Whitlock stars as Leopards dominate Mustangs in 49-0 win (copy)
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon’s Devin Whitlock roams the sidelines during the second half of Friday night’s game against Laurel Highlands at Mustang Field. Whitlock ran for two touchdowns and returned an interception for another score in the first half of the Leopards’ 49-0 win, then sat out the second half.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon’s Ryan Hamer (30) finds some running room against Laurel Highlands during Friday night’s game at Mustang Field.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Laurel Highlands’ Rodney Gallagher follows a wave of blockers, including ShiNeill Thomas (7), Lorenzo McFadden (70), Ryan Pyro (25) and A.J. Sumpter (50) during a running play against Belle Vernon in Friday night’s game at Mustang Field.
Rob Burchianti | Herald-Standard
Belle Vernon running back Logan Hoffman (43) tries to elude Laurel Highlands’ safety Rodney Gallagher (2) during Friday night’s game at Mustang Field.
Belle Vernon coach Matt Humbert (left) has compiled an impressive 57-16 overall record in his seven years with the Leopards.
Belle Vernon quarterback Devin Whitlock felt he and his team had something to prove after the Leopards’ 42-21 loss to Thomas Jefferson last week.
That put Laurel Highlands in a bad situation on Friday night.
Whitlock ran for 109 yards and two touchdowns, passed for 109 yards and two more TDs and also returned an interception for a score as Belle Vernon rolled to a 49-0 Big Eight Conference win at Mustang Field.
“I came into this game with a chip on my shoulder,” Whitlock said, noting the loss at TJ. “I definitely didn’t like that. It was a hard pill to swallow. But we’ve still got to put it behind us and move on and look forward.”
Leopards coach Matt Humbert agreed.
“We just needed to regroup, refocus and apply practice to the game setting and that’s what they did,” Humbert said.
The Leopards (3-1, 3-1) out-gained the Mustangs (1-2, 1-3) 383 yards to 70 and dominated in all phases of the game.
Belle Vernon’s defense held down LH’s potent passing attack, limiting wide receiver Rodney Gallagher to three receptions for 33 yards and quarterback Joe Chambers to 5-of-12 passing for 39 yards while intercepting him twice. Gallagher was 1-for-1 passing with a 24-yard completion to Christian Burchick.
The Leopards rushed for 274 yards with back-up quarterback Jackson Jewell running for 57 yards and Quinton Martin rambling for 52 yards, including a 45-yard touchdown. Dane Anden added 37 yards and Ryan Hamer had 30 and a score.
“They’re a good team, they have a lot of depth, they don’t make mistakes and they play physical,” LH coach Rich Kolesar said of Belle Vernon. “That’s how you win football games.”
The Leopards put up 21 points in the first quarter as Whitlock ran for a 36-yard touchdown and then threw scoring passes of 25 yards to Anden and 9 yards to Tanner Steeber, with Tyler Kovatch booting the first three of his seven-for-seven night on extra points.
Kolesar felt his team was mentally ready to face the Leps.
“I think we were excited going into the week,” Kolesar said. “We made too many mistakes today, got behind early and it’s tough to come back from that against a good football team.”
Belle Vernon dominated early on even though Laurel Highlands’ defensive set surprised them.
“They played us in a 4-3 and we didn’t prep for that the whole week based off of what they showed on film,” Humbert said. “It was good that we were able to pick some of that stuff up quick.”
“The first three weeks we played teams that were super heavy on the run,” Kolesar explained. “They do more spread so we switched back to more of our base defense, the 4-3 look. We thought that would give them some trouble.
“But their kids made plays. We didn’t.”
The Leopards rang up 21 more points in the second quarter with the first touchdown coming on Whitlock’s 46-yard interception return.
Martin’s long run made it 35-0 and Whitlock’s 29-yard TD run on a fourth-and-2 play gave BV a 42-0 halftime lead. Whitlock appeared to add another touchdown late in the half on a punt return but the play was negated by a penalty.
“He’s a great athlete,” Kolesar said of Whitlock. “He plays really hard. It’s tough to simulate what he does (in practice).”
Hamer scored on a 1-yard plunge in the third quarter to cap the scoring.
The Mustangs two best chances to score came on a drive in the second quarter that was thwarted near the goal line by an Anden interception and a drive late in the game that ended with a missed field goal attempt by Harry Radcliffe.
“They do a great job defensively,” Kolesar sad. “They were definitely well prepared. We didn’t execute the way we needed to beat what they were doing.”
“When you face a team that’s primarily four- and five-wide and you have a kid like Rodney there, you’ve got to make sure that you’re covering all your bases,” Humbert said. “Our biggest fear was a couple of them sneaking by us and getting a couple touchdowns. And the quarterback likes to scramble. A lot of what we did was to focus on keeping him in the box.”
ShiNeill Thomas was the Mustangs’ leading rusher with 35 yards on 10 carries.
Steeber was the Leopards’ leading receiver with four receptions for 42 yards.
Each team had one defensive fumble recovery, Joe Klanchar for Belle Vernon and Josef Kmetz for Laurel Highlands.
“Those kids at LH, they fought hard, they never backed down, never gave up so kudos to Coach Kolesar and their staff for that,” Humbert said.
The Mustangs face another stiff challenge next week when they travel to Thomas Jefferson.
Kolesar talked to his players after the game about righting the ship.
“You’ve got to look inside,” Kolesar said. “You’ve got to find heart. There can’t be any finger-pointing. You’ve got to look at what you can do to become better.
“To win football games, you’ve got to have depth, you’ve got play violent, you’ve got to play mistake-free, and that’s not what we’re doing right now.”
The Leopards host Ringgold next week then travel to Trinity to close out conference play.
“It’s a victory that we checked all the boxes that we needed to check,” Humbert said of the win over LH.
“Now we’ve got to gear up for two more.”