Friday night, Bellwood hosted Bishop Guilfoyle for their Homecoming/Sideline Cancer game. Bellwood lost 27-13 in a game where they also honored Coach John Hayes, who passed away last week at the age of 76.
Bishop Guilfoyle struck first on a 49-yard touchdown pass from quarterback Chase Kissell to wide receiver Jake Kissell. Despite the rainy conditions, Bishop Guilfoyle was still able to pass the ball well.
The Marauders scored again halfway through the second quarter on a 7-yard touchdown run by Kaden Wyandt. Bishop Guilfoyle was able to even out their offense with 145 passing yards and 147 rushing yards.
Bellwood bounced back quick and scored less than three minutes later on a 1-yard rushing touchdown by Freshman Alex McCartney.
The Blue Devils were mostly limited to running the ball because of the conditions and leaned on McCartney all night. Bellwood totaled 221 rushing yards and only 47 passing yards. McCartney had another monster game with 196 rushing yards on 30 carries and a touchdown.
The freshman has 165 carries and 95% of the team’s rushing yards this season. McCartney is also nearing a 1,000 yard rushing season. He has 956 rushing yards with three games remaining. “It feels great knowing that they already have trust in my abilities,” said McCartney.
The teams headed to the locker room with Guilfoyle leading by a score of 13-6.
During halftime Bellwood announced its Homecoming queen, which was Miranda Tornatore. Also at halftime, Sideline Cancer announced that Bellwood and Bishop Guilfoyle raised $5,240 for local Bellwood resident Melody Plummer, who is battling cancer.
The Blue Devils came out of the half and led a drive down to the 2-yard line, but were stopped and turned the ball over. The Marauders took advantage of this and surprised the Blue Devils, when BG’s Hamilton Gates ran a streak up the middle untouched for a 57-yard touchdown catch to make the score 20-6.
“I felt good about how the guys battled the entire game. We competed with them the whole time, but they made a couple more plays than we did. It was good to see us put 2 good games together in a row for the first time this season. I think that was a step in the right direction for us as a team. I thought our offense played pretty well, especially our offensive line. We still have work to do to get better as a team, but it was definitely a step in the right direction for our development,” said Coach Lovrich.
The Marauders kept adding on with an 11-yard rushing touchdown by Kaden Wyandt for his second of the game to push the score to 27-6.
Bellwood didn’t stop and senior Ethan Robertson forced two fumbles on two straight BG drives. Bellwood was able to take advantage of one of the turnovers and score a touchdown. Senior Chance Schreier caught a 4-yard pass from brother Holden Schreier with 4:28 left in the game to make the score 27-13. Bellwood was able to get the game within two scores, but ran out of time to come back.
The Blue Devils will travel to Penn Cambria this week to take on the Panthers who have a record of 6-1. Bellwood will look to upset the Panthers who are having a good season, but a very easy schedule.
