BY ROD FRISCO Of The Patriot-News First there was the dull sense of surprise. Then there was the inevitable humility. But, at the end, LeSean McCoy, an ice pack riding on his neck, permitted himself a self-satisfied smile. He was entitled. Yesterday, the Bishop McDevitt sophomore did something no runner has done in 110 years of recorded midstate scholastic football history: He rushed for a record 406 yards. From Our Advertiser Exquisite and explosive, McCoy tore across Susquehanna Twp.'s Roscoe Warner Field 31 times against once-beaten Red Land and scored five times on runs of 72, 60, 65, 9 and 38 yards in McDevitt's 48-27 triumph.
McCoy's total broke the presumed midstate single-game rushing record of 402 by Upper Dauphin's Jim Savage on Sept. 8, 2000, against Millersburg. There is no documented evidence of a higher rushing total in midstate history, although yardage records before the 1960s are very spotty. McCoy, who has 1,137 yards rushing this season, missed the state record of 455 yards, set by Connellsville's Marcus Furman in 2000, by just 50 yards; he sat the game's last six minutes. His effort was so overwhelming that the victory by McDevitt (3-2 overall, 3-1 Mid-Penn Commonwealth Division) nearly became subplot to McCoy's astounding exhibition. "I knew LeSean was capable of this," Bishop McDevitt head coach Jeff Weachter said. "I just didn't know it would be this year." "I've never seen anything quite like that," said unsmiling Red Land head coach Frank Gay. Yesterday, the circumstances were ripe for this kind of show.
Red Land (3-2, 2-2) was already thin in both lines thanks to significant injuries. Then, on the second play of the game, one of the Patriots' few remaining senior linemen, Devin Leeper, was knocked unconscious when his helmet met McCoy's knee. Leeper suffered a concussion and left strapped to a back board, an all-too-familiar sight for Red Land fans this year. Mortally weakened, Red Land's front was simply no match for McDevitt's 300-pounders and McCoy's world-class inside-out move. "I've been doing [those moves] since pee-wees and midgets," McCoy said. "So that's nothing new. But today I had a lot of space to run. Big holes."
Yes. Big holes. McCoy naturally gave a verbal pat on the head to his linemen ("They keep me humble," he said), then acknowledged greater satisfaction with McDevitt's second straight victory than his record performance. "Those yards don't mean anything if we don't win," said McCoy. For a while, that victory was in doubt. Although McDevitt's dominant defensive front limited Red Land to just 42 net yards rushing, Red Land quarterback Robbie Agnone was superb. Constantly harassed even in the shotgun and three-step drop, Agnone completed 19 of 36 passes for 263 yards and three touchdowns and used eight receivers in the process. Agnone also scored on a 30-yard draw. Red Land had an early 13-7 lead and forged a 27-27 tie early in the third quarter on Agnone's 37-yard pass to Colin Resetar. But McDevitt scored the last three touchdowns of the game on McCoy's 9- and 38-yard runs and a game-breaking 25-yard wide receiver screen from Jeremy Ricker to Mike Goldston. The latter came on fourth-and-8 early in the fourth quarter with McDevitt leading just 34-27 at the time.