August 19- Coach Jeff Weachter’s Bishop McDevitt Crusaders opened the 2006 season with an impressive defensive display in a scrimmage against Conestoga Valley this afternoon at Harrisburg High’s Severance Field. Facing a team that ran pass plays out of the shotgun formation at least 80% of the time, the Crusader defenders held the Buckskins scoreless, showed speed and aggressiveness, and even managed to score a touchdown. On offense McDevitt struggled at times, but managed 3 scores in the scrum. While it is obvious that there is improvement needed for the Crusaders to compete for the Mid Penn Commonwealth Division crown and a trip to the District 3/6 Class AAAA playoffs, the young squad flashed enough potential to encourage the McDevitt faithful.

The scrimmage started with Conestoga Valley taking possession at the CV 30. The McDevitt defense included Matt Dietz and Dave Onorato at end, with Sebastian Sullivan, Chris Henderson and Hector Cabrerra rotating at tackle. The starting linebackers were Pat Berry, Vince Lochetto and Dante Ushery. Mike Comasco and Mike Jones manned the cornerback spots, and Thomas Mitchell, Julian Harrell and Matt Vargo alternated at safety. The Buckskins could only manage a gain of 8 yards in the 10 plays of the first possession as the Crusader defense enjoyed a noticeable advantage in quickness. The first showing included a tackle for a 5 yard loss by Berry and a fumble recovery by Onorato. Overall, the McDevitt “D” handled the CV passing with ease, as both Jones and Comasco blanketed the Buckskin receivers with tight coverage.

When the McDevitt offense took over for its first 10-play possession, heralded sophomore Kyle Koncar manned the quarterback spot. Jones and Onorato were the running backs, and Harrell and Comasco were the wideouts. Steve Westhaffer started at tight end, with Jordan Knox and Brian Christman at tackle. The guards were Jarred Henley and Vince Sullivan, and Sebastian Sullivan was the center. The Crusader “O” opened with a 4 yard Jones run, and then Koncar kept for 4 more. Onorato followed with a 3 yard blast before Koncar’s first pass fell incomplete. After a 1 yard Jones run, Onorato galloped 19 yards up the middle to the CV 38. Another incompletion followed, and then Henderson bulled for 3 tough yards behind the Sullivan brothers’ blocks. Koncar then dropped back to pass, but quickly squirted out of the backfield for a 15 yard scamper, to the CV 20. His last pass attempt was just a little long, leaving the Crusaders with 50 total yards on the initial possession.

The next series saw a flood of new players on the McDevitt defense, including Mario Baccone, Wes Jesperson and Corey Miller on the line, Rashan Crowder, R.J. Hetrick and Tony Nguyen at linebacker; and Bill Stair, Xavier Butts and Casey Bolton in the secondary. This group was as successful as their predecessors, forcing 3 sacks (by Baccone, Miller and Crowder) and another fumble, and limiting CV to 17 total yards. When the Crusader offense returned, Mitchell was the QB and Henderson the fullback. The offensive line added Cabrerra, Miller, John Koury, Mark Sallinger and Ed Meara, with flashy soph Terahte Gratkowski at tight end. Henderson’s first two carries netted 7 yards, and then Mitchell calmly targeted Gratkowski for a 14 yard completion. Two plays later Henderson leaked into the left flat and Mitchell hit him in stride at the line of scrimmage. The 245 pound junior then rumbled 50 yards untouched for the Crusaders’ first score of 2006. The second one came much quicker. On the next play from the McD 30, Stair followed Cabrerra’s trap block up the middle and darted 70 yards for the touchdown, easily outrunning the startled Buckskin secondary. Mitchell then finished the series with a 24 yard completion to Matt Vargo.

Conestoga Valley mounted its only scoring threat on the next series. After a couple of short completions, CV managed a 44 yard pass, to the McD 18. After an incompletion, a quarterback keeper moved the ball to the 5. On the next play Ushery blitzed from his outside linebacker spot and flattened the CV QB for a 7 yard sack. The next pass was completed to the McD 5, but a hard Comasco hit caused a fumble and the Crusaders recovered in the end zone, finishing the threat. Koncar was back at the helm for the next McDevitt possession, but the offense went nowhere, hampered by poor blocking and indecisive play. The lowlights included 2 penalties, 2 sacks and a dropped pass. When CV took over, a mix of Crusader defenders again frustrated the Buckskins. CV managed 19 total yards on its 10 plays. The defensive stand was highlighted by a Westhaffer sack and a near-interception by Hetrick. The final McDevitt varsity offensive possession found Mitchell again at QB, and Stair, Lochetto and Ushery handling the running back duties. Stair totaled 27 yards on 4 carries and Mitchell had a 20 yard keeper. The senior ended his afternoon by lofting an 18 yard scoring pass to Tyrell Harris in the corner of the end zone. Weachter emptied the varsity bench on the last 10 plays. Sophomore Pat Vargo ended the McDevitt scoring when he intercepted a CV pass and returned it 35 yards for the touchdown.

McDevitt’s next scrimmage is on Friday, August 25^th, against Manheim Township at Township’s field. It is scheduled to start at 7:00 PM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

Defensively I thought we played pretty well, especially the first team “D”. Julian Harrell missed some practice time this week when he got a helmet in the thigh so he wasn’t full speed when he took a bad angle on that one long play, but I was really happy with the defense that we didn’t let them score. Offensively I’m disappointed in our offensive line. It wasn’t always the same guy every play but there was always a breakdown. I thought Dave O was going to score on that first series but he ran into the umpire who just had a hip replacement, so he couldn’t get out of Dave’s way! A lot of it was our offensive line splits. You know, when you try to run a veer where you’re trying to widen out the defensive end and your tackle takes a 6 inch split, that’s not going to work. It was just youthful mistakes. We’re just going to have to get a lot better up front and then we’ll be a pretty good football team. Thomas Mitchell did a very good job. He’s Mitch, he’s kind of a jack of all trades. Chris Henderson had a great week of practice and it showed here. Billy Stair showed that we have good young tailbacks at McDevitt. Now we very, very vanilla in our offensive formations, but if we can’t run our base we’re going to be in trouble. I’ll be disappointed if we don’t show a lot of improvement next week.    

C/DT Sebastian Sullivan

Our offensive line needs to really pick it up, but we can do that. We did really badly today. I think our skills have come together on the defense; I like what I saw there today. On that one play we just had a little miscommunication in the coverage but we’ll fix that. Coach Berry told us that CV used a 70-30 pass/run ratio, so we were pretty excited to work on our pass rush. In practice earlier in the week we kind of lacked intensity but we picked it up at the end and had a strong week.

WR/S Matt Vargo

It went like a first scrimmage usually does. The offense was rusty but that’s what the first scrimmage is for. We have to see what we did well, see what we did badly and then come out and get better. On offense Kyle seems to add a little bit of mobility. The veterans on offense, like Sebastian, Julian and Mike, they’re trying to help him out and he’s picking up on the offense really fast. I was happy to see my brother get that pick for the touchdown, but, hey, he threw it right to him! He’s a good player, he’s real quick and it’s good to see him out here.

RB/CB Mike Jones

Last year we had a veteran offensive line but this year we’re young, so you can’t really judge us by this first scrimmage. I think that, overall, we played well. We’re going to be just as good as last year, or even better. We have a lot of potential and the line and linebackers get a good push. I think I’ll do better as a cornerback than I did as a running back. I think that will be my position in college.

DT/RB Chris Henderson

I think that defensively, we did pretty good. Our defensive line is going to be strong, and so are our linebackers. On offense we need to work on our blocking some more. You know, the running backs are all running hard and Kyle looks pretty good at quarterback. If we can get the ball downfield to our receivers we’ll be all right. We feel like we’ll be underdogs going into every game this year, so we have to work a lot harder in practice. I think we’re going to surprise a lot of people this year. I think our offense will be varied with a more athletic quarterback and plays like the option will open up some things for us. On the touchdown pass I ran a flare and I expected to be open, but it felt good to run loose and get a touchdown for us.

LB Pat Berry

It looked pretty good from a defensive perspective, other than that one play, which was broken coverage. The offense will improve. The offensive line hasn’t played together that much; after the next scrimmage they’ll be pretty good. I know that scoring touchdowns won’t be as easy as last year, with Jeremy and Aaron and Shady and all of those 300 pound guys, but we’ll find a way to get it done no matter what. Coach Weachter has a good offense.

WR/S Julian Harrell

Last year we had Jeremy Ricker at quarterback and he was a three year starter. This year we have Kyle Koncar, who is a sophomore. I think he was a little nervous at the beginning of the scrimmage but he settled down and did well. This is my first year playing safety, I played in the secondary before but I was at corner. It was different playing in a game situation but I think I did OK. Practices have been hard, a lot more intense than my previous two years here. We didn’t really play that well today so I’m sure this week of practice will be even harder. We like being underdogs for a change. Last year, everywhere we went, they’d tell us that we were overrated. This year nobody really knows about us so I think we’ll sneak up on some teams.   

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