Undefeated squads meet in semifinals

Gary Gouse has experienced the agony and the ecstasy in his infrequent football encounters with Bellwood-Antis High School.

When Gouse was a senior at Portage Area High School in 1974, he recovered a fumbled opening kickoff around the Blue Devil 10-yard line and surpassed the 1,000-yard rushing mark later in the game as the Mustangs completed their first-ever 10-0 regular season with a 28-6 victory at Bellwood.

The area small-school powers didn't cross paths again until 2005. That year, with Gouse now coaching Portage in the District 6 Class A semifinals, Josh Kleinfelter rushed for 166 yards and three touchdowns, and Devon Clapper took back a kickoff the distance to lead the Devils over the host Mustangs, 28-14.

It was Portage's only loss that year, but Gouse still speaks in reverential terms about Kleinfelter to this day.

"These are the type of things kids will remember the rest of their life. This is what high school football is all about,'' Gouse said.

The Blue Devils and Mustangs don't play each other often, but they will again this weekend, and Saturday night's 6-A semifinal clash at Bellwood's Memorial Stadium has all the makings of another one of those games that will remain fresh in the minds of anyone present for years to come.

Third-seeded Portage is 10-0, the defending district runner-up and has gone virtually untested this season. Second-seeded Bellwood is 10-0, trying to make a fourth trip to the district finals in five years and also been virtually unchallenged.

Suffice to say, it doesn't get much better than this.

"It definitely is [like a championship-caliber game], when you're undefeated and you're talking about playing a team that's undefeated this year and was undefeated the previous year until its last game," B-A coach John Hayes said.

Blacklick Valley coach Bill Zamboni is familiar with both teams this year. His Vikings went 8-3 and made it to the district quarterfinals, but that wasn't enough to stay with either the Mustangs or the Devils.

Portage squashed the Vikings, 48-0, on Sept. 12, as Mike Sinosky rushed for 113 yards and Travis Swires passed for 134. Blacklick didn't lose again until last week, when Bellwood ended its season, 34-14, behind a combined 251 yards on the ground by Zack McCaulley and Tyler Beech.

Zamboni's assessment? Too close to call, but definitely worth the price of admission and then some.

"They match up pretty well,'' Zamboni said. "I think it's the premier game of the weekend. Fans will definitely be in for a show in Bellwood.''

For all the success the two programs have had - Bellwood has 522 all-time wins and Portage 482 - this will be only the 13th time they've played each other, and only the second time they've squared off in the playoffs.

The teams came one game from meeting up last season. Bishop McCort ended both teams' years, downing Portage, 42-7, in the district final.

A week earlier, Bellwood gave the Crimson Crushers their closest call of the 6-A playoffs, leading with under nine minutes to go before eventually succumbing, 24-20. The Devils were seeded fourth in last year's bracket because they'd lost the season-opener at Tyrone, a defeat they avenged this year.

The battle B-A gave McCort combined with the Crushers' convincing win in the championship game had some in hindsight thinking perhaps the two strongest teams met in Johnstown in the semifinals. Hayes said he isn't using that as motivation, but he is drawing upon the 2008 McCort game as a source of inspiration.

"We want them to remember what the feeling was after the loss,'' Hayes said. "The goal is to get to the finals. Hopefully, if the kids prepare well, you have a shot. In the semifinals, you can have a good game, but, if you lose, you have nothing.''

Both teams come into Saturday's game clicking on their trademark running games, Portage out of the wing-T and Bellwood's from the I. However, the respective quarterbacks - Bellwood's Nate Plummer and Portage's Swires - have each completed more than 50 percent of their passes for nearly 2,000 yards combined, something atypical for the Devils and Mustangs.

Zamboni thinks the key for Bellwood will be to contain Sinosky; the Portage fullback is averaging almost 14 yards per carry and his 194 points this season are more than nine teams in the Mirror coverage area. Meanwhile, handling McCaulley and the Bellwood toss sweep will be crucial for the Mustangs.

Bellwood has - pun intended - a sizeable advantage on the line. The Devils average 251 pounds across the offensive front and have no one weighing less than 215 on the defensive line. Portage has only two offensive linemen weighing more than 210 pounds, and the Mustangs' front four on defense weighs in at 200, 260, 210 and 200.

Portage's linemen, though, are extremely agile. The unit includes a couple of converted backs, making Hayes a little cautious in his optimism.

"The key there is movement. If you're big but can't move, it's not as much a problem for the other team. It's far more dangerous if you can move,'' Hayes said.

To say the Blue Devils and Mustangs have dominated to this point is an understatement. They've combined to outscore their opponents by more than 700 points, put at least 30 points on the board in 17 out of 20 starts and posted eight shutouts between them.

Therein, Gouse thinks, may lay the key.

"Who can recover from adversity? You're going to face it. Who's going to rise above it?'' Gouse said when asked what he thought would be the determining factor Saturday. "Both teams are so used to winning. But you have to be poised when something doesn't go your way.''