Belle Vernon rolls over Freeport
Tagged under: District 7, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs
Andrew Schaffer | November 19, 2022
For the second straight season Belle Vernon will play for a WPIAL Championship. Belle Vernon advanced convincingly by dominating in their 42-0 win over Freeport. Belle Vernon leaned on their run game to win over Freeport. “We wanted to be multiple on offense, we wanted to distribute the ball a little bit” said Coach Humbert.
Belle Vernon got the ball first and wasted little time getting on the scoreboard. After a couple of plays they were already in Freeport territory. Eventually Braden Laux would score on a 16 yard run to make the score 7-0 Belle Vernon with 8:23 in the first quarter.
Freeport started their first drive on their own 18 yard line. After a trick play they were at their own 30 yard line but after that the drive stalled and they punted it away.
Belle Vernon started their second drive on their own 24 yard line. Another big run by Braden Laux got them into Freeport territory and on the first play in their territory Braden Laux found Quinton Martin for a 45 yard touchdown pass which made 14-0 Belle Vernon with 3:10 in the first quarter. Laux played a key role in the Belle Vernon win. He was 10 of 16 for 135 yards passing and also had 61 yards rushing.
Freeport got the ball back but on the first play a pass was intercepted and Belle Vernon had another opportunity to extend their lead. It was a long drive and it took up a lot of time. Eventually Quinton Martin scored on a 26 yard run to make it 21-0 Belle Vernon with 11:25 in the second quarter. Martin was another main factor in the win he ran for 95 yards and also had 86 yards receiving.
Belle Vernon really set the tone for the game scoring on their first three drives. “We wanted to get the ball to Quinton, to Jedekoh, we wanted Braden to obviously to do what he needed to do, we wanted to try and be aggressive” said Coach Humbert.
After that both teams struggled on offense. Freeport couldn’t get anything going for the majority of the game. Belle Vernon struggled a good amount in the second quarter. “We hit about a quarter where we couldn’t do much” said Coach Humbert. The score at halftime was 21-0 Belle Vernon.
The third quarter was more the same. Freeport’s opening drive of the second half was looking good after a big pass down to the Belle Vernon 39 yard line. But after that the drive stalled and they ended up turning the ball over on downs.
Belle Vernon went three and out on their first drive of the second half and punted it back to Freeport. Again Freeport got into Belle Vernon territory and got as far as the Belle Vernon 20 yard line. On fourth down they attempted a field goal which was no good.
Belle Vernon’s defense also played a major role in their win. They had several interceptions. “The defense did well and we expected them to play well, we’re a fast unit on defense, we fly to the ball and we can hit hard, and we’re quick and the linebacking core showed that tonight” said Coach Humbert. The score at the end of three remained 21-0 Belle Vernon.
In the fourth quarter Belle Vernon put the game out of reach. 35 seconds into the quarter, Jake Gedekoh scored on a 10 yard run making it 28-0. Gedekoh also played a big role in the win. He ran for 114 yards.
Freeport got the ball back and again they were in Belle Vernon territory but the drive ended with an interception. After that Belle Vernon marched right down the field and the drive was finished off on a 1 yard quarterback keeper by Braden Laux. That made it 35-0 with 6:33 left in the game.
Belle Vernon added one last score before the game ended. Gedekoh scored for a second time this one being a 20 yard run which made the final 42-0 Belle Vernon.
Next week Belle Vernon will play Avonworth for the WPIAL 3A Championship at Acrisure Stadium on Friday at 5pm. “It’s going to be a battle, they’re a good football team, they’re big, they’re physical, they resemble some of those big physical teams that we saw at the beginning of the season” said Coach Humbert.
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