Bel Air's Chris Vonziah grabs Havre de Grace's Amir Austin, hoping for the sack as Austin tries to sprint up the field during Friday's game at Bel Air. (Matt Button / The Aegis/Baltimore Sun Media)

The Bel Air Bobcats opened the 2022 high school football season in impressive fashion Friday evening, rolling past visiting Havre de Grace, 48-7, in a matchup of Upper Chesapeake Bay Athletic Conference teams.

Senior quarterback Jay Perez led the win, throwing for 237 yards and five touchdowns, connecting on 15 of 20 pass attempts. Four of the scoring passes came in a 34-point second half.

“We started off a little rough, but the second half we definitely turned everything around. We just looked like a whole different team in the second half,” Perez said.

Despite the early struggles, Perez’s night began quickly. The Bobcats first snap saw Perez connect with Gavin Shaw (three catches, 65 yards) for 35 yards. Four plays later, the combo worked again to open the scoring on a 23-yard touchdown.

Bel Air's Ty Smothers beats Havre de Grace's Isaiah Miller-Velez for the catch and touchdown during the game at Bel Air on Friday. (Matt Button / The Aegis/Baltimore Sun Media)

The next series provided Perez and his teammates with one of two physical mistakes. Perez saw his pass picked off by Amir Austin, who juked and sped his way into the end zone with an 80-yard interception return.

Isaiah Robinson’s kick tied the game at 7, but that’s all the scoring the Warriors could do.

The Bobcats were quickly back in the end zone with 1:07 to play in the opening quarter. Nehemiah Ramsey (four carries, 60 yards) raced 46 yards before falling down short of the end zone. Ramsey ran the final four yards on the next play for a 14-7 lead with Devin Trzeciak adding one of his three extra-point kicks.

The Warriors struggled offensively throughout and Bel Air senior defensive back Tre Dennis was partly responsible. Dennis picked off two passes in the first half, including a pick in the end zone to close the first half.

“Obviously at halftime it was a really tight game and we thought a lot of mistakes on our part are what kept it tight,” Bobcats coach Eric Siegel said. “They played very well as well, but we were kind of shooting ourselves in the foot.”

The Bobcats had multiple false start penalties in the first half, a pair of unsportsmanlike conduct penalties and an illegal block penalty that wiped out a punt return touchdown.

“Then in the second half we kind of showed what we’ve been doing here these last three weeks of hot practices,” Siegel said. “Hey, this is who we actually are and the ability to put up that many points against a good team is a testament to what we’ve put in.”.

An interception by Tavon Anderson gave Bel Air possession at the Warriors 15-yard line. Perez passed to Dennis on the next snap for a 20-7 lead, just 1:02 into the third quarter.

Bel Air overcame a fumbled punt minutes later and Perez hit Ty Smothers with a short pass and Smothers (two catches, 84 yards) raced down the sideline for a 46-yard touchdown. Perez passed to Mason Ferrell for a two-point conversion and a 28-7 lead.

The Bobcats also had a ground game with senior Nathan Furrow piling up 120 yards on 15 carries. It was his next-to-last carry, for a yard, that put him in the end zone to open the fourth quarter. An interception by Charles Hammond set up the drive and score.

Bel Air's Tre Dennis and Jay D'Amico (16) get up to break up the pass intended for Havre de Grace's Amir Austin during Friday's game at Bel Air. (Matt Button / The Aegis/Baltimore Sun Media)

The Bobcats closed the scoring with a pair of Perez passes. The first covered 11 yards to Dennis (three catches, 28 yards) and the other, 38 yards to Smothers.

“The game’s never over, no matter what happens, you always keep going as hard as you can,” Dennis said. “We just did what we had to do.”

Austin opened the game at quarterback for Havre de Grace and went 1-for-7 for 41 yards and two interceptions. He also rushed for 39 yards on six carries.

Jaxson Gerdom came on to go 3-for-13 for 19 yards and two interceptions. Isaiah Velez-Miller had a 41-yard reception for the Warriors.

“I knew we were going to be tremendously young coming in this year, not even necessary age-wise, we’re football young,” Warriors coach Brian Eberhardt said. “I kind of think the pandemic exasperated some of that, not having a JV for two years probably exasperated that. Goal is let’s get better next week, we’ll have a game experience and that’s all we can do, get better next week.”