B-A football facing tough road work vs. Crushers
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In a game with a lot of preseason hype last year, Bishop McCort came into Bellwood-Antis and topped the Blue Devils on their own home field in Week 2, 21-6.
B-A will be looking to turn the tables when it travels to Sargent's Stadium at the Point on Friday for a 7 p.m. kickoff.
"We have to go to Johnstown to play, so that's a little different playing in Point Stadium," Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich said. "We know Bishop McCort is a very good football team. They have some guys returning from last year, especially some skill kids, that we played last year and the year before in the crossover game. We know the quality of players they have and how good their program is. We need to bring our best game this week."
The Blue Devils did that last week with a season-opening win over Clearfield in which plenty of players contributed.
"I thought our defense played really well Friday night," Lovrich said. "Clearfield has some good skill players, and we were able to contain them. Offensively, we were efficient in how we moved the ball and had a lot of guys who played a role in the offense, which makes us harder to stop. Brendan McNelis, I thought he did a really good job of managing the game and being the general on the field."
McCort lost to Bedford, 14-6, in one of the more surprising results of the first week, but Lovrich said that just makes the Crushers more dangerous.
"We have to take care of the football and make sure we don't make the mistakes we did last Friday," Lovrich said. "We have to play our best game and improve this week. We can't be happy with where we are. Every week is a new challenge, and every week in the Laurel Highlands is a big challenge that we need to make sure we're ready for."
Big challenge
Altoona will try to beat Central Dauphin for the first time since the Mountain Lions rejoined the Mid-Penn Conference in 2018 when it hosts CD at Mansion Park Friday at 7 p.m.
"It's pretty much the same stuff every year with these guys," Altoona coach Vince Nedimyer Jr. said. "They are pretty physical. They want to run downhill at you. Defensively, they do what they do. They will be sound. They don't change much based off what we do. They play their game. We'll have to move the chains and be physical."
Altoona managed to do that for the most part in its opener against Hollidaysburg and actually outgained the Golden Tigers in yardage.
"I thought our kids played well," Nedimyer said. "We feel like if we get lined up, we can play with anybody. We were pleased with how our defense played."
The Mountain Lions managed just seven points however, which came on their first drive of the game.
"We were kind of backed up with field position," Nedimyer said. "We just have to build on the pass game a little bit and clean up the mistakes we made. They are fixable. We're hoping to make a big improvement from the first week to the second week."
SUBHED: Depth matters
Hollidaysburg came out of its opener with a victory over Altoona, but it did not escape the game completely healthy.
Carter Muth was injured on his second carry of the game and did not return. But Isaac Vent filled in along with several other backs, including Grayson Snyder, who scored a touchdown.
"I was happy with the way we rotated guys in depth-wise and didn't have much fall off," Hollidaysburg coach Homer DeLattre said. "That was something that coming into the season we were unsure of, but all of the guys that rotated in did a great job and allowed us to keep momentum and play at a high level, which is a very good sign."
Isaac Wallace started the game at quarterback for Hollidaysburg and finished it at wide receiver when Vince Albarano came in at quarterback. Both Wallace and Albarano caught a pass in addition to completing a pass.
"We'll continue to prepare them in both positions as the weeks go on," DeLattre said. "You never know what's going to happen, especially with Vince playing a lot both ways. We have to get more repetitions for Isaac at wide receiver, but he's not done playing quarterback."
Friday's opponent will be traveling to Tiger Stadium from Maryland for its season opener.
"Allegany is a much improved program," DeLattre said. "As the year went on last year, they got better. They were very young with a lot of sophomores and juniors starting. They return almost all of their starters from last year. They won a lot of games in the second half of the year. They are definitely an up-and-coming program with some recruitable players."