Avonworth overcomes early mistakes to defeat Burrell in season opener

By: Andrew John
Friday, August 23, 2024 | 9:58 PM

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Going into the matchup, Burrell knew it would need to capitalize on every mistake to stay close with Avonworth, the WPIAL Class 3A runner-up from a season ago.

The Bucs defense forced turnovers on the Antelopes’ first two drives, but, Burrell was unable to turn the turnovers into points. No. 3 Avonworth (1-0) eventually got its offense going and never looked back in defeating Burrell, 24-7, in nonconference play Friday night at Buccaneer Stadium.

Burrell was without their coach Shawn Liotta, who was serving the first game of his two-game suspension that resulted from an ejection during Burrell’s playoff game last season against Mohawk. Defensive coordinator Jeremy Liotta, Shawn’s brother, is serving as interim head coach during the two-game suspension.

“They are a great football team. They are well coached,” Jeremy Liotta said. “I appreciate them coming out and playing us. I thought us as a team started out kind of tough on defense. We got a couple turnovers. In the second half, you could see we gradually got better, and we improved as the game went on.”.

Burrell’s defense forced senior running back Nico Neal to fumble on the first two drives of the game deep in Buccaneer territory. The ‘Lopes defense held Burrell’s slot-T offense in check while the offense looked to get back on track.

After a Burrell (0-1) punt, Avonworth scored on its third drive of the game when sophomore running back Bryce Metz ran it in from 27 yards. Metz had three rushes on the drive for 47 yards total, and his touchdown capped a five-play, 51-yard drive.

The Antelopes extended their lead to 14-0 late in the first quarter when senior running back Sam Zahn took a carry on the right side for a 13-yard touchdown. The drive started at the Buccaneers’ 25-yard line after the Antelopes blocked a Burrell punt.

Avonworth scored on its third consecutive drive when junior quarterback Carson Bellinger connected with wide-open senior receiver Noah Goetz on a 37-yard touchdown pass down the right side.

Bellinger finished 5 of 8 for 72 yards passing and a touchdown. Bellinger also rushed for 48 yards.

“We got to take care of the football better than we did tonight,” Avonworth coach Duke Johncour said. “We made a couple mistakes early. We had a dropped ball on the first play of the game and two fumbles on consecutive series. We could’ve done a lot of things, but we wanted to see some younger kids so we subbed pretty early.”

The Bucs nearly held the ball all of the third quarter as they made it a two-score game. Senior quarterback Stevie Hasson rolled out to his left and connected with junior Liam Kasavage for a 32-yard touchdown pass to make it 21-7 with 1:25 remaining in the third quarter.

Even though the Bucs had their long drive against some of the Antelopes backups, Liotta was pleased with Burrell’s offensive ability to string together a long drive.

“That nice long drive that is our typical type of drive we want to have,” he said. “We want to eat up the clock. We might want to take a quarter off. We want to have long drives and play tough defense.”

The teams decided to play in Week Zero after their original opponents, Springdale and Perry, had to cancel because of a lack of available players. Burrell originally was scheduled to face Springdale at home.

Burrell will face Shady Side Academy at home next week, and the Antelopes will face West Mifflin in their home opener.

Tags: Avonworth, Burrell