September 25-On a day when their high-powered offense struggled, the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders relied on defense and special teams to gain a 27-20 victory over Harrisburg today at Severance Field. The Crusaders (3-0, 3-0 in Mid Penn Commonwealth Conference play) looked to be in command a number of times during the sloppily-played contest, but the Cougars (1-3, 1-3) refused to quit, and actually ended the game on the McDevitt 1 yard line. Only a gallant, hustling play by safety Vince Comasco and a pair of key stops by linebackers Dereck Michtich and Larondo Tucker prevented Harrisburg from stealing the win.The game began in a strangely subdued atmosphere, in contrast to the excitement and tension that usually accompanies a McDevitt-Harrisburg game. Perhaps it was the Crusader's odd 2 week mid-season layoff, brought on by the hurricane-caused cancellation of the Hollidaysburg game, that contributed to the subtle mood. Also, Harrisburg had been soundly whipped, 30-13, by Central Dauphin only 3 days earlier. In any event, both teams seemed to lack intensity as the game began.
The opening series started well for McDevitt. After Matt Vargo had returned a short kickoff 10 yards to the Crusader's 42 yard line, quarterback Jeremy Ricker hooked up with split end Mike Goldston for a 22 yard gain. Tailback LeSean McCoy, who ended up with 143 yards on 25 carries, broke off a 10 yard run, and then fullback Larondo Tucker followed with a rugged 12 yard plunge to the Harrisburg 14. The drive ended, however, when, two plays later, Ricker was intercepted in the end zone by the Cougar's Mikell Simpson. Harrisburg then launched its only sustained drive of the game, a 9 play possession that was halted by a leaping end zone interception by cornerback Aaron Berry. The turnover-fest continued when Ricker fumbled a center exchange (a consistent problem this year for the Crusaders) and Harrisburg recovered on the McDevitt 12. Three plays later, Cougar quarterback Brian Smoot found former McDevitt wideout Justin Taylor for an 11 yard touchdown pass to give the Cougars a 6-0 lead with 4:08 remaining in the first quarter. Then the Crusaders came to life. McCoy broke loose for 24 yards on the play after the kickoff and Harrisburg was hit with a personal foul penalty. After an incompletion and 2 McCoy carries for 8 yards, McDevitt was faced with a fourth-and 2 at the Cougar 11. McCoy took the handoff and swept right. Wideout Jimmy Owen's wipeout block on the cornerback cleared the way for McCoy to coast into the endzone, and Mike Comasco's PAT gave the Crusaders a 7-6 lead.
Throughout the game the McDevitt defense kept tremendous pressure on Cougar quarterback Smoot, and the first quarter ended with defensive end Brian Weisser sacking Smoot for a 12 yard loss. After Michtich's heavy rush forced Smoot to throw an incompletion, the Cougars punted to midfield. On the next play, Ricker found
Goldston all alone behind the Harrisburg secondary, but the Senior couldn't handle Ricker's perfectly-thrown pass. The Crusaders were forced to punt back to Harrisburg but another fine defensive stop, this time keyed by a Tucker sack, made the Cougars punt the ball right back. Two plays later, from the McDevitt 43, Ricker ran a 5 yard keeper and Harrisburg was called for another 15 yard personal foul. McCoy then took a deep pitch and headed for the left sideline. He dipped in toward the line of scrimmage, then sprinted around left end untouched for a 36 yard scoring run that stretched the McDevitt lead to 14-6. On the Cougar's next series, Harrisburg Coach George Chaump decided to feature the Smoot-Taylor combination. The plan backfired after 2 completions when Aaron Berry snatched a tipped pass and streaked 37 yards for a touchdown with 8:32 left in the half. Defensive tackle Jason Kates was the star of the next defensive series, dropping Harrisburg fullback Eric Brickus for a 2 yard loss and combining with linebacker Lawrence Edward on another sack. The Crusaders then moved into Cougar territory on the strength of a 15 yard Brandon Brown reception, but turned the ball over for the third time in the half when Ricker was intercepted at the 20. The aroused McDevitt defense rose up again. First Tucker sacked Smoot, but was tagged with a questionable personal foul penalty. Then Tucker dropped Simpson for a 7 yard loss. After an incompletion forced by the onrushing Sebastian Sullivan, defensive end David Dunn sacked Smoot yet again. Aaron Berry's fine 29 yard punt return set the Crusaders up at the Harrisburg 40 for one last scoring chance before the half ended. Ricker completed 3 consecutive passes to move the ball to the 25, but Mike Comasco's booming 43 yard field goal attempt was wide left. The Crusaders left the field with a 20-6 halftime lead.The 3rd quarter began with another McDevitt defensive stop, but the Crusader's initial second half possession was hampered by another fumbled center exchange and a 10 yard loss by Aaron Berry. After McDevitt's first punt of the game, the Cougars took possession at the Harrisburg 29. Smoot quickly hit Simpson over the middle with a high pass that Simpson gathered in at midfield. Two missed tackles and some shifty running later, Simpson had scored. Following Smoot's successful keeper on the 2 point conversion, the McDevitt lead had shrunk to 20-14 with 8:48 left in the third quarter. On the ensuing kickoff, Goldston gathered in the bouncing pigskin on his own 19 and headed straight upfield. He made one sharp move at the 45 and then sprinted past the Harrisburg coverage for an 81 yard touchdown return. Comasco's kick made the score 27-14 and marked the last Crusader point of the day. The defense stood tall on the next series when Tucker and Sullivan combined to flatten Smoot for a 9 yard sack and Sullivan followed with pressure that forced an incompletion. The McDevitt offense kept misfiring, though, as a sack and another fumbled snap caused the Crusaders to punt again, this time a 27 yarder to the Harrisburg 46. The Cougars tried a ground attack this time, and moved 22 yards on 4 plays. But the McDevitt "D" was again up to the challenge, as defensive tackle Mike Berry stopped a Brickus dive 1 yard short of a first down as the 3rd quarter ended. The change of direction didn't solve McDevitt's offensive woes. A substitution penalty and a missed handoff that resulted in a 7 yard loss were the culprits this time, leading to another short punt. The rampaging Sullivan singlehandedly
stopped Harrisburg on the next series, forcing an incompletion and dropping Smoot for another sack, this time a 12 yarder. Regaining possession at their own 20, the Crusaders advanced the ball without a penalty or a fumble, but a Ricker-to-Goldston completion came up inches short of a first down. Forced to punt for the 4th straight time, Ricker boomed a 40 yard punt to Simpson, who picked the ball up at his own 31. Dodging past would-be tacklers, Simpson returned the punt all the way to the McDevitt 7 yard line, a 62 yard effort. Brickus blasted in for the score on the next play, but was stopped short of the goal line on the conversion attempt. The score was now 27-20 with 7:07 left to play, and the familiar tension of a McDevitt-Harrisburg contest had returned in a hurry. The Crusaders continued their second half offensive futility with another 3-and-out, but Ricker's fine punt rolled dead at the Harrisburg 11. The Cougars, hampered by an illegal block penalty, couldn't advance, so Harrisburg punted for the 8th time of the game. When Aaron Berry returned the short kick 21 yards to the Harrisburg 24, it looked like the Crusaders would put the finishing touches on a close victory with 2:36 left in the game. McDevitt gained its only first down of the half after 2 McCoy runs and a Harrisburg offside penalty, but the Cougars used the rest of their timeouts to stop the clock and some spirited defense to regain possession at the Cougar 14 with 1:40 left on the clock. On the first play, Tucker smothered a screen pass to Simpson for a 5 yard loss. The next play was a pass play broken up by Greg Williams, who had entered the game in place of the injured Aaron Berry. Then Smoot launched a deep pass down the right sideline, in front of the McDevitt bench. The Cougar's Brian Peterson leaped up and made the near-impossible catch as the McDevitt faithful gasped and the Harrisburg fans exploded in glee. Peterson appeared to have a clear path to the end zone, but safety Vince Comasco was giving chase. The Junior safety never gave up the chase and finally tracked Peterson down at the McDevitt 4 yard line with 47 seconds remaning. The stadium was now in total bedlam as the McDevitt defense dug in. Brickus took a handoff and bulled his way to the 2, but a procedure penalty moved the Cougars back to the 9. Smoot then dropped back to 
pass, but was hurried by the ceaseless Crusader pass rush. He sprinted for the left corner of the end zone, but was run out of bounds at the 2. On the next play Chaump tried a dive to Brickus, but he ran into a logjam created by the burrowing Mike Berry and Kates. Brickus tried to move off tackle, but was flattened by Michtich and Tucker. The clock was still running but the Cougars were out of time outs. Smoot hurried his team to the line of scrimmage and took the snap with 4 seconds left. The quarterback momentarily bobbled the ball, then tried to dive across the goal line. He ran smack into the charging Tucker and Michtich and never penetrated past the 1 yard line as the clock ran out and McDevitt players sprinted to the middle of the field for a much-deserved celebration.The Crusaders next game is Friday, October 1st, at Carlisle. Game time at Millen Stadium is 7:30 PM
QUOTES
Head Coach Jeff Weachter:
First of all I'm upset about Aaron Berry's pretty serious injury. I was happy up until the punt return; I thought the special teams played unbelievable today. Offensively, we got the running game going. The first two weeks we had the passing game going and the running game needed work. Now, for whatever reason, the running game is OK and the passing game needs work. I think it was our drops early and then we started to tighten up a little bit. Maybe we were trying too hard. You know, Mike had that kid beat, but the one he dropped and Jeremy underthrew the other one. Then we had a breakdown in protection. On the middle screen we had them in a blitz but couldn't hold on to the ball.. On the long pass at the end of the game, well, the kid just outjumped us for the ball. We had two kids there in a prevent defense. Other than that the defense was great. Comasco's tackle was a great hustle play. We can talk about the goal line stand but if Vince doesn't make that play we don't have a goal line stand. We're gong to go see Carlisle tonight against Cumberland Valley. They have speed which always scares you. Anytime you have athletes you're never out of a game and Carlisle has some athletes.
Assistant Coach Dave Weachter
I thought our special teams played a lot better, with the exception of that long punt return. Before that I was excited because I thought we were totally outplaying them. We were trying to make amends for last year, the way the special teams played in this game. I have to give our kids credit. It's tough when they have a kid like that (Simpson) back there. He's catching the ball on every kick so he's bound to make a play. Other than that they did a terrific job. The frustrating thing with Mike Goldston is that in practice he's a totally different player this year, catching everything that's thrown to him and he's had two real good games. He came off the sidelines after that one miss and said, "Coach, what do I do?" And I said, "Catch the ball!" It's that simple. I did tell him that he would make a big play somewhere along the way for us. This was kind of like a couple of years ago when they had us in that same situation and won it in overtime, but give Coach Berry a lot of credit for the way the defense saved the game.
Safety Vince Comasco
On that long pass, they threw the ball down the sideline. I started going over there and I thought we were going to pick it off or knock it down or something, but I kept moving over there. Somehow he caught it and hung onto it. I chased him all the way down the sideline. I was pretty sure I was going to get him and I finally caught up to him at the 5. I thought the defense played great today. It was a total team effort.
DE Sebastian Sullivan
Their offensive line was pretty young and inexperienced. We really got to them early. I used the bull rush and the swim, all of my moves. I was really happy with my performance. On those last two plays, the dive to Brickus was a great play by Michtich to stuff him at the goal line. On the last play it was a great job by Kates and Michtich again to stop the quarterback. We have Carlisle next week and we hear that they're pretty good but we'll see what happens.
DE Brian Weisser
Hey, I just do my job. I'm a wedge buster on the kickoff team and my job is to break the wedge. Like coach says, a starter on special teams is a starter in his book. When I got in at defensive end Harrisburg would try to block you inside. All you had to do was muscle them up. Like Sully said, they were young and inexperienced. It was easy to push them back
G/DT Mike Berry
We knew coming in that they had a young line so we did a good job. Sebastian on the right side, he's going to be something special. He kept getting me my tackles by rushing and keeping Smoot in the pocket. It was beautiful. All of the ends did a good job, they all kept contain; Weisser, Dietz, Sullivan, Dunn, they're all good. On those last two plays, well, that's something you dream of when you go to sleep at night. I'm at a loss for words!
TE/LB Derek Michtich
It was absolutely amazing on the part of our defense. I'm so proud of our defense, the way we came together and stopped them on the 1 yard line, I couldn't believe it. Absolutely amazing! As for the details, I can't honestly tell you. We root-hogged it, everyone came together and we stopped him.
FB/LB Larondo Tucker
On those last plays, we pretty much knew what they were going to do. If it wasn't the dive it was going to be the veer, the option, so our coach put us in the position to win the game with good defense. He never got close on that last dive. He was on the 1 or 2 yard line.
TB LeSean McCoy
I got up at 8 and went and got treatment for my ankle and taped it well and it feels good. We came out and played hard, aggressive. Larondo Tucker and our defense played great today. It shouldn't have gotten so close but we missed a couple of passes and they got a lucky pass. We could have blown them out, but we won. In the second half they did a lot of run blitzes but we had a lot of missed handoffs, mental mistakes, stuff like that. On that second touchdown it was a toss, I came in then I came back out. I like to use my speed and I know if I come in then back out they'll miss me. It worked, it was a good call. Everybody was stacked in and I broke it out.