Defense wins the battle but offense wins the war in Bellaire 8-7 win over Union Local

Tagged under: Beyond The Keystone, Game Photos, Gameday Hub, News

David Burnworth | October 16, 2022

*Using the roster from digitalscout.com for the Jets*

Saturday afternoon I made the drive from Claysville, Pennslyvania where I watched my Friday night game to Bellaire, Ohio to watch a game at Nelson Field one of my favorite places to watch high school football. The battle pitted Union Local against Bellaire in a battle that would go a long way in securing a round one playoff home game for the winner. I was told before the game Bellaire was minus two of their biggest weapons while I was told the Jets were minus a lineman, who was pretty good.

Just a few minutes into this one Drew White and Chickie LaMotte teamed up to sack Cater Blake the Jets quarterback for a loss of 5-yards. After getting the ball Bellaire would get a nice 14-yard run from Jake Heatherington. The drive almost came to a quick close when White coughed the ball up but his teammate, Lucas Littell dropped on the ball. Facing third and four with 3:45 left in the fast-paced opening quarter Heatherington dropped a pass in the arms of Luca DaQuila. The quarter would end without any points being scored as the defenses continued to bend a little but not break.

Terrin Frazier would get to Jaksan Price for a loss of 3-yards to help get the Jets offense off of the field almost as fast as they flew onto it. Bellaire would get a would get a 19-yard run from LaMotte but a pick of a Heatherington pass by Isaiah Tomolonis ended any hopes Bellaire had of scoring on the drive. Blake got the Jets offense moving with a 25-yard pass to Billy Schumacher. Blake would get another completion when he found Dre Saunders open for a gain of 34-yards. Saunders is a dangerous runner with soft hands. White would drop Blake for a 6-yard loss to force a Jets punt, with 2:48 left in the opening half. Bellaire ended the half with two nice plays but the game remained scoreless at the half. The first of those nice plays was a 19 with the bigger of the two coming on a 24-yard pass by Heatherington to LaMotte, on a play where the quarterback avoided a sack by some sort of magic trick and then threw a dime to his receiver.

Just fifty-eight seconds into the third quarter Blake found Sanders all alone with a pinpoint throw he hit the receiver who dashed into the endzone for the 42-yard score, after the point-after kick from Logan Cole we had a 7-0 game. The defense would rule the rest of the quarter with the exception of two plays from the Bellaire offense. First, Jakob Dowling picked up 32-yards on a nice catch, and then White picked up 23 yards on a run right up the gut of the Jets defense.

With 9:25 left Bellaire came an eyelash of getting a long touchdown catch from 6-3 Sophomore Maurice Webb, who I think is going to be a big-time player for Bellaire before he graduates but on this play, he dropped the ball as the Bellaire crowd watched in horror. Redemption came for Webb with 3:28 left in the game when he picked off a Blake pass.

Heatherington found Logan Edgar for 38 yards fourteen seconds later to keep the hopes of a comeback alive. Another completion for Heatherington to Brenton Naumanmove the ball to the Jets 39-yard line with 2:04 left. Belaire would work the ball down to the 2-yard line with 22.8 seconds left in the game from there Brayden Roth behind his hard-working offensive line plowed into the endzone to make this a 7-6 game. Bellaire elected to go for the win with Heatherington tossing the ball to his right towards Terrin Frazier, who in Joey Galloway fashion easily caught the ball for the 8-7 lead.

Union Local threw three incomplete passes then on the final play of the game #27 Logan Edgar would pick off the Blake pass to secure the big win. Bellaire will travel to Martins Ferry to end the regular season while the Jets go to undefeated Barnsville.

Unofficial State

Jets

50 plays

231 yards

Passing, 8-15 1 TD 2 INT’S

Bellaire

62 plays

336 yards

Passing 12-22 1 INT

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For all of the pics https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10225814012411434&type=3