By John Hartsock

jhartsock@altoonamirror.com

Both undefeated Bishop Guilfoyle Academy and once-beaten Bellwood-Antis have enjoyed plenty of success through the first six weeks of the high school football season, and maintaining a decent balance offensively has been an important factor for both teams.

Both teams hope that trend can continue when Bishop Guilfoyle hosts Bellwood in a Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference game Saturday night at Mansion Park. Kickoff is set for 7 p.m.

“I’ve seen all their games on film, and they’re really a good football team,” BG coach Justin Wheeler said of the Blue Devils. “They run the ball extremely well with a lot of different backs, their line is big and physical, and their quarterback (Holden Schreier) is making plays with his arm and completing a lot of play-action passes.

“So we are going to have to stop their running game, but not get lulled to sleep and give up the big play through the air,” Wheeler added.

BG (6-0 overall and in the conference) has a ton of offensive weapons of its own, and the Marauders have racked up games of 55, 50 and 41 points this season.

“They’re definitely a very good football team,” Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich said of the Marauders. “They have some good skill kids, and they make big plays on both offense and defense. They’re pretty well-rounded.”

BG is very difficult to defend, as the Marauders exhibited last Friday night in outlasting Tyrone, 50-37, on the road. Senior quarterback Chase Kissell completed 13 of 21 passes for 281 yards and three touchdowns last week for BG, while do-it-all senior wideout/running back Hamilton Gates caught two touchdown passes and scored two more TDs on runs.

The X factor in BG’s offense has been physical junior running back Taurean Consiglio, who rushed for 168 yards in last week’s game, including a key fourth-quarter touchdown run of 48 yards that gave BG some much-needed breathing room.

“I think that our offense has really matured over the past couple of weeks,” Wheeler said. “Our running game has really started to get going mostly because of Taurean Consiglio, who has had two back-to-back 100-yard (plus rushing) games.

“But if (opposing) teams start moving up to defend him, our wide receivers are as good as they come, and that makes us a really balanced team and a team that is a lot harder to defend against than we were in the first or second week of the season,” Wheeler added.

Indeed, with its outstanding passing game and Consiglio’s rushing prowess, the BG offense functions like a well-oiled machine, and the Marauders have been hitting on all cylinders in recent weeks.

Kissell has already thrown for 1,410 yards and 16 touchdowns while completing 83 of 116 passes (a nearly 72 percent clip). He has also rushed for 242 yards and a touchdown. Gates has 30 catches for 705 yards and nine TDs, and has also rushed for six scores while racking up 312 yards on 45 carries.

Senior wideout Braden Reilly has 24 catches for 297 yards and two scores for the Marauders, and Kissell’s younger brother, Jake, a junior wideout, has 14 receptions for 125 yards.

Consiglio has been a contributor both running and catching the ball, scoring four rushing touchdowns while compiling 429 yards on 52 carries, and catching eight passes for 132 yards and three more scores.

Bellwood (5-1 overall and in the conference) hasn’t missed a beat this season, even after losing sophomore back Alex McCartney, who rushed for over 1,162 yards and 12 touchdowns in 2023, with a season-ending injury that he suffered this past preseason.

Other players have stepped up on both sides of the ball for Bellwood, whose defense pitched a shutout in a 28-0 victory over Philipsburg-Osceola last week.

Schreier has completed 49 of 87 passes for 815 yards and six touchdowns, while junior back Colin Gibbons (425 yards on 65 carries and five touchdowns), and sophomore back Bradyn Partner (404 yards on 63 carries and a touchdown) have filled the void left by McCartney’s injury.

Gibbons is also Bellwood’s leading receiver with 15 catches for 157 yards, while senior wideouts Cayden Pellegrine (13 catches for 289 yards and three touchdowns), and Griffin Kyle (12 receptions for 122 yards) have also been vital cogs in the Blue Devils’ passing game.

“We’ve gotten a little better each week,” said Lovrich, whose team rebounded from its only loss of the season, 30-12 to Central three weeks ago, by defeating archrival Tyrone, 28-21 the following week, before blanking P-O last week. “It’s been a total team effort from a lot of guys, with different guys stepping up for us each game.

“We’re having consistent play from a lot of kids,” Lovrich added.

Bishop Guilfoyle has won four PIAA Class 1A state championships in the last decade, and on Saturday night, the Marauders will honor the 2014 state championship team that got the ball rolling.

“This the 10th anniversary of our first state championship, and we’ll be honoring that 2014 state championship team either before the game or at the end of the first quarter on Saturday,” Wheeler said.

“That group took their lumps as freshmen players on a 1-8 team, but then their teams went 9-3, 10-3 and 16-0 in the state championship season over the next three seasons,” Wheeler added. “That group will always have a special place in my heart. They helped turn the program around and give us the blueprint of what has been the last decade of Marauders’ football.”

Bellwood-Antis at Bishop Guilfoyle

When: Saturday, 7 p.m.

Where: Mansion Park.

Records: Bellwood-Antis is 5-1 overall and in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference; Bishop Guilfoyle is 6-0 overall and in the conference.

Coaches: Nick Lovrich is 50-20 in his seventh season at Bellwood-Antis; Justin Wheeler is 139-38 in his 14th season at Bishop Guilfoyle.

Last week: Bishop Guilfoyle won, 50-39 at Tyrone; Bellwood-Antis beat Philipsburg-Osceola, 28-0 at home.

Last season: Bishop Guilfoyle won, 27-13 at Bellwood-Antis.