November 19- The Hempfield Black Knights came to Harrisburg's Severance Field with two goals in mind: gain respect after being humbled by Bishop McDevitt (56-21) last year, and upset the #1 seeded Crusaders in the District 3/6 Class AAAA playoffs. Hempfield achieved one of those goals. Anyone who witnessed today's game had to come away impressed with the Knight's skill, tenacity and determination. The second goal, though, slipped away late in the fourth quarter, allowing the Crusaders to escape with a 31-30 win this afternoon. It was a strange contest in that McDevitt looked totally dominant at times but couldn't build a comfortable lead. Hempfield didn't commit a turnover, was flagged for only 3 penalties, saw McDevitt drop 3 near-interceptions and received a gift score from a Crusader turnover, yet the harried McDevitt defense managed to come up with the final stop to allow McDevitt to advance to next Saturday's championship game against State College. The Crusaders again displayed a powerful running game. Sophomore Mike Jones led all rushers with 162 yards on 29 carries, benefiting from dominant blocking by the huge McDevitt offensive line. Junior Dave Onorato added 83 yards and a touchdown on only 13 carries. Quarterback Jeremy Ricker had a productive game, completing 8 of 16 passes for 188 yards and two touchdowns, but suffered 2 interceptions. Senior wideout Aaron Berry continued to compile impressive statistics, making 5 catches for 61 yards and two touchdowns, and sophomore Julian Harrell was effective in improving McDevitt's field position by returning 5 kickoffs for 162 yards.On defense the Crusaders surrendered 328 yards and 17 first downs to a balanced Hempfield attack. Uncharacteristically, McDevitt allowed the Knights to mount long scoring drives (12 plays, 75 yards; 7 plays, 70 yards; 11 plays, 67 yards) that kept the high-scoring Crusader offense on the sidelines. Only key plays by Pat Berry, Brian Weisser, Eric McGovern and Aaron Berry, among others, secured the victory.
Harrell got McDevitt off to a good start by returning the opening kickoff 31 yards to the MCD 42, and then Ricker promptly passed to Berry for a 10 yard gain into Hempfield territory. After 2 short Jones runs, Ricker fired a pass into the right flat that was tipped, and then intercepted by the Knight's Zach Funke. Hempfield was held to a 3-and-out and Berry returned the subsequent punt 6 yards to the MCD 39. The Crusaders decided to stick to the ground, so Jones bounced for 4 yards, followed by an 11 yard jaunt to the HEMP 46. After an incompletion and 2 Jones runs that netted 7 yards, McDevitt faced a 4th-and-3 at the HEMP 39. Ricker moved the chains by hitting Berry on a slant good for 11 yards. On the next play Jones burst through a huge hole and raced for a 20 yard gain to the 8 yard line. Then, following a Jones run for no gain, Ricker lofted a pass into the left corner of the end zone that Berry snagged for the game's first touchdown. Mike Comasco added the first of his 4 all-important PAT's, and McDevitt had a 7-0 lead with 5:38 left in the opening quarter. Pat Berry's sack of Hempfield quarterback Mike Callahan keyed a strong Crusader defensive stand on the Knights' next possession, leading to a punt that Mike Comasco returned 21 yards, to the Hempfield 33. Threatening again, the Crusaders started off with a 3 yard Onorato run, followed by a long Ricker-to-Mike Comasco pass play. The game began to change, however, as McDevitt was called for a holding penalty, negating most of Comasco's gain. On the next play Ricker and Jones collided violently in the backfield, sending both players sprawling as the ball dropped to the turf. Hempfield defensive end Joe Zeamer alertly picked up his early Christmas gift and rumbled 62 yards for the tying score. Harrell regained momentum for McDevitt on the ensuing kickoff by busting a splendid 48 yard kickoff return to the HEMP 45. It took only 5 quick plays for the Crusaders to regain the lead. Jones began the drive with a 15 yard sprint for a first down, followed by a twisting 7 yarder to the HEMP 23. Then Onorato took over, starting with a 6 yard blast up the middle for another first down. The bruising junior followed that effort with a 14 yard gain to the HEMP 3. Onorato finished the scoring drive on the next play by powering the final 3 yards to post McDevitt to a 14-7 lead with 1:10 left in the quarter. When Aaron Berry broke up a pass on third down of the next Hempfield series, the Black Knights were forced to punt, ending the quarter without a first down.
McDevitt began the second quarter at its own 34 and soon faced a third down. Ricker then targeted Harrell with a screen pass and the promising sophomore followed his blockers for a 47 yard gain, to the HEMP 19. When the drive stalled, Mike Comasco came on to boot a towering 33 yard field goal to stretch the Crusader lead to 17-7. Then The Hempfield offense came to life. Behind tough running by Charlie Parker and Alex Puskar, the Hempfield moved from its own 25 to the MCD 19 in 5 plays. From there Callahan was sacked for an 11 yard loss by David Dunn and Sebastian Sullivan and, following an incompletion, Hempfield faced 4th-and-17 and lined up in punt formation at the MCD 30. Callahan, who doubles as the Hempfield punter, took the deep snap and fired a bullet down field to Tyler Swezey for a first down at the 8. Parker gained 1 yard and then was dropped for a yard loss by Keith Davis. On third down Callahan threw a quick out to Puskar in the right flat, but McGovern made a fine open-field tackle at the MCD 4 to prevent the touchdown. Andrew Kontra converted a 21 yard field goal attempt on the next play. McDevitt then moved quickly into Knight territory on the next series, but an underthrown ball to a wide-open Berry (in the end zone) resulted in an interception by Hempfield and, following fruitless drives by each team, the sides retired for the half with McDevitt leading 17-10. The second half fireworks began on the Knight's first series. After returning the kickoff to the HEMP 25, Parker was dropped for a 3 yard loss. On the next play Callahan launched a deep pass for Mike Newcomer, running a post pattern down the middle of the field with Vince Comasco matching him stride-for-stride. Newcomer grabbed the pass over Comasco's reach and raced to pay dirt, knotting the score at 17 after only 51 seconds had expired. McDevitt answered with an 11 play scoring drive. An 18 yard Harrell kickoff return spotted the Crusaders at the MCD 33, and it was again time for the "O" line to take command. Alternating runs by Jones and Onorato, McDevitt advanced to the HEMP 33 on 7 plays. Facing a 3rd-and 4 there, Ricker passed to Berry for 14 yards to keep the drive alive. Jones scampered for 8 yards before Ricker executed a tricky bootleg for a 10 yard gain to the 1 yard line. Then the senior QB hitched a ride on his center, Sullivan, into the end zone and McDevitt had a 24-17 advantage with 6:27 left in the third quarter. But now the Hempfield offense had confidence, and Callahan used 4 consecutive completions to go from the HEMP 30 to the MCD 11. From there Callahan passed to Newcomer for another touchdown and the score was tied again, 24-24. The Crusaders used the rest of the third quarter to mount another scoring drive. This one started at the MCD 35 and again featured the McDevitt running attack. Jones started by slicing for 15 yards. He then gained a total of 9 yards on two carries before Onorato converted a key third down with a 2 yard plunge to the HEMP 39. Jones ran for a 3 yard gain and then, following an incompletion, raced around left end to the HEMP 5. A block-in-the-back penalty brought the ball back to the 33, but Onorato's 10 yard gallop gained the first down. After another Onorato run gained 5, Ricker completed the drive by lofting a scoring pass to Berry for an 18 yard touchdown, and McDevitt had moved ahead 31-24. The fourth quarter started with Hempfield moving into McDevitt territory behind the passing of Callahan, but an 8 yard sack by Weisser on third down at the MCD 38 resulted in a Hempfield punt that rolled into the end zone for a touchback. A sustained drive at this point would have secured the victory for the Crusaders (and spared their fans a lot of anxious
moments!), but the Hempfield defense rose to the occasion and forced McDevitt's first punt of the game. Ricker boomed an unreturnable 44 yarder and the Knights began the contest's most dramatic drive at the HEMP 33. Parker gained 7 yards and, following an incompletion that was almost intercepted by McGovern, kept the drive alive with a 9 yard run. Callahan converted the next third down play by hitting Parker with a screen pass that was good for a 20 yard gain. After a roughing-the-passer penalty was tacked on, Hempfield was on the MCD 14 with 5:44 left to play. Two inside runs by Patrick Blair gained 9 yards, but Blair was stopped cold on his next attempt, and a tense measurement showed Hempfield to be about a foot short of the first down. With both sides up and screaming, Blair again tried the interior of the McDevitt defense with little success, and the chain gang was called upon again. This time the gain was good for a first down, and Puskar covered the remaining 3 yards on the next play to make the score 31-30, with 3:44 left in the game. Hempfield called a time out and decided to go for the two point conversion and the lead. The Knights came out in a double wing formation, with Parker behind Callahan and 2 wideouts. At the snap Callahan faked to Parker and then circled to the left and waited for Parker to get in the clear in the left corner of the end zone. With the McDevitt rush closing in Callahan threw to Parker, but Pat Berry scrambled out to the flat and managed to dive and tip the pass harmlessly to the turf as the McDevitt crowd exploded in joy. The drama wasn't over yet, though. Hempfield's kickoff went out of bounds and the Crusaders again tried to run out the clock. Six straight Onorato runs managed to move the ball into Hempfield territory, but the Knights came up with a key third down stop to force a McDevitt decision at the HEMP 43: punt, or go for it on 4th and 3? Head Coach Jeff Weachter decided to punt, and Ricker's ensuing kick rolled teasingly into the end zone for a touchback. With no time outs left and 1:05 left on the clock, Hempfield went to work. Callahan passed for 5, and then he spiked the ball to stop the clock. After a 4 yard Callahan run, the plucky senior ran for a first down as the clock moved under 30 seconds. A spike, an incompletion and a short completion to Newcomer advanced the ball to the HEMP 48, but, with 5 seconds remaining, there was only time for a desperation heave. Callahan dropped back one final time but was immediately pressured by the McDevitt rush. Rolling to his right, he was unable to launch a final throw and was finally corralled by Sullivan as time expired. The Crusaders had dodged a bullet, but were advancing to the District finals for the second year in a row.The District 3/6 Class AAAA Championship game, against 9-3 State College, will be played Saturday, November 26th, at Hersheypark Stadium. McDevitt beat State College earlier this year, 28-26, on September 2nd. Game time is 7:00 PM.
QUOTES
Head Coach Jeff Weachter
We had a chance to put Hempfield away in the first half, but we turned the ball over twice inside the 30. After the holding call we were going to run the same trap play that had gained big yardage but they changed their defense. When Jeremy saw that he checked out of it, but Mike didn't hear the check and then they hit into each other. That kind of let them back in the game. Another time, when it was 17-7, we had a chance to stretch the lead when we had Aaron open on a post/corner, but the ball hung up in the wind a little and the kid made a great play to intercept it. That could have been a knockout blow for us but instead we had 3 turnovers and were still up by 7. In the second half they hit the big pass play and that gave them all kinds of life. There are some things we have to go back and look at concerning the defense. The coaches will work hard in the staff meeting to make sure it doesn't happen again. I talked to their coach a little bit after the game about his going for the 2 point conversion. He thought that they needed a knockout blow. He didn't like his chances if the game went into overtime because, with the way we were running the football, he didn't think they could stop us. That was his decision. I'd hate to think what would happen to me at Bishop McDevitt if I did something like that! I've been hearing and reading comments from other Mid Penn coaches that State College is the best team in the league, that they're better than us without Shady so we could very easily be the underdog. You know what? That would be kind of nice. It was a little easier last year when we were the fifth seed and we didn't have all these expectations and we could relax and just play, so it wouldn't be bad if we were the underdog. I would like to say thank you to the administration from Harrisburg High School, Coach Smallwood and Coach Chaump. They have been great. When we walk down people say, "Hey, go represent Harrisburg!" We come down here two weeks in a row and the Harrisburg kids have signs for us in the locker room rooting us on. It's been great and I really want to thank the Harrisburg School district.
Assistant Coach Dave Weachter
I'm not really sure what happened, right now. It's the first game in a long time where we made a lot of mistakes. And I don't mean interceptions or anything like that. It's just, at half time, we had a weird feeling. I don't want to say that our kids lost focus, but I do think we lost intensity at half time. I'll tell you, Hempfield is tough and they're a tough team to prepare for, with their offense, they do a lot of things. And I applaud their coach for going for the 2 point conversion. I would have done the same thing if I was him, with us being able to move the ball on them. It took a lot of guts. State College is playing pretty well, but we're playing pretty well, too. We have to see what happens.
Assistant Coach/AD Tommy Mealy
Obviously you have to give a lot of credit to Hempfield. They came out and played inspired football, but champions find a way to win and we did. We stuck with it and our kids rallied around each other and got it done. On the conversion, I thought they would try to make us play offense again but I guess they felt like they had nothing to lose. Our defense made a great stand and I think Pat Berry made a great adjustment on that play. I'm very proud of the way Harrisburg High has conducted business with Bishop McDevitt during this playoff process. Kirk Smallwood and George Chaump have opened their doors for us every day we want to practice. Their personnel made signs for us in the locker room; there has been a lot of support among the Harrisburg community for us. We're 2-0 in the playoffs on this field. I wish we could have a facility like this! For next week, I think State College has the right to think that they could have won the first game if it wasn't for Shady having the kind of game he had. We were still finding ourselves then. We are much different offensively now. We are looking forward to the opportunity of playing them again.
QB Jeremy Ricker
They came out a lot tougher than we expected. I thought that it was going to be like last year and we were going to be able to throw all over them but it was a tough game. Both our offense and defense slacked a little bit and we weren't executing very well, but we pulled it off. The wind wasn't bad. We've been practicing here for the last two weeks so I'm getting used to it. I didn't think they'd go for two. I thought that they would kick and maybe onside kick to try to go for the field goal. I can see us maybe being the underdog against State College because people figure that they have something to prove since we beat them.
OG/DT Jason Kates
I didn't feel good. I don't know what was wrong with me; my back was really tight today. I don't know if we were into it today. On the two point conversion, I thought they were going to run it up the middle but then he rolled out, but Pat Berry was out there. Pat Berry, he's all world! From the first State College game I remember the big guy, #9 (Justin Masorti), he was running all over us, he was running around and it was like nobody wanted to hit him. So this time around, I'm going to hit the big guy.
OG Ryan Finney
Personally, I think I should be first team all conference so it was bound to happen, us pushing them around like that. The whole line played well. At half time we came out kind of shaky, but after that we got on the ball. I think their coach going for two was him being just a tad greedy. He could have gone to overtime but we did have a lot of power. We could have gone on for two more quarters. But I want to give a team shout out to Hempfield for the way they played. State College is going to be a good game. Districts, gold, Hershey, it's going to be a good Saturday night game.
WR/DB Aaron Berry
It was hard for our team today. We just have to work hard in practice every day. I felt that we slacked off last week, but if we work hard we have the team that can come out with the district championship. That 2 point conversion was a risky call. It looked like they had a man open but he under threw him a little bit. State College ran the ball well against us the first time but our defense has improved so much since then. That was the first game of the season. If we all handle our responsibilities we can come out victorious.
RB/LB Dave Onorato
I thought it was just an excellent effort by our whole team. We came out real strong. Our defense was a little behind but they eventually showed up today. Our big guys up front really deserve all of the credit today. If it wasn't for them I probably wouldn't have gotten one yard. I'm very appreciative of them. I just try to keep moving my legs. It's one of the keys I think about when I'm carrying the ball; just keep moving your legs. We're looking forward to next week. We can't wait. It should be a great game between two great football teams.
DT David Dunn
We came out OK at the beginning but at the end we just started falling apart but we'll do fine next week. On the two point conversion, we came out strong and stayed low and, hey, it's all good. Last time we played State College it was up there and it was our first game so we were kind of off. I think we'll do a lot better this time.
LB/TE Leon Black
Hempfield obviously played with a lot more intensity this year. They really came to play. They really gave us a challenge but we came out with the win. When they went for the two point conversion I thought that they were disrespecting our defense a little bit, but we showed them that we're still #1 when we held. At the end we were confident we could stop them because they had to throw the ball and we were in the right defense to stop that. For State College we have to practice like we want to win a championship.
LB/TE Keith Davis
Hempfield really came to play. We had some problems on defense and we knew we had to step it up at the end. We did just that. Like Leon said, I thought that going for two was disrespecting our defense. When we stopped them it meant that we'd come out with the win.
RB Mike Jones
Hempfield's defense came out all hyped up at first. We did have to make some adjustments but we did all right from there. They did have some hard hitters in the secondary, but when we come off the ball, when everyone does their assignments and the line comes off like that, we can always run the ball. State College looked like hard hitters, the way they were hitting Shady, but we just have to do our assignments to get the best of them.
S Eric McGovern
Hempfield came out ready to play and they gave us a game. Their line played well but ours played better. They got a couple of lucky breaks and some big plays but our defense did a good job of holding them at the end. On the play before their field goal, I was covering that guy and he came in motion across the field and he got a little in front of me. I should have been there for the pick, but I got there a little bit later and made the hit on him. On that one play it looked like the ball was in the air forever and I just lost concentration a little bit or I would have picked it. I remember State College has a pretty big line, bigger than most of the teams we play. They have a good linebacker, a good quarterback and good senior leadership, so I'm ready to play them.