On a chilly Friday night on the hill at Valley Christian, the Bellarmine Bells had their offense firing on all cylinders for a tough-fought 38-35 victory. The win assures the Bells (8-1, 6-0 WCAL) of no worse than a tie for first place with Serra; however, Bellarmine has already defeated the Padres and would capture the tiebreaker. The hard-luck Warriors (3-6, 1-5) have lost their five league games by a total of 28 points.
Quarterback K.J. Carta-Samuels was impressed with the difficult win, but understands work still needs to be done.
“We did well on offense and executed very well. Our defense wasn’t too strong tonight," Carta-Samuels said. "We have to work on our tackling. If you miss one tackle, then they’re long gone before you know it.”
Bellarmine was coming off another narrow victory last Saturday against St. Ignatius in a 35-28 win in which Carta-Samuels threw for two touchdowns along with two rushing scores.
Before this week's game, Valley Christian was on a disappointing two-game losing streak, during which time the Warriors lost to Mitty by a touchdown and to Serra by a field goal. The Warriors hoped to put those struggles aside and shake up the run-first Bellarmine offense and bring a potent running attack to the game themselves.
After Valley Christian closed the gap to 38-35 on a 10-yard TD run by John Wilkinson with 4:53 left in the game, Bellarmine was able to grind down the clock with its methodical ground game and hold on to the hard-fought victory.
“We’re WCAL champions. That’s the biggest part and it feels great," running back Kenneth Olugbode said. "Finally, to get our year immortalized in our gym and it’s something special for people to walk in there everyday and see a 2012 on the WCAL banner. They know we worked hard from January to now to get that.”
During the Bells' final drive, a scary moment happened with about two minutes left in the game. There was a 20-minute delay in which Valley Christian defensive lineman Richard Salazar was taken off the field in an ambulance. He suffered a neck injury (severity uncertain), but gave a thumbs up which prompted applause from both teams and all fans in attendance.
Warriors senior running back Ryan Severson rushed for a pair of scores in a wild third quarter that saw each team put up 14 points, leaving the teams separated by only a field goal, 31-28, heading into the fourth quarter. His 75-yard dash down the sideline brought Valley Christian to within 3 points after Olugbode had capped a long Bellarmine drive with a 3-yard run to make it 31-21 with 1:18 left in the third quarter.
Early in the game, Valley Christian showed that it wasn't going to be an easy game for the Bells. On their first drive, the Warriors found the end zone on 10 running plays with running back Kirk Johnson scoring on an 8-yard run to put Valley Christian ahead 7-0 in the middle of the first quarter.
The Bells came back with an impressive drive of their own with runs by Carta-Samuels, running back Joey Sanfilippo, and Olugbode. Carta-Samuels scored from 1 yard out to tie the game at 7-7 with 1:03 left in the first quarter.
After a couple of stalled drives by Valley Christian, Bellarmine’s Olugbode found the end zone for a 46-yard rushing touchdown to put the Bells ahead 14-7 with 6:09 left in the 1st half.
The Warriors stuck with the Bells and put together another powerful running drive with multiple bursts by Johnson and the speedy Severson.
Quarterback Jay MacIntyre faked the run and capped the drive with a 14-yard rushing touchdown to tie the game at 14-14 just before halftime.
The Bells marched down the field on the next drive to put the offense in field-goal range. Kicker Grant Bush came on to try to give the Bells a three point lead at halftime, but the kick hit the left upright. But a crucial mistake during the play for Valley Christian with a blocker committing a roughing the kicker penalty gave Bellarmine another chance. With Bush being partially injured on the play, running back Austin Changras came on to try the 30 yard field goal and nailed it to put the Bells ahead 17-14 at halftime.
“No words can describe the feeling. We just clinched the WCAL title by (winning this game) by 3 points," Changras said. "I’m just so glad I got to do it with my brothers out here."
The Bells came out in the second half looking strong and continued what they had established in the first half.
On the second play, Carta-Samuels displayed the effectiveness of the Bellarmine wildcat formation and ran down the sideline for 59 yards all the way to the 1 yard line. Olugbode ran it in from there to put the Bells ahead 24-14 early in the 3rd quarter.
Valley Christian came right back in their next possession with the big play being a 30 yard completion from MacIntyre to receiver Brandon Alexander. Severson finished it off with a 13 yard touchdown ran to pull the Warriors closer 24-21.
Just as they had been all night, the Bells were extremely resilient and Sanfilippo scored on a 65-yard touchdown ran to give the Bells a 10-point lead in the middle of the fourth quarter.
The Warriors wrap up the regular season with a trip to Riordan Saturday afternoon (1 pm) while Bellarmine finishes up with a Friday night (7 pm) home game against Sacred Heart Cathedral.
