Bellaire and Barnesville matched up for the first time since 1925 on a sundrenched afternoon at Nelson Field. The Shamrocks entered the game at 1-0 after last week’s victory over Buckeye Local. However, they’d be without senior running back Taison Starr. Starr suffered an injury earlier this week in practice. The Big Reds entered the game 0-1 after a tough loss to Garaway last week. Just like Barnesville, Bellaire would be without the services of senior running back Drew White.
Both teams couldn’t muster up much of anything on their first drives. Bellaire ran 4 plays for only 5 yards and punted away. On Barnesville’s first possession they were faced with a 4th and 5 from their own 45 yard line. Junior quarterback Casey Carpenter attempted a quarterback punt but the ball was fumbled and recovered by Barnesville, but resulted in a turnover on downs. Bellaire would capitalize on this mistake on a 4 play 46 yard drive capped by a Luca D’Aquila 13 yard touchdown reception from junior quarterback Luke Heatherington to make the score 7-0 Big Reds. That’s how we would wrap up the first quarter of play.
The second quarter was dominated by the Shamrocks. Barnesville answered the Bellaire score on the ensuing drive by traveling 78 yards on 9 plays. Freshman running back Trey Toliver found the back of the endzone from 16 yards out to tie the game at 7-7. Casey Carpenter came up huge on defense helping his own cause as he picked off a Heatherington pass to set up the Rocks on the Bellaire 35 yard line. The Shamrocks couldn’t get much going on offense but junior kicker Evan Lough spilt the uprights from 36 yards out to give the Shamrocks a 10-7 lead. The first play on the next drive for Bellaire was a 49 yard pass completion from Heatherington to Mac Pettigrew to put the Big Reds in the endzone. However, a few plays later Casey Carpenter came up with his second interception of the quarter at the Bellaire 8 yard line. On the very next play for the Shamrocks Toliver carried the ball 92 yards to the house to extend the Shamrocks lead to 16-7. Barnesville forced Bellaire into a three and out on their next possession. Barnesville started on their own 29 yard line and marched down the field for another score. Toliver ran the ball hard right up the middle for his third score of the quarter. The two point conversion was good and Barnesville took a 24-7 lead into half time. Toliver finished the first half with 218 yards on the ground and 3 touchdowns.
The Bellaire defense stood strong to begin the second half forcing Barnesville into a turnover on downs. The Big Reds drove the ball into Barnesville territory but Duker Castello intercepted a Heatherington pass off a tip by Casey Carpenter. This was the third interception of the afternoon for the Barnesville defense. However, the Big Reds defense would not break as they forced another turnover on downs on the Shamrocks second possession of the half. We headed into the fourth quarter with Bellaire having possession of the ball. Maurice Webb ran a beautiful route behind the secondary and Heatherington threaded the needle for a 35 yard touchdown to make the deficit 24-14. The Shamrocks answered right back the other way with a 67 yard scoring drive. Camden Carpenter took a pitch to the outside and received some huge blocks on his way to the eight yard touchdown run with 1:54 to go and Barnesville leading 31-14. Bellaire got the ball back on their own 40 after the kickoff and marched back into the red zone. However Luke Detling who had a huge game on the offensive side of the ball, stepped in front of a Heatherington pass and returned it 95 yards to the house for a pick six and solidified the Barnesville victory 38-14.
Shamrocks quarterback Casey Carpenter finished the night completing 15 passes on 21 attempts for 170 yards. He also had two interceptions and two pass deflections on defense. Toliver carried the ball 25 times for 246 yards and 3 touchdowns. Detling had the pick six on defense but also hauled in 7 passes for 65 yards on the offensive side of the ball. Bradey McIntire caught 3 passes for 82 yards. Castell had 2 catches for 10 yards while junior Camden Carpenter caught 3 passes for 13 yards. Carpenter also added 9 carries for 34 yards and a score. Koby Jones carried the ball 5 times for 20 yards.
On the Bellaire side of things Heatherington finished the afternoon with 210 passing yards on 10 completions. He also had two touchdowns and four interceptions to go with 3 carries for 10 yards. The leading receiver on the day was Mac Pettigrew hauling in 4 receptions for 93 yards. Tight end Logan Edgar caught two passes for 34 yards and junior teammate Maurice Webb added one reception for 35 yards and a touchdown. D’Aquila hauled in two receptions for 37 yards and a touchdown. On the ground the Big Reds were paced by junior Bradyn Beckett who carried the ball 10 times for 61 yards. The Big Reds collected 297 yards of total offense and Barnesville racked up 470 yards of total offense.
Barnesville goes on the road again next week this time out to Lore City, Ohio for a battle with the 0-2 Warriors of Buckeye Trail. Bellaire also hits the road for a contest with the 2-0 Fort Frye Cadets, a team they saw twice last season. Bellaire still leads the all time series three games to two.
Photo by Kayla Crum
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