Amid Deluge, Young Crusaders Drop Opener
August
30th-The 2003 high school football season started with a loss today for the
Bishop McDevitt Crusaders. They dropped their opener, 32-18, to a fine State
College squad amid a torrential second-half downpour. The Little Lions took
advantage of injuries and inexperience in the Crusader secondary to score 22
first-half points, then turned to their hustling defense to seal the win in the
soggy second half.
For McDevitt, there were a number of bright spots despite the loss. Sophomore Tailback LeSean McCoy, following in the recent tradition of standout runners like Jesse Pitt, Dave Dawson and Brad Sersch, dazzled the home crowd by rushing for 217 yards and 2 touchdowns, gaining 21 yards on 2 receptions and adding a 99 yard kickoff return for a score. Sophomore Quarterback Jeremy Ricker showed poise and precision in targeting 8 short completions out of 14 attempts for 55 yards. The offensive line, led by Senior Tackle Jamie Thomas, showed fine coordination for such a young unit, blasting holes for the slippery McCoy and giving Ricker time to throw. On defense, the Linebackers, including Junior Larondo Tucker and Senior Doug Ritter, were the key to holding State College to 91 yards rushing on 31 carries. The defensive line, while unable to sustain a consistent pass rush, aided in that effort, with Senior Tackle Uriah Aviles leading the charge. Despite the adverse weather conditions, the Crusaders only committed 3 penalties in their first game of the year, but were hampered by 5 turnovers (2 interceptions, 3 fumbles)
When
McDevitt could only muster one first down after taking the opening kickoff,
State College drove 59 yards in 5 plays to score first, on a 33 yard touchdown
pass from Quarterback Kevin Suhey to elusive Running Back Scott Koch. The
successful PAT gave The Little Lions a 7-0 lead at 6:52 in the first quarter.
McCoy took the ensuing kickoff at his own 1 yard line, sprinted to the 20, then
made 2 quick lateral moves to shake would-be tacklers. Crossing the 40 along the
left sideline, he turned on the jets and outran his pursuers for the score. When
the extra point attempt was blocked, McDevitt had narrowed the lead to 7-6 at
the 6:37 mark. State College answered with a 7-play, 67 yard scoring drive,
topped by a 22 yard Suhey-to-Ian Stringer scoring strike, to extend the lead to
13-6 with 2:06 left in the quarter. The young McDevitt secondary suffered from
the loss of Senior Cornerback Ryan Williams, who was sidelined with an injury.
After fumbles and penalties stalled both teams’ efforts to start the 2nd quarter, McDevitt was back in business at their own 21.A short McCoy run and a 6 yard Ricker-to-Jeremy Smith hookup gave the Crusaders a 3rd and 1 situation. Coach Jeff Weachter called McCoy’s number again, and the 5’11”, 200 lb. speedster responded with a twisting 52 yard effort to the State College 30. Two plays later he blasted over the goal line from the 9 for his second TD of the day. The PAT was blocked yet again, giving the Little Lions a 13-12 advantage with 6:18 left in the half. State College again came right back to score, this time on a 7 play, 59 yard series, capped by backup Quarterback Brady Hart’s 20 yard scoring pass to Stringer. Trailing 19-7, McDevitt couldn’t move the ball and punted to State College. With little time left in the half, Hart and Koch hooked up for a 73 yard bomb to the Crusader 2. The defense stiffened valliantly, keyed by Defensive End Cedric Bowling’s 6 yard sack of Hart, but Jay Harding converted a 26 yard field goal as time expired to give State College a 22-12 halftime advantage
Then
the rains came. The 3rd quarter opened with a flurry of fumbles and mistakes by
both teams, as the players struggled for their footing in the downpour. After an
exchange of punts, McDevitt started from their own 18 late in the quarter. On
second down, Ricker floated a pass for Smith in the slot. Stringer stepped in
front of the throw and strolled the 20 yards to paydirt. The PAT left State
College with an insurmountable 29-12 advantage, considering the monsoon-like
weather. But McDevitt wouldn’t quit. On the 4th play of the following drive,
McCoy worked his magic again, dashing and darting 61 yards for his 3rd score of
the contest to narrow the advantage to 29-18. But the Crusaders would get no
closer, bothered by the slippery ball and a questionable clipping penalty, which
erased a sparkling 48 yard Mike Goldston punt return. The final margin was
provided by a 22 yard Harding field goal, after McDevitt’s 3rd rain-induced
fumble. The Crusaders next game is Saturday, September 6th, at McDevitt Field
against CD East. Kickoff is scheduled for 10:30 AM.
QUOTES
HEAD COACH JEFF WEACHTER
The coaches have watched film of a lot of teams and seen a lot of teams lately, and State College is better than most of them. They played a fine game under difficult conditions. We missed Ryan Williams. He was one of the best cover guys in the league last year, and we’re so young in the secondary that we really missed him. We covered their motion in practice but our inexperience in game conditions really hurt. We’re still behind because of missing that first scrimmage but we’ll get better. We made some mistakes, but we were much better in the second half after we made some adjustments. Of course the weather affected both teams in the second half. McCoy is going to have a great year. He worked hard in the off season to get better and he is already improved from last year. Ricker didn’t do bad under the circumstances. He was steady for us, but it was just so difficult in the second half in that rain. I’m a little disappointed in some of our tackling and thought we could get a consistent pass rush, but that’s another part of our game that is suffering from that missed scrimmage.
ASSISTANT COACH MIKE KEISTER
We’re going to have to pick it up in practice, since we want to be prepared for next week. State College played well; they are well coached and have a real good program. They responded to their injuries really well. We had some miscommunication, especially in the first half; that hurt us but we’ll work on that.
TACKLE JAMIE THOMAS
You know, we have a young team and some of us were a little tense but, overall, I thought we did pretty good. We are playing a lot of sophomores in key positions and they did OK. We are going to have to work hard in practice and we’ll get back on track. I don’t think anyone is down or giving up or anything like that.
LINEBACKER DOUG RITTER
We played hard, so we just have to keep our heads up. With one loss we can still do everything; we can still win the state championship. We will be playing hard all year, but this is a disappointment.
LINEBACKER LARONDO TUCKER
I thought it was a good game with a lot of hitting. We did make a lot of mistakes at the beginning. State College was a good team and we played them hard.
TIGHT END MIKE MITCHELL
Well, there were some good things and some bad things. We have some mistakes to correct before we face a strong CD East team next week. We have a lot of work to do since we want to get to where we are dominating like last year.