In ancient warfare, battering rams were used to break up masonry fortifications and splinter wooden gates.

Kavon Bellamy is a modern-day battering ram — gridiron-style — wearing blue and orange.

The Virginia State University junior rips through defensive linemen and flattens linebackers en route to first downs, touchdowns and Trojan victories.

Here’s what to expect when VSU opens in Ettrick at 1 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 5, against California University of Pennsylvania.

A converted linebacker, the always-ready-to-rumble 5-foot-9½, 210-pounder from Hampton High enjoys inflicting pain on anyone bold enough to try and block his path.

“Being a former linebacker, I’d rather deliver the blow than receive it,” said Bellamy, his eyes sparkling at the thought.

“And when it’s late in the game, when fatigue has set in on the defense, that’s when I rise above.”

Bellamy’s determined bull rushes are a main reason VSU won the 2014 CIAA football title a year ago and advanced to round two of the NCAA Division II playoffs.

In VSU’s history-making 10-3 season in 2014, Bellamy rushed for 989 yards, caught short passes for 282 more yards and scored 18 touchdowns while earning All-CIAA honors.

A no-nonsense runner, Bellamy leaves the shake ‘n’ bake to others.

The Trojans’ No. 28 is more about ground ‘n’ pound — four yards and a big pileup.

“Kavon is tough. He’s our bell cow,” said first-year Coach Byron Thweatt. “We plan to give him the ball a lot — to feed the monster.”

Bellamy played mostly linebacker his senior year at Hampton High under Coach Mike Smith, and then was selected to play in the Virginia High School League’s summer all-star game as a defender.

He was slowed, but not stopped by a sprained ankle during his senior year at Hampton.

“You had to fight him to keep Kavon on the sidelines,” Coach Smith recalled. “He’s so competitive. I’d look at him and think I was looking at Joe Frazier.”

Bellamy first committed to Butler Community College in Kansas before his mother, LaKiesha Bellamy, talked him out of it. “Mom just didn’t want me to go so far away by myself,” Bellamy explained.

Coach Thweatt, then an assistant coach at University of Richmond, recalls recruiting Bellamy as a linebacker.

“We liked him, but thought he was a little too short for that position in Division I,” Coach Thweatt said.

Bellamy ultimately signed with then-VSU Coach Andrew Faison in the summer of 2012.

Red-shirted as a freshman, he became a regular VSU linebacker in 2013 under Coach Latrell Scott.

All the while, Bellamy yearned to have the pigskin under his arm.

“I’d text coach (Scott) asking him for a chance to show what I could do in practice,” recalled Bellamy. “Finally he agreed.”

Scott’s decision to transfer Bellamy from defense to offense helped set in motion the breakout 2014 season.

Bellamy hails from athletic stock. An uncle on his mother’s side, Kwamie Lassiter, played defensive back for the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals.

This summer, the 21-year-old Bellamy stayed in Ettrick, hoisting iron in the Trojans’ weight room, running wind sprints on the Rogers Stadium track and working two jobs to pay bills.

“I’ve got a daughter due in October,” he said, explaining the long hours. “I worked at Amazon 5 (p.m.) to 4 (a.m.), then I had a job with a moving company 7 (a.m.) to 1 (p.m.).”

Bellamy doesn’t back off of challenges. The higher the stakes, the more he shines.

In VSU’s first NCAA game last fall against Long Island University-Post of New York, Bellamy was smack dab in the center of the Trojans’ game plan.

On 29 occasions, he was sent barrelling into the line. Those smash-mouth thrusts produced 131 yards, two touchdowns, a bunch of ailing LIU defenders and a Trojans’ victory.

The battering ram had done the job.