Season ends in Loss
FROM ROD FRISCO FROM THE PATRITO NEWS:
The quest for respect has ended. After the football game Lower Dauphin played yesterday at McDevitt , the Falcons' respect cup does indeed runneth over. And runneth over is exactly what the unbeaten Falcons did to the utter amazement of playoff-free Bishop McDevitt . The final: Lower Dauphin 23, Bishop McDevitt 14. The other final: Mid-Penn Conference Capital Division champion Lower Dauphin , 10-0 and the No. 1 seed for this weekend's District 3-AAA playoffs, was substantially the best football team in the city yesterday morning. "It was all about the respect," said Lower Dauphin head coach Rob Klock, spotless in his first year with the Falcons. "I think they thought we weren't coming to play ball. But we wanted to win this game. Badly." From the first snap, it was evident Lower Dauphin 's desire exceeded Bishop McDevitt 's, that an unbeaten season and the craving for esteem trumped McDevitt 's presumption that it was already a playoff team. And now McDevitt is not. Despite flip-flopping a 2-8 record from last year into a quality 8-2 season with losses to a pair of 10-0 teams, the Crusaders can only view the season through red-rimmed eyes and the black lens of disappointment. "This is a shock to us," head coach Jeff Weachter said in the hushed bowels of the McDevitt team room. "But give them credit. They beat us. They beat us on offense, on defense, on special teams." Lower Dauphin will host 10-time defending 3-AAA champion Manheim Central (8-2) at Hersheypark Stadium at 7:30 p.m. Friday. East Pennsboro (9-1) and Northern (9-1) will resume their Colonial Division pleasantries in Dillsburg in the other 3-AAA game.
McDevitt , which hasn't made the District 3 playoffs since being forced to claim AAAA status in 1998, will sit again, to the great fortune of Muhlenberg (9-1). Despite a 33-7 loss to Boyertown Friday, Muhlenberg will back-door into the 3-AAAA playoffs against top seed Wilson (10-0). No. 2 seed Central Dauphin (10-0) will host Spring Grove (9-1) in the other game. Those details about LD's near future are all well and good, but it is the very recent past that has the Falcons' chests at full puff, and quite deservedly so. In simple terms, Lower Dauphin played a nearly perfect team game from start to finish, emphasis on "team." The coaching was excellent; McDevitt was constantly off-balance and often fooled by Klock's play calls and the subsequent superb executing. Proof: Lower Dauphin had equal amounts of rushing and passing yardage at 162 yards each. The offensive and defensive lines, thought to be overmatched, were simply fantastic, erasing McDevitt 's rushing game. Proof: McDevitt had 18 carries for 57 ineffective yards, while LD tailback Clint Fackler hammered the Crusaders for 21 muscular carries and 128 very effective yards. Even LD's punting was terrific: Backup Bryan Higgins, a soccer player with one previous varsity kick who was subbing for long-bombing Aren Johnson, twice nailed coffin-corner punts that severely hemmed in McDevitt 's pass-only offense. But, even on a day in which every Falcon was a star, junior Matt Ruffner rose above all else. Ruffner picked off three passes, all of which had huge impact. The first was a theft of a Marcus Stone fade to Vince Beamer, who played the entire second half with a likely broken thumb, that preserved LD's 14-7 lead in the second quarter. The second interception set up a short drive that resulted in Bryan Davis' 33-yard goal early in the fourth quarter that pushed LD's lead to 17-7. And the third, which came after Stone had connected with Ryan Taylor on two huge pass plays to close it to 17-14, effectively ended the game with 4:23 to play. "We came in looking to shut down their pass first," said Ruffner , who also completed eight of 15 passes for 162 yards and TDs of 20 yards to Chris Watts to open the scoring and a game-clinching 3-yarder to Max Bartlebaugh. "We felt if we could do that we'd be able to handle their run." Lower Dauphin never completely clamped McDevitt 's passing game -- Stone completed 17 of 38 for 311 yards, 10 of which went to Beamer for 212 yards -- but every yard McDevitt made was a struggle against the Falcons' aggressive defense.