After slow start, Bristol’s Bell rings Delco Christian in second half

NEWTOWN TWP. >> Delco Christian faced a different Bristol team in the second half, and with it, came a different Eric Bell.

The speedy running back found the end zone four times in the second half Saturday, running his way to a 166-yard performance in the Warriors 35-14 Bicentennial League triumph over the Knights.

Delco Christian was down 8-7 at halftime. Bristol, and Bell, took over from there. There was little the Knights (5-4, 3-2) could do to contain, or even slow down, Bell.

“It takes him a little bit to get going, but once he gets going, he goes hard,” Bristol coach John Greiner said. “It takes him a little bit to get going, it takes our line a little bit to get going, but once we have everything working together, you saw what we did in the second half — we knocked out the cobwebs.”

Bristol had four possessions in the second half, and Bell scored touchdowns on all four of them. The first, an eight-yard run, came on the opening drive of the third quarter. The second, a 13-yard gallop later in the period, made it a two-score game.

The game was put out of reach early in the fourth quarter on Bell’s 39-yard run. He capped the scoring nearly seven minutes later with a 22-yard burst.

Unable to sustain offense and unable to slow down Bell, there was little the Knights could do but tip their caps to Bristol (7-1, 4-1).

“You just gotta give them credit,” Delco Christian coach Drew Pearson said. “They were 6-1, and now 7-1, for a reason.”

Bristol had 296 yards of total offense. DeShawn Cortez added 96 yards on the ground. Samir Brisbon passed for just 30 yards, but 11 came on a late first half score to Eishon Perry. Because of that, the Warriors went into halftime with a lead instead of a deficit.

The momentum came back with them.

“At halftime, we just challenged the offensive line,” Greiner said. “Just like last week, I didn’t yell, I didn’t scream, I didn’t take the paint off the walls, you’ve just got to stay calm. Once we get it going, it works out great.”

Delco Christian opened the scoring on Jalen Mitchell’s two-yard run late in the first quarter. The Knights were handed a short field after Bristol called for a fake punt on fourth-and-seven from its 27-yard line. Later in the half, the short field was handed right back to Bristol when Delco Christian went for it on fourth-and-two from its 36.

From that point, the Knights were soundly outplayed.

“They did a good job of finding weaknesses and exploiting that, they’ve got a great coaching staff and you saw they have some great players,” Pearson said. “We talked before, what we did in the first half, was about as good as we could’ve played.”

Luke Gutowski added a two-yard scoring run midway through the fourth quarter. The senior quarterback led the Knights on the ground with 53 yards.