Bellaire Big Reds defeat East Liverpool Potters with three touchdown pass 31-14

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David Burnworth | October 7, 2023

Bellaire, for so long was a school that went spread with four and five receivers and threw the ball as much as any school in the state of Ohio but in recent times they are more of a run first team. Saturday afternoon the Big Reds only threw ten passes completing five but of those five, three went for touchdowns in their 17-point win over the Potters.

East Liverpool started out on fire with a 21-yard run from Quintin Conrad followed by a 24-yard run by Gavin Wright. Wright looked to have another nice run but he coughed the ball up after being hit pouncing on the ball for the Potters touchdown was Trent Davis to make this a 6-0 game, after Kamden Miller was true on his point after kick we had  7-0 game with 8:21 left in the quarter.

Wright was back at it at the 2:15 mark of the quarter when he raced to a 49-yard run. Wright would be hit by Joey Nixon for a 5-yard loss, then he was sacked by Drew White and Jason Lemley as the first quarter slowly came to a close. #51 (Not on the Bellaire roster was also on both of those plays.

The sackfest continued into the 2nd quarter when White again got to Wright for a loss of two.  The Big Reds offense got a 6-yard run from White to set up a first and goal from the Potters four. White closed out the 36-yard drive with his short touchdown run making this a 7-6 game with 3;33 left in the half. Bellaire would take the lead with 31.6 seconds left in the half on a 52-yard touchdown pass to Mr. Excitement Mac Pettigrew from Luke Heatherington to make this a 12-7 game.

Bellaire got busy right away in the third quarter with a 23-yard run from White. White, on this day, was a very patient runner allowing his very stout offensive line to do their work making his day very easy. Pettigrew would come up huge on third and ten later on the drive when he picked up 13 yards with another catch. White ended the 57-yard drive with a 21-yard touchdown run after Jayson Lemly was true on the point after kick we had a 19-7 game with 10:20 left in the third.

Heatherington overthrew a wide-open receiver and paid the price for it when Julius Jones picked it off and took it to the house for the East Liverpool score making this a 19-14 game. Pettigrew would make another catch picking up 14 yards a little later on the drive Heatherington used his feet to pick up 25 yards. East Liverpool would make the final big play of the quarter with Liam Campbell stopping White for a three-yard loss.

A little over a minute into the final frame Pettigrew caught a Heatherington pass on fourth and five to pick up the first down. Heatherington then picked up 13 yards to the Potters three to set up a 3-yard touchdown run from White making this a 25-14 game. Once Bellaire was back on defense Heatherington picked off a Wright pass to set the offense up 19 yards from pay dirt. Heatherington would get sacked by Kooper Ramsey and Davis for a loss of four. Heatherington would get the last laugh when he found Pettigrew for the 11-yard touchdown to give us the final score of 31-14.

East Liverpool would go down fighting with Wright completing passes to Davis for 44 yards and Julius Jones for 15 but a pick by Raekon Pettigrew ended any hopes of a Potters comeback.

My stats

East Liverpool

52 plays

240 yards

Passing, 14-28

Bellaire

56 plays

283 yards

Passing, 5-10 3 TDs

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