Eli Muthler has Central’s offense firing on all cylinders in win over Bellwood-Antis

Written by Nate Cobler

ROARING SPRING – Bellwood-Antis coach Nick Lovrich said it was hard to prep for Central this week.

He mentioned that no matter how much his practice team tried to give the Blue Devils’ starting defense a look it just wasn’t the same as the in-game speed they experienced on Friday night.

The Scarlet Dragons racked up nearly 400 yards of offense as quarterback Eli Muthler had his hands in all four of his team’s scores in a 30-12 win.

“Eli Muthler is a star quarterback for a reason. He’s really good, and has good receivers,” Lovrich said.

Added Central coach Gerald Albright with a giant smile: “He has so much talent and a gun for an arm. He makes great reads. We keep telling our linemen, ‘If we give him time to throw, he can throw for a lot of yards, and we can put a lot of points on the board.’ He can lead the way to a lot of victories if we just give him time.”

A bulk of Muthler’s damage came in the first half as he was 15-for-21 passing for 179 yards and two scores.

With his team trailing late in the first quarter, Muthler led a four-play drive that consisted of three passes of 20-plus yards each to a score in 1:23. The finale of the drive was the quarterback connecting with a wide-open Thaide Mickel on a 33-yard score.

On the Scarlet Dragon’s third possession of the game, they put together a nine-play drive that ate up nearly four minutes of play that was capped off with Muthler rumbling in from three yards out. On the extra point, the hold was botched and Lukas Black threw a score to tight end Jaxon Detterline to make it 16-6 with 7:46 left in the first half.

Central stayed hot on its next possession as it chewed up over another four minutes of play on another nine-play drive that saw Muthler find another one of his receivers in Jay Hoenstine, who ran a beautiful corner fade route, on a five-yard score.

The score made it 23-6 Scarlet Dragons with 1:27 left in the first half.

“We were able to work the ball offensively in the first half. I had plenty of time to throw the ball,” Muthler said. “Our receivers made plays, and it looked like that on the scoreboard.”

Muthler put one final score on the board for Central late in the fourth quarter when he hooked up with another different receiver in Kyle Klotz for an eight-yard touchdown pass.

Muthler finished the game 20-for-36 for 219 yards and three scores. He also threw an interception.

“We’ll do whatever we have to do to win. Whether that means running the ball 45 times a game or passing the ball 45 times,” Muthler said, “we got to do whatever it is to win.”

The game didn’t start off in the Scarlet Dragons’ favor though.

The Blue Devils took the opening possession and drove right down the field to take an early lead.

They had a near four-minute drive that showcased a tremendous run game full of traps and dives and consisted of nine plays – eight of which were runs.

“We were getting manhandled up front. They were pushing us to do whatever they wanted,” Albright said. “They really punched us in the mouth. We told the guys that they want to run the ball about 90 percent of the time. They like to run the traps inside, no matter how tight we play it. They did exactly what we expected them to do.”

Bradyn Partner capped off that scoring drive for Bellwood-Antis with a seven-yard run around the right edge.

The Blue Devils got close to scoring midway through the third quarter as quarterback Holden Schreier hit Cayden Pellegrine on a 45-yard pass that finished at Central’s 18-yard line. However, the next play saw the Blue Devils’ Colin Gibbons fumble the ball on a big hit.

Bellwood-Antis did find the endzone again, but it wasn’t until the game was over.

Schreier rumbled in from 12 yards out as the clock on the scoreboard had no time left to set up the final score.

“We had a pretty good start there. We were moving the ball again. We hurt ourselves with some mistakes that we made,” Lovrich said. “We have to challenge ourselves to bounce back from this. We can put our heads down and pout about it, or we can try to do something to get better. They’re a good group of kids. I think they’re going to come back Monday, ready to work and move on to the next task.”

CENTRAL 30, BELLWOOD-ANTIS 12

SCORE BY QUARTERS

Bellwood-Antis 6 0 0 6 — 12

Central 8 15 0 7 — 30

First Quarter

B-A–Bradyn Partner 7 run (run failed), 8:13

C–Thaide Mickel 33 pass from Eli Muthler (Lukas Black run), 2:23

Second Quarter

C–Muthler 3 run (Jaxon Detterline pass from Black), 7:46

C–Jay Hoenstine 5 pass from Muthler (Aidan Steele kick), 1:27

Fourth Quarter

C–Kyle Klotz 8 pass from Muthler (Logan Hummel kick), 3:13

B-A–Holden Schreier 12 run, :00

TEAM STATISTICS B-A C

First downs 12 17

Total yards 279 366

Rushes-yards 30-147 25-147

Yards passing 132 219

Passing (comp.-att.-int.) 14-21-0 20-36-1

Punts-avg. 2-26.5 1-49

Fumbles-lost 1-1 0-0

Penalties-yards 6-46 8-65

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

RUSHING–Bellwood-Antis, Partner 10-63, Colin Gibbons 9-58, Cayden Pellegrine 6-31, Schreier 4-16, Griffin Kyle 1-(-1). Central, Braydon Beach 13-122, Mickel 4-17, Muthler 6-4, Semaj Musei 1-3, Colton Harbaugh 1-1.

PASSING–Bellwood-Antis, Schreier 14-21-0-132. Central, Muthler 20-36-1-219.

RECEIVING–Bellwood-Antis, Pellegrine 2-57, Gibbons 6-46, Kyle 5-23, Ethan Shawley 1-6. Central, Hoenstine 8-75, Mickel 4-52, Adam Baird 1-34, Klotz 3-26, Beach 4-16, Detterline 1-16.

INTERCEPTIONS–Bellwood-Antis, Gibbons 1.

Records: Bellwood-Antis 3-1, Central 3-1

Next game: Tyrone at Bellwood-Antis, Friday, 7 p.m., Central at Bishop Guilfoyle, Friday, 7 p.m.