EVANSVILLE, Ind. -- Belleville West had a two-point conversion pass broken up with a minute and 58 seconds remaining in the game to seal a 21-19 road loss to Evansville Memorial on Friday night at Bosse Field. The Maroons once trailed 21-3 before scoring the game's final 16 points. A touchdown on a quarterback sneak by Kyle Leadlove had made it 21-19. But Leadlove's conversion pass to Cody Anderson, however, was broken up by Memorial's Zach McCall.
First-year West coach Cameron Pettus thought his team just took too long to settle into the game, which was the Maroons' season opener. "We played a lot better in the second half in digging ourselves out of a hole," said Pettus. "I'm real proud of the effort, the heart those guys showed in battling back. We had our chances at the end and didn't capitalize."
West's Keith Harris picked up the opening kickoff after it deflected off a teammate and sprinted 40 yards before being dragged down inside the 5-yard line. But with a first down at the 2-yard line, the visitors failed to capitalize as the Tigers' defense threw up a roadblock.
West had to settle for an 18-yard field goal by Austin Seibert in the opening three minutes of the game. From there, the rest of the opening half belonged to Memorial.The Tigers did most of their damage in the second quarter, scoring a pair of touchdowns on a 4-yard run by Sam Curtis and a 21-yard pass from Charlie Greif to Max Gamble for a 14-3 halftime lead.
A 10-yard TD run by Memorial's Sam McKinley Warren had made it 21-3. But West rallied with Ray Scott catching a 5-yard scoring pass from Leadlove in the third quarter. A 25-yard field goal by Siebert later in the third made it 21-13.
The Maroons particularly struggled in the passing game in the first half as Leadlove only completed 4 of 9 for 27 yards. But Leadlove finished strong, ending up with 141 yards passing on 16 of 28 completions. Deonte McCarvey rushed for 95 yards on 16 carries.
"I was real proud of the defensive effort," said Memorial coach John Hurley, whose Tigers improved to 1-1 in bouncing back from last week's 29-0 loss to Jasper. "That's a very athletic football team we beat." Greif finished 17 for 23 for 123 yards and one touchdown with one interception.
The contest, the first high school football game to be played at Bosse Field in 40 years, was billed as "Memorial High School Football Throwback Night." The field stretched from home plate to center field with the pitching mound leveled into a circular patch of clay.
