October 20-For the second week in a row, the mixture of offensive line injuries and sloppy play proved to be toxic for Bishop McDevitt. Tonight’s 21-7 loss to the Altoona Mountain Lions at Mansion Park was similar to last week’s game against Central Dauphin in that the Crusader’s overworked defense spent much of the game on the field, while the patchwork offensive line, crippled by injury, was unable to provide consistency for the McDevitt attack. The loss of talented junior guard Jared Henley to a serious arm injury in the second quarter was especially harmful. Henley had been the only offensive lineman to start at the same position all year, and the absence of his dynamic blocking was evident. The Crusader running game, which keyed big wins over Cumberland Valley and State College, could only muster 90 yards on 27 carries. Quarterback Kyle Koncar completed 11 of his 21 pass attempts, but the sophomore was under constant pressure from the relentless Altoona pass rush. If not for the standout play of the defense, led by linebackers Pat Berry and Matt Vargo, Altoona ’s margin of victory would have been far greater than two scores.

The game, played on a cold, misty, rainy night, began with a 16 yard Mike Jones kickoff return to the McD 28. McDevitt managed one first down on Koncar’s 3 yard pass to Julian Harrell (6 catches for 71 yards), but was forced to punt to the ALT 30. The Mountain Lions, who moved the chains consistently behind the power running of Reggie Mencer and the overall excellence of quarterback A.J. Alexander, launched a 10 play, 39 yard drive into Crusader territory. From the McD 39, however, a big hit by safety Evan McGovern on a third down pass stopped the drive and Altoona punted into the end zone. McDevitt then mixed short passes to Harrell with Koncar keepers to advance to midfield, but an incompletion and a short pass to Jones halted the advance. Mike Comasco’s punt skidded out-of-bounds at the ALT 37, and Alexander soon had the Lions threatening again, thanks to his 23 yard scamper. Defensive end Dave Onorato and linebacker R.J. Hetrick ended the quarter on a high note for McDevitt, however, by dropping the elusive Alexander for a 5 yard loss.

Altoona kicker Arin Noonan began the second quarter by booting a 39 yard field goal to post the Lions to a 3-0 lead. Harrell returned the ensuing kickoff 20 yards, to the McD 34, and the offense began showing signs of life. Comasco caught an 8 yard out from Koncar and, two plays later, Koncar snuck for the first down. After Onorato had bulled for 3 tough yards, Koncar dropped back to pass, but suddenly pulled the ball down and darted upfield for a quick 29 yard gain, to the ALT 23. Following an incompletion, Jones weaved his way for a 13 yard gain on a well-executed draw play. One play later Koncar passed to Comasco all alone in the far corner of the end zone and, after Comasco’s successful PAT, McDevitt led, 7-3, with 8:49 left in the half. Alexander promptly returned the following kickoff to the McD 38, and then the exciting junior passed to D.J. Patterson for 11 yards. On the next play Alexander faked a handoff and drifted to his left, looking for his tight end dragging across the field. He fired a pass but Comasco jumped the route and intercepted, and the Crusaders took over at the McD 15. Onorato started this drive with a 17 yard blast up the middle before Koncar threw a floater to Harrell down the right sideline. The 6’3” receiver made a leaping catch and dragged two defenders for a 36 yard gain, to the ALT 32. The same duo combined for a 12 yard gain but a motion penalty pushed the Crusaders back 5 yards. Comasco caught a 7 yarder before Altoona was called for a blatant pass interference penalty against Harrell in the end zone. Now facing a first-and-goal at the ALT 9, Koncar zipped a pass over the middle that Harrell couldn’t handle at the goal line. After an unsuccessful Onorato run and a sack, Comasco attempted a 29 yard field goal. The Lions blocked the kick, however, and the teams traded punts before the half ended.

The third quarter started with another huge Alexander kickoff return, this time for 53 yards to the McD 37. The Crusader defense rose up, though, highlighted by linebacker Dante Ushery dropping Alexander for a 3 yard loss due to a perfectly-timed blitz. Altoona punted, but the ball bounced off of McGovern’s leg and the Lions recovered at the McD 10. The McDevitt defense came through again, stopping the Altoona offense cold and forcing the Lions to settle for a 30 yard field goal that narrowed the McDevitt lead to 7-6. After receiving the kickoff and advancing to the McD 44, disaster struck again for the Crusaders. Koncar’s pass deflected off of the hands of 2 McDevitt receivers and Patterson intercepted and returned to the McD 35. Aided by a pass interference penalty, Altoona moved to the McD 25 before Alexander passed to Patterson for 23 yards on third down. Alexander finished the job on the next play with a 2 yard touchdown run to post Altoona to a 12-7 lead. The Lions decided to go for the two point conversion and Mencer fought through the tiring McDevitt defense for the score. More bad news lay ahead for the Crusader “D”, however. On the first play after the kickoff Koncar’s long pass was again picked off by Patterson, at the ALT 38. The Lions then used 3 Mencer runs to drive into McDevitt territory as the quarter ended. The weary McDevitt defense finally forced an Altoona punt to the McD 7, but the change in field position would prove costly. The Crusader offense couldn’t advance, so Comasco was soon punting from his own end zone. Alexander returned Comasco’s boot to the McD 13 and Altoona only needed 4 running plays to stretch the lead to 21-7. The final minutes of the game consisted of Koncar running for his life against the Altoona defensive line and the Lions running out the clock with running plays.

Next Friday, October 27^th, the Crusaders travel to West Shore Stadium in New Cumberland to take on the Cedar Cliff Colts. Game time is 7:00 PM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

It hurts, not only the loss but all of the injuries. It looks like we may have lost Jared Henley for the year. We’re down to playing our 10^th offensive lineman this year. Mario came in and did a good job but when we lost Jared we really couldn’t get the running game going. It’s tough when teams know that you’re going to throw the ball all the time. We just have to find a way to regroup and get healthy and hopefully we can get things going. The defense played well but they wore down and we didn’t play very well on special teams and field position killed us. We just kept turning the ball over to them. In years past we had a good enough offense to overcome turnovers but, right now, we’re just not good enough on offense to overcome that many turnovers. It all starts with a lack of continuity on the offensive line. We moved Terahje Gratkowski from tight end to offensive tackle to try to help us out and then we lose one of our two best linemen, so we’re just going to have to find a way. We sure can’t overlook anyone right now. We’re on a two game losing streak; it’s the first time in 5 years that we’ve lost two games in a row. We had a bad feeling all week but we have to get this thing back on track, like two years ago, and hit the playoffs on a roll and take it from there. We still felt bad about the CD game because we didn’t play well but I thought that we played well in the first half tonight. In the second half the turnovers killed us. We had a wet practice field all week and we couldn’t go on the middle of the field and that hurt our special teams preparation. Hopefully we’ll have a good weather week coming up. Because rain screws everything up.     

Assistant Coach Domenick Rozzi    

It’s tough losing any time, but coming off a loss against a rivalry team really hurts. We had a rough week of practice because of the weather, we didn’t get a chance to work on some of the stuff we wanted to work on, and it’s always a tough trip up here. We had to overcome injuries and some bad luck and we couldn’t do it but we’ll come out of it. We’ll be OK. We were young to begin with and, as it turns out, we’ve had some injuries on the offensive line so we had to move some people around, including some people who haven’t had any snaps this year. And we expect a lot from them, so we’re just going to have to come out on the other side of it. Right now, coming off of two losses, we have to right the ship. We have to come out ready if we want to make the playoffs, so I expect the next two weeks to be solid efforts to try to make the first round of the playoffs.

FB Vince Lochetto

We have to come together as a team because it all starts in practice. I mean, our best week of practice was before we played State College and you could see the result on the field, so we have to pick it up in practice. Altoona was tough but they didn’t do anything unexpected. We just beat ourselves with mistakes, just like last week. We’re not helping ourselves at all. We can’t overlook anyone at this point so, we’ll see.

OT/TE Terahje Gratkowski

It was hard for me to move to the tackle spot because it’s a tough position to play, but I’m young and I can learn. We just have to focus on staying healthy so we can concentrate on these last two games. We can’t lose any more. I felt a lot of pressure tonight because coach called my number a lot tonight, running to my side, and it was a struggle.

FB/DT Chris Henderson