GAME EIGHT
B-A Blue Devils: 23
Moshannon Valley Black Knights:0
Friday, October 22, 2004 • Houtzdale, Pennsylvania
By Bob Miller | Daily Herald Sports Editor
— “Coming up here (Moshannon Valley), we have had a history of really tough ballgames, and I expected another tough one tonight,” said Bellwood-Antis head coach John Hayes. The two schools split a pair of close decisions in the last two years. Bellwood-Antis downed Mo Valley 21-16 in 2002 at Houtzdale, and the Black Knights edged B-A 13-7 last year in Bellwood. “I just can’t say enough about how tough our kids played defensively. I think we pretty much shut down the things Moshannon tried to do.”
— Bellwood-Antis won their seventh straight win after a season-opening loss to backyard rival Tyrone, shutting out Moshannon Valley 23-0.
— In picking up the victory, the Blue Devils allowed Moshannon Valley just 77 yards total offense, including 29 rushes for 62 yards and one pass completion for 15 more. Senior running back P. J. Keith, who had 1,089 yards and 14 touchdowns coming in to the game, was limited to just 79 yards on 20 carries. The rest of the Knights were held to a minus 17 yards on nine carries. Keith, who was averaging 6.4 yards coming in, was limited to one yard or less on nine of his 20 carries.
— “We were concerned about them throwing the football,” said Hayes. “We really did a great job in that area. Keith is an outstanding back. He’s going to get some yards, you’re not going to shut him out. But I think we kind of slowed him down, we kept him at bay, kept them in long-yardage situations, where they had to do something they didn’t want to do. I can’t say enough about the entire defense. All the way along, the line played disciplined. We didnÕt want to overpursue, over penetrate. The linebackers ran to the football well. The ‘D-backs’ played great coverage. One pass is all I can remember them completing against us.”
— Moshannon Valley never really threatened, getting as close as the B-A 40 just once near the end of the second quarter, following Evan Celmo’s 32-yard field goal that boosted the B-A lead to 17-0. The Blue Devil defense stopped the Knights right there. Dan Kovac and Troy Brunner combined to tackle Keith for no gain, Tony DelGrosso hit Mike Baughman for a five-yard loss when Moshannon tried to run a reverse to their end and Adam Martin sacked Knights’ quarterback Luke Martin for a three-yard loss to force Mo Valley to punt.
— Then in the fourth quarter with time running out in the fourth period, Moshannon Valley reached the BA-47 with a first down, after driving from their own 26. Lance Lafferty and Brunner stopped Keith for no gain, Martin threw an incomplete pass with the B-A defense in his face, Tyler Narehood sacked Martin for a four-yard loss and then smothered Keith after a gain of one on fourth and long.
— The first quarter was scoreless, although Bellwood-Antis ran 19 plays to just seven for Moshannon. Josh Kleinfelter, who led all runners with 25 carries for 157 yards, scored a three-yard touchdown to break the 0-0 tie on the first play of the second quarter. Kleinfelter rushed nine times for 51 yards during the first two Blue Devils drives in the opening quarter, including a 21 yard scamper to key the scoring drive. Kleinfelter rushed for back-to-back seven-yard gains early in the march and Jonathan Davila picked up a big first down on a fourth-down-and one call at the MV-7.
— Moshannon Valley hurt themselves on the following series with two consecutive holding penalties. Back in punt formation at their own 20, Robert Smith had to chase a bad snap into the end zone and punted on the run, getting off a kick that went for a minus four yards to the MV-16.
— Bellwood-Antis took just one play to score. Wingback Derrick Hoffer took the ball around the left side on a reverse for the 16-yard TD. Celmo booted his second PAT to give the Blue Devils a 14-0 lead with 8:55 left in the first half.
— Moshannon Valley was held to just four first downs in the contest, two in the second quarter on back-to-back runs by Keith for 12 and 13 yards to begin the final first half series for the Knights. Then in the final quarter, Keith sliced through the B-A defense for eight yards for a first down and Luke Martin connected on his only friendly pass completion of the game to Michael Baughman for 15 yards. In each case, the Bellwood-Antis defense put the stops to Moshannon Valley before they could get anything going.
— On their next series, Mo Valley went to the air, and Hoffer picked off an errant pass giving Bellwood-Antis the ball at the MV-41. Kleinfelter ripped off a 24-yard gain to key the march, but the Moshannon defense trapped Kyle Drost for a six yard loss. Celmo stepped back and booted his first varsity field goal to send the Blue Devils into the locker room at the half with a 17-0 advantage.
— The third quarter was scoreless, but Bellwood-Antis dominated, keeping the ball for 15 rushing plays and four passes to just six plays for the Knights. Travis Ehredt bulled up the middle for 17 yards to move the sticks for one first down and Davila picked up two more with twin five-yard gains.
— The Blue Devils added the only score of the second half in the fourth stanza. Dan Kovac’s punt pushed Moshannon Valley back to the Knights’ 10. A pair of runs by Keith netted five yards and another by fullback Nathan Pataky yield two more, forcing a punt.
— The 14-yard boot gave B-A the pigskin at the MV-24. Kleinfelter gained nine yards on the first play, but fumbled the ball. An alert Derrick Hoffer fell on the ball four yards further down the field to pick up a first down on the play. Hoffer scampered for seven yards a play later and Kleinfelter scored the TD from three yards out to cap the scoring.
— “Offensively, we didn’t try a whole lot, because we wanted to be sound and conservative, partly because junior Kyle Drost was starting his first varsity game tonight,” explained Hayes. “We tried to take advantage of what we could and we got what we needed. Good field position helped us out.”
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