October 15- Employing a quick-strike passing attack and a suffocating defense, the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders made quick work of the visiting Altoona Mountain Lions, 43-6, this afternoon at McDevitt Field. The Crusaders now stand on top of the Mid Penn Commonwealth Division with a 6-0 record (7-0 overall) with 3 games remaining in the regular season. Today’s contest was decided quickly, as McDevitt posted 36 first half points and then scored on its first play of the second half to invoke the “Mercy Rule”, sending the Homecoming crowd scurrying home to watch college football. Quarterback Jeremy Ricker had a near-flawless game, completing 9 of 11 passes to 4 different receivers for 195 yards and 4 touchdowns with 1 interception. Aaron Berry was the recipient of 3 of those scoring tosses, and finished with 5 catches for 142 yards. Brandon Brown added a 12 yard scoring reception and Mike Comasco chipped in with 2 grabs for 38 yards. Ricker enjoyed plenty of time to throw, courtesy of the McDevitt offensive line, which also provided running room for Crusader backs Mike Jones and Dave Onorato. Both players had 8 carries, with Jones gaining 54 yards and 2 TD’s and Onorato netting 38 yards. The McDevitt defense continued to improve, holding Altoona to 82 total yards and forcing 3 turnovers (2 interceptions, 1 fumble). The defense also got on the scoreboard for the first time this year when Chris Henderson sacked Altoona QB A.J. Alexander for a safety, and Vince Comasco had McDevitt’s first blocked punt in recent memory. Linebackers Leon Black, Keith Davis and Pat Berry continue to roam the field in search of bone-jarring hits, and the defensive line, bolstered by some promising newcomers, tallied 4 sacks.

McDevitt received the opening kickoff and scored in less than 2 minutes. Jones’ snazzy 46 yard kick return spotted the ball on the ALT 44.The sophomore speedster then ran for 4 yards and, after a rare incomplete pass, Ricker targeted Mike Comasco for an 18 yard gain and a first down. Jones ran for 7 more and then followed blocks by Sebastian Sullivan and Jason Kates through the line of scrimmage. Once in the Mountain Lions’ secondary, Jones skillfully weaved his way 15 yards for the game’s initial score. Mike Comasco added the Pat and McDevitt had the lead, 7-0 with 10:24 left in the opening quarter. Altoona’s first series resulted in 2 short runs and an incompletion, so the Lions punted to the MCD 33, where Mike Comasco (him again?) scrambled for a 10 yard return. On the next play Ricker fired a frozen rope down the right sideline that Aaron Berry gathered in at the ALT 45. Berry easily evaded the late-arriving safety and cruised 57 yards to push the Crusader advantage to 14-0. Altoona’s offense had its only success of the game on its next possession. From the ALT 24, Joe Mummert took a short pitch and circled left end for a 37 yard gain. Two plays later, an 8 yard Alexander gain combined with a McDevitt personal foul penalty advanced the pigskin to the MCD 17. One play later Alexander, an exciting sophomore with a bright future, wriggled 15 yards for Altoona’s only touchdown. The PAT was missed, so the McDevitt lead was trimmed to 14-6 at the 6:05 mark. The Crusaders moved to midfield on the next series but ended up punting, a booming Ricker kick that went for a touchback. Altoona tried some trickery on the next play. Darrell Morris took a handoff but stopped to toss a throwback pass. McDevitt’s Chris Henderson wasn’t fooled, though, and flattened Morris for an 8 yard loss. One play later David Dunn pounced on an Altoona fumble at the ALT 14 and McDevitt was poised to score again. But a Ricker pass, intended for Berry, was picked off by Altoona’s Steve Pierce at the 2 yard line. After a short gain, Henderson burst through the Mountain Lion pass protection and smothered Alexander for a safety and a 16-6 McDevitt lead. Jones returned the free kick 10 yards to the MCD 33 and Ricker promptly found Berry for a 42 yard gain as the quarter ended. Jones began the fresh quarter with a 17 yard run and one play later Ricker again targeted Berry, made a dandy one-handed grab for the touchdown. Now leading 23-6, the McDevitt defense became even more aggressive. Flushed by a strong pass rush from reserve defensive end Dante Ushery, a freshman, Alexander ran into a 9 yard sack by Leon Black and Altoona punted again. The ensuing McDevitt scoring drive covered 47 yards in 6 plays. Dave Onorato did the heavy work, carrying 4 times for 28 yards, and Ricker and Berry finished it off with an 18 yard scoring play that found Berry all alone in the McDevitt end zone, pushing the McDevitt bulge to 29-6. Altoona began its next possession on its own 25 and went backward fast. First Davis dropped Alexander for a 5 yard loss on an option, and then Dave Seiple flattened Morris for no gain. On the next play Davis again overwhelmed Alexander, this time sacking him for a 15 yard loss. The Altoona punt that followed only netted 28 yards, so the Crusaders were again knocking on the door. Ricker started by dropping off a screen pass to Mike Comasco that was good for 20 yards. The senior signal caller then finished the short drive by finding a slanting Brandon Brown for a 12 yard scoring strike. When the PAT was uncharacteristically botched, McDevitt’s lead held at 36-6 with 3:55 left in the half. Altoona went nowhere on its final series and the half ended with McDevitt running out the clock.

The festive halftime ceremonies saw Alexandra Pippa named Homecoming Queen as the McDevitt partisans cheered in approval. Altoona then managed one first down on its initial series of the second half before succumbing to the Crusader pass rush. As the Lions started to punt from the ALT 25, Vince Comasco bolted into the backfield from the right end position and blocked the punt, the ball rolling out-of-bounds on the 8 yard line. Jones strolled in for the score on the next play and, following the successful PAT, McDevitt had a 43-6 lead, invoking the “Mercy Rule” and its running game clock. The rest of the game was a blur, highlighted by Ricker retiring for the day in favor of Vince Comasco; the Crusader defense tacking on 2 interceptions ( Teron Strawbridge and Evan McGovern); and flashy play by reserves Brian Christman, Vince Lochetto, Brett Quigley, Terrence Beamer and Jarrod Henley. The game ended McDevitt taking a knee at midfield.

Next week McDevitt travels to Central Dauphin’s Landis Field for a Saturday night contest against the 5-2 Central Dauphin Rams. The game will be televised regionally, the 4^th time McDevitt has been televised this year. The October 22nd contest is scheduled to kick off at 7:15 PM.          

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

I was real pleased with our performance today. You know, I was worried because we had to stay indoors all week because of the rain. When you’re indoors it’s not real intense and I didn’t think we had a good week of practice. I was worried about this game because Altoona’s not a bad football team. They should have beaten State College. Since Shady went down we haven’t been real efficient on offense but we’re playing so many guys out of position and in new positions, and we’re playing a lot of sophomores. We changed the offense quite a bit with a lot of new formations and different patterns. Guys were getting confused, especially on pass blocking, but we got that straightened out and we pretty much did what we wanted to do today. We put in stuff that we never used because the basic stuff was working so well. I challenged the offensive line because they’ve been blocking well for the run and I wanted to see improvement in pass protection. It worked out because one of the things you can work on inside is pass protection, so we worked on different sets, different formations. It’s not easy because we probably have 8 different pass protections, so we cut that down a little and gave them every conceivable blitz they could see and it paid off. One thing we didn’t do a good job of last week, as coaches, was adjusting to coverages. When we’re in a pro set, which is our best running formation, teams are playing “Cover 2” in the secondary and we let their coverage take away a lot of our passing game. We came back this week and we found some “Cover 2” beaters, like the one that Aaron caught down the sideline. Jeremy made a great throw there, where we want him to drill it in at about 13 to 15 yards downfield, between the corner and the safety. If you put air under the ball there the safety will get over. We have other things we worked on, too. We decided that we’re not going to let other teams dictate our offense. It’s the same with us spreading out and worrying about the blitz. We have about 20 screens we put in and you saw a couple of them today. There again, that’s something you can work on in the gym. The screens will slow down the blitzes.

On defense, Keith Davis is just playing unbelievable. He’s a leader out on the field for us; he got in some time last year in our nickel package and this year he’s doing a great job. He’s so physical this year. He opened our eyes last year when Lawrence Edward got hurt in the Pittsburgh Central Catholic game. Keith made a big hit there and it got us thinking about how to use him when we were planning in the off season, and then he did work extremely hard. Leon’s just been playing great and the last 2 games Pat Berry has really been playing well. I don’t know if the defense read the headlines a little too much this week because they didn’t have intensity in practice and Altoona caught us a little before we adjusted. The big thing, though, is the kids woke up and hopefully they learned their lesson. You have to practice hard no matter how many bouquets the media is throwing your way. I’ve seen Central Dauphin a number of times this year, live and on tape and on television. We’re going to have our work cut out for us.     

Assistant Coach Corey Jett

We were confident today against Altoona despite practicing indoors all week. I think we played well, I think we played hard today. We’re looking forward to next week. We definitely want to make our depth chart thick with experience. Dante Ushery played well in his first game today and Chris Henderson had another great game. We have to get a lot of guys ready to prepare for the playoffs, so those guys have to play. Our younger guys on the defensive line are really fast and really strong so I think they did the job. We didn’t lose a step without Brian Weisser (at his brother’s wedding), but you could tell he wasn’t there and we need him here for next week.

RB/KR Mike Jones

There was real nice blocking on the first kickoff return. They had a hole for me and I was just trying to get as much yardage as I could. I’m also feeling a lot more comfortable with our offense. I’m getting used to it and just trying to show what I can do. The holes are there; I just have to make the right cuts and read more. As far as taking over for Shady, I’m just trying to have fun with it, to remember that it’s still just a game. My teammates have confidence in me and I have confidence in them so, with or without Shady, we’re still going to do what we can do. Central Dauphin? I’ll talk about that after we play them.   

DE David Dunn

Our defense is great. The defensive line, the linebackers and the DB’s are all playing well. And once the offense gets the ball, well, it’s all good. The rotation on the line is good. It keeps everyone from getting tired and it helps to get us going. Next week will be a tough game. Central Dauphin beat us in the first game last year so we’re going to have to come out and play hard from the beginning.

OT Carlos Mera

It was a good game. We didn’t have such a good week of practice, being indoors, but we did OK in the game. This is basically my first year since I haven’t played since 9^th grade so I’m still learning, but I’m catching on. For Central Dauphin, we’ll be looking forward to it.

LB Pat Berry

Since the beginning of the year the linebackers have gained a lot more confidence. We did well on JV’s last year so we just had to step it up a little bit more for varsity, come ready to play every week. We all have good speed and we fly to the ball. We were well-prepared but we had a lackadaisical week of practice, but we still were ready at game time. I don’t like CD so I’ll be ready for next week.

LB Keith Davis

I’ve got some anger in me. I’m mad! I knew I should have started last year but I slacked off, so this year I want to bring it all out. I came to every off-season workout, I lifted hard and ran hard. Look at me now! I’m having fun out there, yes sir. It’s a fun game. Altoona wasn’t bad, but we played harder than they did. For CD next week, we’ll have a hard week of practice and hopefully come out with a victory.

WR/DB/K Mike Comasco

Coach Weachter told me at the beginning of the year that he was going to try to work me into the offense whenever he could. I think that’s what he’s doing now so I’m happy. I’m comfortable in the wide receiver spot. We can open up the offense when we want to with all of the good receivers we have, plus Jeremy’s pretty good at spreading it around. On the missed extra point, I think the snap was a little bit wide and Vince didn’t get a good grip on it so it fell to the ground.       

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