Friday night, Bellwood-Antis kicked off their first road game of the season with a 20-10 victory over the Westmont Hilltoppers. The Blue Devils offense started off slow, but found its way in the second half.
The first quarter opened with a long drive by the Hilltoppers. However, Bellwood’s defense was able to turn the ball over on their own 35. Bellwood then went three-and-out and punted down field.
Westmont Hilltop played with their typical run-heavy game plan. Their second drive lasted almost 10 minutes and consisted of 16 plays on the ground carrying over to the second quarter.
The Hilltoppers fought their way to the 25-yard line before being forced to turn to their field goal unit. Senior Sebastian Jones landed the field goal to give Westmont a 3-0 advantage. Bellwood closed out the first half with their longest pass of the game. A 35-yard checkdown to senior Cayden Pellegrine who was tackled after time had expired moving the game to the half.
The Blue Devils came running out of the gates in the third quarter. Senior Griffin Kyle opened with a 48-yard return followed by a face mask penalty putting the ball within the 25-yard line. Junior Colin Gibbons then broke free on the ground for a 21-yard touchdown. This put the Blue Devils up 6-3 with 10:24 left in the quarter.
Westmont responded with an 11 play drive. BA came up big on 4th and 3 ending Westmont’s drive on their own 5. Gibbons then pieced together two solid runs of 13 and 18 yards to give Bellwood an opportunity to lengthen their lead. Quarterback Holden Schreier scrambled out of the pocket and dove for the pylon for a 26-yard touchdown. This tacked on 6 more for a 12-3 lead.
Following the lead deficit with a little less than 10 minutes remaining in the fourth, Westmont looked to throw. Quarterback Lewis Dill was picked off by Kyle who returned the ball back to the house for a 35-yard pick 6. “I saw the ball coming right at me… went up and got it. Then I saw a wide open gap and hit that to score,” Kyle said. The Blue Devils then converted for two more on a pass to sophomore Ethan Shawley giving Bellwood a 20-3 advantage with 9:32 left to play.
After another run-heavy drive, Westmont picked up a 3-yard rushing touchdown to settle the final 20-10. When asked what adjustments were made offensively in the second half, QB Schreier mentioned, ”we didn’t really make any adjustments… we knew we had to finish drives, and we came out and did.”
Bellwood-Antis now prepares to take on the Huntingdon Bearcats, Friday the 6th. Huntingdon comes in with a record of 0-2 after allowing a combined 80 points in their last two matchups.
