October 4- This morning’s matchup between the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders and the Central Dauphin Rams was expected to be a battle of evenly matched teams. Instead, the Crusaders were clearly the better squad in beating the Rams, 31-19. After spotting the Rams a 10-0 lead early in the first quarter, McDevitt roared back to dominate both sides of the line, assembling touchdown drives of 80, 74 and 72 yards. The rapidly-improving Crusader defense stunted the Ram’s offense with spirited line play and effective secondary coverage. Sophomore sensation LeSean McCoy continued his astounding 2003 season by rushing for 296 yards and 2 touchdowns on 36 carries. Quarterback Jeremy Ricker was quietly effective, targeting 5 completions including touchdown strikes to Jeremy Smith (30 yards) and Mike Goldston (32 yards), as the offensive line provided gaping holes for McCoy and plenty of time for Ricker. Defensively, Middle Linebacker Derrick Michtish had his best game and Cornerback Ryan Williams contributed 2 interceptions. Michtish and Defensive End Mike Mitchell contributed key sacks as the Crusader pass rush hounded CD Quarterback Kevin Rombach.

The game, played under threatening skies after a rainy evening, began well for the Rams. On their second possession, CD marched to the McDevitt 11 before stalling and settling for a 28 yard field goal. Then, following a Crusader fumble at their own 30, CD scored in 3 plays, finishing with a 16 yard Rombach-to- Scott Moore touchdown pass. Then McDevitt took control of the game. Starting at their 20, 2 McCoy blasts netted 17 yards. Then Ricker found Goldston for 22 yards to the CD 42. McCoy then ripped off one of his dazzling runs that are becoming so familiar to the McDevitt faithful. He popped through a big hole on the left side and outraced the secondary for the score. After Smith’s PAT, the lead had narrowed to 10-7. Michtish’s sack thwarted the Ram’s next drive, forcing a punt to the Crusader 28. Five straight McCoy carries moved the sticks to the CD 30 before Ricker fired a perfect pass to the corner of the end zone. Smith gathered it in and McDevitt had a lead it wouldn’t relinquish, 14-10.

When McCoy returned the second half kickoff 59 yards to the Ram 31, the Crusaders were threatening again. On fourth down, Coach Jeff Weachter call a wide receiver screen. Goldstone caught the Ram defense by surprise, gathering in Ricker’s short toss and sprinting 32 yards for the score at the10:09 mark. The Rams responded by moving to the McDevitt 32 and added a 49 yard Tony Bernados field goal to make it 21-13. After a 10 play Crusader drive ended in a fumble, the McDevitt defense got the ball back on William’s clever interception at the CD 30. From there, the Crusaders moved to the 6 and Smith drilled his first field goal of the year, a 23 yarder. CD’s last gasp was a 7 play touchdown drive capped by Jordan Manning’s 2 yard run. McDevitt answered by plowing 74 yards in 7 plays for the final margin, the capper being another McCoy gem, this time for 39 yards. Williams sealed the important victory with a goal line pick to finish the game. The Crusaders, now 4-2 (4-1 in the Mid Penn Commonwealth Division), next face Chambersburg on Friday, October 10th. Game time at Chambersburg is 7:30 PM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

Our defense played real well. CD really wouldn’t have gotten much at all if we didn’t turn the ball over. We made some changes this week, played more zone, and we mixed it with some man free, some man. I’m really pleased with their effort. We went to a 4-2-5, and, because we lost Tucker, we moved Doug Ritter inside. It’s like 2 middle linebackers and 5 defensive backs and it worked out well for us. We were actually planning on coming out throwing the ball, but then we had this muck. Then we saw that they had changed their defense from what we practiced against all week, so it was a little bit of an adjustment. They were essentially playing 9 men against the run, so, instead of spreading them out we had our receivers go one-on-one. Jeremy Ricker is really starting to come into his own. He’s throwing the ball out, where earlier in the year he was throwing the ball too high and it was being underthrown. Now he’s laying the ball out, so we’re going to catch it or nobody is. With our speed we’re going to run under it, so we’re happy to play one-on-one on the outside. The touchdown to Jeremy Smith was a great throw. The offensive line did a great job. We told them that last drive, “Hey, you’re going to win the game for us here.” So we ran the time down and, yes, I’m definitely pleased with the offensive line. The young kids are getting better every week and they’re starting to understand the game. Derrick Michtish, as a first-year starter at middle linebacker, is really starting to come into his own. Coming into this year, our goal was to get better each week. I think we’re doing that.

Assistant Coach Shawn Lee

The kids came out ready to play. We knew we had to improve in the secondary, so the coaches tried to give the younger guys some help by playing a lot of man free, and they stepped up, recognized the “O” and played a good game today. We wanted to get pressure on the QB and the “D” line played hard and, as you know, the “D” line can make the secondary’s job a lot easier. I think we’re getting better. We’re watching film to see what areas we’re weak in. We’ve got a lot of young guys that are getting a lot of experience and I think they’re gelling.

OT Nate Dade

We all know Shady gets all the press but the more yards he gets the more it makes us look better and better. Personally, I like to take it game by game, play by play. I’m still not satisfied with myself because, you should hear in film session, I get chewed up! But I feel that I’ve been making a lot of progress. It feels good to beat Central Dauphin.

TE/DE Kevin Mitchell

This feels real good. This is my first time as a starter to beat CD. I’m friends with Kevin (Rombach) but, you know, it’s always competition so I did my best to take him down, but after the game it just friends again. We wanted this one real bad since last year. We knew we had it in our hands so we just went out and took control of the game.

CB/WR/PR Ryan Williams

The first interception, I went out with number 9 and then I saw the QB rolling out; then he stopped so I knew he was going to pull up and throw. I just read his eyes the whole time and just picked it off. On the second one, I knew we couldn’t go much farther because we were down by the end zone, so I stopped, he stopped. I cut in front of the pass; I had a good break. I thought I was going to go all the way. We were real hyped for the game, we were really ready. When we got down 10-0 it really didn’t faze us. Right now, the sky’s the limit for us. The coaches were down on the defensive backs but we stepped up big time today!

G/DT Uriah Aviles

We came out determined to win today. No one was going to stop us. We had a good pass rush. A couple of times we got in there, other times they kept us out. We’re still working on it. On offense, when the running back gets all those yards, that’s where we get our love at.

LB/WR/K Jeremy Smith

On the touchdown, well, every time I was going out deep, the safety was just sitting there, so Jeremy (Ricker) put it out there deep. He wasn’t even on me so it was an easy catch. It wasn’t a big adjustment moving to linebacker because I played there at Susquehanna, and that was outside linebacker, too. We were ready for this game. We had a good practice every day. We were ready for this team.

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