B-A falls short against Crushers

By: Brady McConnell  |  September 5, 2025

The Bellwood Antis football team fell to the Bishop McCort Crushers at Memorial Stadium last Friday, losing 21-6 in a Laurel Highlands crossover game.

The Blue Devils opened strong with a touchdown from junior running back Alex McCartney but ultimately couldn’t get anything going from there.

Bishop McCort remained unbeaten at 2-0, and those victories came from their defensive effort. The Crushers give up just 13 points per game.

As for Bellwood-Antis, the loss dropped its record to 1-1. For a complete photo slide show, click here.

“We played a very good football team, and we were right there with them,” said B-A coach Nick Lovrich. “A couple plays here and there, and it would have been a different result.”

Regardless of the score, Bellwood’s defense played well all game. They totaled 5 tackles for loss, 4 QB hurries, 1 interception, and 1 fumble recovery.

The first quarter was a defensive struggle for both teams and ended scoreless. However, McCartney got it going early in the second quarter with a 10-yard touchdown to put the devils up 6-0. The Blue Devils went for a two-point conversion but did not convert.

On McCort’s next drive, McCartney intercepted Crusher quarterback Bentley Bainey and things looked high for the Blue Devils, but B-A couldn’t convert the turnover into points. Later, Bainey scored on a 1 yard run to make the score 7-6.

McCortt then took a halftime lead with a late score. Crusher running back Jon Delia scored with 43 seconds left in the half on a 40-yard run, and McCort had a 14-6 advantage.

It stayed that way late into the fourth quarter when Bainey scored on a 7 yard run with 6:14 left to put the Crushers up 21-6.

“We feel disappointed as a team, but hope to come back better next week against Huntingdon,” senior Colin Gibbons said.

B-A battled injuries most of the game, most notably junior quarterback Bradyn Partner, who is dealing with an ankle injury. Still, he threw for 82 yards on 7 of 15 attempts. Colin Gibbons collected 35 receiving yards, and McCartney rushed for 104 yards and one touchdown.

Since both teams are in the 2A classification, this game may well have been a playoff preview.

”Hopefully the next time we see McCort will be playoffs, and by then we should be fully healthy,” Junior Jeffery Waite said.

This week the Blue Devils will take on the Huntington Bearcats in Huntington, and Coach Lovrich wants to use the lessons learned from the loss to McCort to get back on track.

“We will learn from this and move on to the Bearcats,” said Coach Lovrich.