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By Scott Franco
sfranco@altoonamirror.com
BELLWOOD -- The Marvel Comics movie "Thor: Ragnarok" hits movie theaters on Nov. 2. Bellwood-Antis running back Thor Schmittle did it a lot earlier than that, as he hit the ground running Friday night while never looking back.
The senior running back rushed for 176 yards on 33 carries, scoring two touchdowns in a 28-0 victory that was just 7-0 at halftime, and 14-0 with 3:12 left to play in the game.
"They wore us down as the game went on," Southern Huntingdon coach Ryan Garlock said of Schmittle's effort. "Our line was going back and their line was going forward."
Bellwood-Antis coach John Hayes loves the fact that Schmittle, who is listed at only 5-foot-9, 150-pounds on Max Preps, is an old-fashion football player.
"He is just a really, really tough football player," Hayes said. "He loves the game. He plays hard. He goes 100 percent on every play … on both sides of the ball. He plays hard and he runs hard."
Southern, which was playing without the services of two-way starter Nic Devlin (out for the season with a leg injury), managed just one first down in the first half and 29 yards of offense. Bellwood's defense had something to do with it, too.
"Going into the game, we thought that we could stop them," Bellwood-Antis defensive lineman Jack Showalter said. "We knew they had a good passing game and their running backs run hard. We just felt if we stepped up to the challenge, we could do this."
Southern's defense kept Bellwood out of the end zone until there were 44 seconds left before halftime when Eric Morder scored from 5 yards out. The Alex Schmoke PAT made it 7-0 at the break.
"We have some other backs, too, that did a good job," Hayes said. "Our first touchdown, we ran a trap. They were flowing to the off-tackle hole and we got Morder in on it."
Schmittle had 18 carries for 96 yards in the first half, but B-A could not get into the end zone, which was something that made Garlock fee pretty good.
"I am still proud as hell of them," he said. "We hung in there and hopefully this will convince our guys that they are capable of playing with the good teams like this."
An interception by Shawn Wolfe gave Bellwood (9-0) terrific field position at the Southern 18 early in the third quarter. Four plays later, Schmittle scored on a 6-yard run which made it 14-0.
The Southern offense tried to open things up in the second half by throwing the ball downfield more under quarterback Eric Patton. Though it worked sometimes, courtesy of 6-foot-4 receiver Wyatt Booher, the B-A defense still kept the Rockets (7-2) out of the end zone.
"We told our kids at halftime that since we could not move the ball running, we were going to throw the ball up and it was 50-50 … maybe we hit a big play, but that interception was pretty big," Garlock said.
Bellwood went on a 13-play, 87-yard drive that ended in a 4-yard touchdown run by Schmittle at the 3:11 mark of the fourth. The PAT made it 21-0. On Southern's next drive, the Rockets turned the ball over again, and the Blue Devils needed just two plays to score, thanks to a 15-yard run by Nick Watters at the 2:21 mark, setting the final score.
Both coaches agreed what the difference was in the end.
"We started out kind of even with them, but as the game went on, they wore us down," Garlock said.
"Their defense played extremely well in the first half. They took away most of what we wanted to do. They were really fast and they did a great job of getting to the ball, but I think we wore them down in the second half."
Garlock admitted that not having Devlin Friday night hurt, but it's something his Rockets have to move past going into week No. 10 and beyond.
"He is the best player on our team. A 1,000-yard rusher, our leading tackler, a team captain, the heart and soul of our team but our guys have to figure it out because we won't have him the rest of the year," he said.
Hayes loved the fact that his team did things like not turn the ball over while committing just two penalties for 15 yards.
"Our guys persevered and played until the end. Our defense was strong … our special teams did a great job on kick coverage, we are really pleased with the whole team. I am sure we can find something on film if we look a little closer, but the win covers that up," he said.
Next Friday, Bellwood-Antis travels to Northern Bedford while Southern hosts Glendale.
SCORE BY QUARTERS
Southern Huntingdon 0 0 0 0 -- 0
Bellwood-Antis 0 7 7 14 -- 28
Second quarter
BA--Morder 5 run (Schmoke kick), :44
Third quarter
BA--Schmittle 6 run (Schmoke kick), 8:29
Fourth quarter
BA--Schmittle 4 run (Schmoke kick), 3:11
BA--Watters 15 run (Schmoke kick), 2:21
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
RUSHING: Southern Huntingdon-Snyder 17-49, Patton 5-(-6), Varner 1-7, Bailey 1-4. Bellwood-Antis--Schmittle 33-176, Watters 3-16, Morder 9-11, Wolfe 5-(-4).
PASSING: Southern Huntingdon--Patton 5-11-1-67, Garlock 2-3-0-54. Bellwood-Antis--Wolfe 4-8-0-41.
RECEIVING: Southern Huntingdon--Snyder 1-25, Booher 4-59, Bailey 1-8, Smith 1-29. Bellwood-Antis--McFarland 2-27, Schmittle 1-12, Morder 1-2.
INTERCEPTIONS: Bellwood-Antis--Wolfe.
TEAM STATISTICS BA SH
First downs 15 7
Rushes-yards 50-199 24-54
Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 4-8-0 7-14-1
Yards passing 41 121
Total yards 240 175
Fumbles-lost 0-0 3-1
Penalties-yards 2-15 4-30
Punts-avg. 4-33.2 5-33.4