Blue Devils heading to playoffs with 9-0 mark

MOUNT UNION - Bellwood-Antis capped a perfect 9-0 regular season with a 42-21 win over host Mount Union in an Inter-County Conference Division contest on Friday night.

The Blue Devils already clinched the North Division title a week ago, while the Trojans stayed near the top of the South Division standings. Both teams head into the District 6 Class AA playoffs.

At the beginning of the game, it looked as if the Blue Devils would win this easily, taking control on the game's first possession and marching 56 yards in eight plays. The key play to the scoring drive was on a third-and-13 when senior quarterback Nate Plummer hit Trey Campbell on a 29-yard pass. Plummer then hit Jared Minori on a 16-yard touchdown pass.

Defense was the name of the game for the middle portion of the first period, including a fumble by B-A that put the Trojans at the Blue Devils' 21, but the drive resulted in a turnover on downs.

B-A then used a 79-yard drive that again saw a pair of third-and-long situations for the Devils. The first came on a third-and-9 pass play from Plummer to Minori, and the second came when Plummer found a wide-open Troy Campbell for a 30-yard gain. The drive ended when Tyler Beech bulled his way in from 2 yards out with 8:31 left in the half.

"Give [Mount Union] a lot of credit," B-A coach John Hayes said. "They made a lot of big plays out here tonight, and defensively they are about the biggest team we've seen this year. Give our kids credit, too. There's a lot of pressure there, and all the things that went against them they were able to overcome those things."

The Trojans went to work in getting their first score when they used a 10-play, 62-yard drive with all but 30 yards coming via the ground. Mydell Loner hit Trevor Dixon down the left sideline for a 30-yard pickup that got the Trojans deep into Blue Devil territory. Loner capped off the drive with a 4-yard burst up the middle on a quarterback draw.

B-A added a final touchdown to end the half when Plummer hit Campbell on a 24-yard scoring toss with 4 seconds remaining. The Blue Devils took advantage of a pass interference call on fourth-and-17.

"Our kids played their hearts out tonight," Mount Union coach Dave Hummel stated. "We gave up some big plays in the first half. and it wasn't on plays that we didn't know - we were just out of position."

Mount Union was unable to generate much on offense to start the second half, but Bellwood-Antis made use of a short field capped off by Plummer's 1-yard run with 4:26 left in the third quarter.

Things changed quite a bit over the next couple of series for both teams. On the ensuing kickoff, the Trojans went to the air after a pair of Loner runs; Loner hit a wide-open Eliot Clemens for a 38-yard touchdown pass to make it a 29-14 contest. The Blue Devils fumbled the ball for the second time in the game, and this one was costly when Loner found Clemens again, who this time fought off a B-A defender to catch a 24-yard pass to cut the Blue Devil lead to 29-21.

Beech added another score on the Blue Devils' next possession to make it 36-21, and despite vigorous attempts at closing the gap, the B-A defense was able to stop the Trojan offense. After a B-A punt, the Trojans put Dixon back at quarterback and found Sage Lear for a 32-yard gain. Dixon tried to get another big play, but Nick DeGol picked off Dixon's pass and returned it 77 yards for the final score.

Score by Quarters

Bellwood-Antis7 15 7 13 - 42

Mount Union0 7 14 0 - 21

First quarter

BA-Minori 16 pass from Plummer (DeGol kick), 8:04

Second quarter

BA-Beech 2 run (McCauley pass from Plummer), 8:31

MU-Loner 4 run (Walker kick), 3:45

Third quarter

BA-Plummer 1 run (DeGol kick), 4:26

MU-Clemens 38 pass from Loner (Walker kick), 2:21

MU-Clemens 24 pass from Loner (Walker kick), 1:12

Fourth quarter

BA-Beech 2 run (DeGol kick), 9:08

BA-DeGol 77 interception return (pass failed), :04

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING: Bellwood-Antis-Z. McCauley 24-104; Beech 12-47; B. McCauley 1-5; Noye 2-(-3); Shaw 1-4; Plummer 2-4. Mount Union-Loner 20-57; Jackson 3-6; House 4-15; Dixon 7-(-1).

PASSING: Bellwood-Antis-Plummer 8-14-146. Mount Union-Loner 6-11-138; Dixon 1-4-32.

RECEIVING: Bellwood-Antis-Campbell 4-90; Minori 3-55; Noye 1-1. Mount Union-Clemens 3-76; House 2-32; Dixon 1-30; Lear 1-32.

INTERCEPTIONS: Bellwood-Antis-DeGol. Mount Union-none.

TEAM STATISICSBAMU

First downs148

Yards Rushing42-16434-71

Passing (comp-att-int.)8-14-07-15-1

Yards passing146170

Totals yards310241

Fumbles-lost2-21-0

Penalties-yards6-355-43

Punts-avg.2-35.03-34.3