Central’s football competition with Bellwood-Antis has been a relatively new one — the Blue Devils joined the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference just two seasons ago.

But second-year Central coach Jerry Albright believes that the Bellwood game could eventually become one of the Scarlet Dragons’ fiercest rivalries.

The two teams carry identical 1-2 overall and conference records into Friday night’s 7 p.m. kickoff at Bellwood-Antis High School’s John R. Hayes Field at Memorial Field.

“Our kids don’t know their kids like they know the Tyrone or Hollidaysburg kids, since we just started playing Bellwood,” Albright said. “But I think that, over time, this is going to be a big rivalry in the future.”

Both teams are coming off losses in tightly-contested conference games last Friday night, and both face question marks with injured starting quarterbacks.

Bellwood dropped a 7-6 decision at Huntingdon last Friday, after the Blue Devils unsuccessfully attempted a two-point conversion late in the fourth quarter with a chance to take the lead in the game. Central surrendered two late touchdowns in a 28-6 home-field loss to Tyrone.

“The Laurel Highlands is tough for everybody, so on our schedule, every week is a tough game,” Bellwood coach Nick Lovrich said. “We just went back to the drawing board a bit after last week’s game, had a good film session, and all of the kids seemed very receptive to everything that we talked about.

“I think that we could still be a pretty good football team but we just have to get it all together as a team,” Lovrich added. “We all need to improve a little bit. We just lost to a good football team last Friday night.”

Central is also hoping to rebound this Friday.

“The score (in last week’s game) doesn’t really represent how close that the game was,” Albright said. “Our defense really stepped up in the second half and played super hard. Our defense played significantly better last week than it did against Philipsburg-Osceola in our first game of the season.”

Both teams may be without the services of their starting quarterbacks for a second straight week this Friday, but both squads have an adequate Plan B in store.

B-A junior Bradyn Partner missed last week’s game with an undisclosed injury and his status is questionable for this week’s game. Sophomore Brendan McNelis made his first varsity start at quarterback last week in place of Partner and performed admirably, completing 12 of 21 passes for 113 yards.

“We’re not sure about Bradyn this week,” Lovrich said. “He’s definitely improving and we’re hoping that he’s going to be available but it’s still kind of a wait-and-see to make sure that he’s completely healthy. (McNelis) did a really good job last week. He’s a competitor and he stayed pretty calm in that situation. He had us in a position where we could have won the game, so we were happy with the way that he played.”

Central sophomore quarterback Jesse Muthler sustained a head injury in a collision with a Tyrone player while diving for a loose ball late in last week’s game that forced his departure from the game. He was replaced by junior Carter Schenk, who will be behind center again this Friday if Muthler can’t go.

“He’s a competitor and I know that he wants to play, but that’s really up to the doctors,” Albright said of Muthler. “Our plan going into this season was to use both (Muthler and Schenk) at quarterback in a 2/3rd-1/3rd of the time situation, but Schenk had actually been one of our better receivers, so that’s why we haven’t used him as much at quarterback.

“He’s taken a lot of steps forward, especially this past summer, and he’ll be ready to go if needed on Friday,” Albright said of Schenk. “He’s a competitor too.”

Junior running back Alex McCartney has come back strong this year after missing his entire sophomore season with an ACL injury. McCartney leads the Blue Devils’ rushing game with 357 yards on 70 carries and five touchdowns in the first three games of the season. Junior Chase Plummer has rushed for 136 yards on 26 carries and a touchdown for Bellwood.

“McCartney looks as strong as ever,” Albright said. “He’s a solid kid who is so strong and runs so hard. I’ve also been impressed with Plummer. He’s their fullback but he runs so, so hard as well.”

Senior Colin Gibbons has caught 10 passes for 120 yards to lead the Blue Devils’ receivers through three games.

While Muthler’s 42 completions in 73 attempts for 443 yards and one touchdown leads Central’s passing game, junior back Semaj Musei fronts Central’s rushing attack with 201 yards on 35 carries.

Junior wideout J.J. Moushlian leads Central’s receivers with 14 catches for 164 yards, while sophomore wideout Bentley Dickson has 10 receptions for 97 yards.

“They have some good athletes on their team,” Lovrich said of the Scarlet Dragons. “Musei runs on the track team and has some speed, and they also have some pretty good receivers.”

It all adds up to an interesting matchup between two Blair County football programs who are fast on their way to becoming rivals.

“It’s a big game,” Lovrich said. “We should have a big crowd playing Central. Traditionally they’re always a really good football team, so it’s going to be another good football game on a Friday night.”

Central vs. Bellwood-Antis

When: Friday, 7 p.m.

Where: John R. Hayes Field at Memorial Stadium, Bellwood.

Records: Both teams are 1-2 overall and in the Laurel Highlands Athletic Conference.

Coaches: Central’s Jerry Albright is 6-8 in two seasons; Bellwood’s Nick Lovrich is 55-25 in eight seasons.

Last week: Central lost, 28-6 at home to Tyrone; Bellwood-Antis lost, 7-6 at Huntingdon.