Bellaire Notches First Win With Second-Half Surge Against Tigers
Photo by Joe Lovell Trending
SHADYSIDE - Back in the early 2000's the Miami Dolphins traveled to Foxborough to take on New England and pulled off a huge upset when they unleashed what they called their "Wildcat" offense.
Friday night, trailing by five points heading for the second half, Coach Mark Bonar's Bellaire squad turned to their version of that offense, the "Cherokee" and in the blink of an eye what had been a halftime deficit turned into a route.
Senior Mac Pettigrew ran for a pair of third quarter touchdowns out of the Cherokee as the Big Reds racked up 385 yards on the ground and outscored rival Shadyside 35-0 over the final two quarters to escape Fleming Field with their first victory of the season, 42-12, over the Tigers.
After a brutal three-game stretch to open the campaign, it took Bellaire three quarters to finally get things turned around, even though the Big Reds only attempted three passes in the contest, none of which were complete.
"We are Big Reds so that offense is the Cherokee to us," Bonar said with a smile. "But it really picked us up. Mac (Pettigrew) is special."
After each team went three-and-out to start the game the Tigers got things going with an 11-play, 80-yard march that gave the hosts the early lead. After senior quarterback Ben Wach had an 11-yard touchdown run called back for illegal motion the do-it-all went the other route, hitting classmate Karl Tsoras down the middle in the end zone for the score. The point-after failed and it was 6-0 at 2:33 of the first.
The Big Reds quickly answered after beginning their drive at midfield following a short kickoff. Just four plays in junior quarterback Luke Heatherington faked a handoff and headed down the sidelines for a 38-yard score just over a minute-and-half later. Jayson Lemley's PAT gave the visitors a 7-6 edge.
Both teams had drives end on downs in the second quarter, with Bellaire actually having another long Heatherington touchdown run called back for holding.
Shadyside got the lead back before halftime when senior Nathan Booth stepped in front of a Heatherington screen pass and rolled 32 yards to the end zone with just 1:14 to go in the half. The try for two was no good and the Tigers held a 12-7 upperhand. It was the second consecutive week that Booth had found scored a defensive touchdown.
The Orange-and-Black defense, which had struggled mightily through the first two games of the year, did not allow a passing yard to the Redmen in the first half, extending their string of quarters with no yards allowed through the air to six.
Bellaire opened the third quarter with senior Drew White and Pettigrew carrying the load on a seven-play, 51-yard drive that ended with Pettigrew going in from five yards out at 8:29 to give the hosts the lead for good. Pettigrew also ran the two-point attempt in to make it 15-12.
Another long Shadyside drive stalled and the Big Reds needed just two plays to extend the margin when Pettigrew got free, broke a couple tackles, switched directions and completed a 45-yard scoring run at 3:09 with the point-after pushing it to 22-12.
Just one play after a Bellaire interception was wiped out due to a penalty, junior Maurice Webb stepped in front of another Wach pass and returned it 55 yards for a score with 1:10 to go in the third.
Junior Bradyn Beckett and freshman Rylin McMahon each tacked on fourth quarter scores to complete the route.
"We felt like we could run the ball coming in and that's what we wanted to do," Bonar added. "We finally got that first win, now it's time for us to go.
"There was no rah-rah speech at halftime, the kids knew they needed to go out and do a better job and they did it."
White finished with 120 yards on the ground while Pettigrew added 94.
Wach finished with 198 yards through the air for the Tigers, who had only 57 yards on the ground. Shadyside's defense will enter next week's game at Brownsville, Pa. having not allowed a passing yard for eight consecutive quarters.
"They went to the Wildcat and Mac Pettigrew is just too good and too fast and he makes you over-pursue," Mike Kernik said. "They had a great plan and they eventually just wore us down, but our kids never quit fighting.
"Bellaire took it to us in the second half and it was just overpowering. We are going to have to find a way to shore up our run defense and we will keep working on that."