Despite injuries, Belle Vernon rolls past Plum in nonconference game

By: HSSN Staff
Friday, October 19, 2018 | 10:15 PM

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When it comes to playoff seeding, Friday night’s game between Belle Vernon and Plum didn’t have much meaning.

But Matt Humbert’s Leopards were playing their first game without starting quarterback Jared Hartman, and they felt they had something to prove.

Down four starters, the Leopards had no issues dispatching of Plum, racing by the Mustangs, 48-0, at James Weir Stadium.

The Leopards played without Mason Pascoe, Hartman, Kirk Popelas and Anthony Rebar, who played two snaps.

That didn’t matter, though, as junior running back Larry Callaway ran through the Mustangs’ defense for 263 yards on 26 carries and a pair of touchdowns.

“We never wavered in our belief in our guys,” BVA coach Matt Humbert said. “With Larry, we’re fortunate to have a guy of his caliber that we can turn to. We’re very comfortable with him.”

The Leopards (7-1) were nearly down a fifth starter when center and defensive end Eric Oblak was battling a neck injury, but he was able to give it a go.

“We weren’t playing full bore, but our kids always understand that it’s next man up. No matter who we had coming in here, they needed to go out and make plays,” Humbert said.

The Leopards got the scoring started on their opening drive, pounding out a 61-yard march in seven plays, capped off by Anthony Bertram’s 3-yard run out of the wildcat.

Less than four minutes later, Callaway capped off a four-play drive with a 9-yard run to make it 14-0, where the score stayed into the second quarter.

“We’re still a young team with a young line,” Plum coach Matt Morgan said. “They have a big group of juniors and seniors over there that were overwhelming us on the line.”

The Mustangs (2-7) had two drives halted by interceptions, one by the Leopards’ Damani Johnson on a Hunter Linhart overthrow. The other was by Joey Federer, two plays after the Mustangs recovered a Bertram fumble.

After Federer’s pick, he capped off six-play drive with a 2-yard plunge to make it 21-0 with 1:24 remaining.

After Linhart threw three straight incompletions, the Mustangs punted back to BVA with 54 seconds to go in the first half.

Callaway made them pay with a 69-yard touchdown run to give the Leopards a 28-0 lead at the half.

Callaway finished the first 24 minutes with 236 yards on the ground.

The Mustangs’ pattern of three-and-out continued on the opening drive of the second half, but Maximos Matolcsy intercepted Nolan Labuda to give the Mustangs the ball at the Leopards’ 48.

It was all for naught, as Labuda picked off Linhart to give the ball back to the BVA offense.

Four plays later, Bertram plowed in again from a yard out to make it 35-0 and invoke the running clock.

“Guys like Anthony Bertram, he’s a tough physical runner,” Humbert said. “That’s the kind of contribution we needed from a guy like him. We threw him in our Lep Cat package this week, and he did a great job tonight.”

Andrew Pacak relieved Labuda in the fourth quarter and added a 7-yard touchdown pass on a fade to Hunter Ruokonen as well as a 6-yard run with 5:52 to go.

“We’re a young team coming off a heartbreaker last week against Latrobe,” Morgan said of the Mustangs. “Defensively, we were down a few guys. We had a lot of sophomores in there against a team that’s probably going to make a good run in the playoffs. I wanted us to come out and fight and keep growing.”

Humbert was pleased with the way Labuda filled in for the injured Hartman, who’s awaiting knee surgery.

“We really wanted him to just run our base offense. He’s a smooth operator and he’ll be able to handle any wrinkles we may throw in there. I thought he did really well, and I thought Andy came in and did a great job. He throws a great deep ball, so we’ll continue to use both. They both have a role to play,” Humbert said.

Jeremy Sellew is a Mon Valley Independent staff writer.

Tags: Belle Vernon, Plum