back and on a 4th and 5 on the Blue Devils 25 senior Dylan Andrews sealed the game with an interception to give the Blue Devils the victory.
“Gaven had some great runs for us. He really got the team going. It was great to come out on top. Our guys made some big plays at the end,” stated Coach Lovrich.
Ridgway finished with 132 yards rushing on 17 carries.
B-A improved to 6-3 overall (6-2 ICC) and will close its season Friday at home against Penns Valley.
West Branch fell to 3-6 and 3-3.
