CRUSADERS TOP HERD, 42-14
November 2- The Bishop McDevitt Crusaders ended the 2007 regular season the same way it began: with an easy victory over an outmatched opponent. By beating the Carlisle Thundering Herd 42-14 tonight at Ken Millen Stadium, the Crusaders (8-2, 7-2 in the Mid Penn Commonwealth Division) secured a 6th seed in the upcoming District 3/6 Class AAAA playoffs and earned a first round game against Central York. Carlisle’s season ended at 2-8. McDevitt started slowly, hampered by penalties and poor timing. But a 28 point second quarter explosion was followed by single scores in each of the last 2 quarters before the Herd found the end zone twice against McDevitt reserves. With Carlisle crowding the line of scrimmage junior quarterback Kyle Koncar took advantage of some favorable match-ups and passed for 202 yards and 2 touchdowns. Mike Jones, Derrell Holland and Bill Stair all tallied rushing touchdowns behind a solid effort by the offensive line. On defense it was apparent early on that Carlisle fullback Kahlil Bunce was the only Herd player capable of causing damage, so linebackers Dante Ushery, Fred Dietz and Jonathan Duckett spent the evening stopping the short running game.
McDevitt kicked off and quickly held the Herd to a 3-and-out, forcing a punt that rolled dead at the McD 33. After a short Jones run and two incompletions the Crusaders returned the favor with senior Mike Comasco punting 26 yards to the CAR 38. Then, on a 3rd-and-3, Ushery sacked Herd QB Jordan Holter for a 9 yard loss, leading to a punt that was returned by Comasco to the McD 37. Jones ran for a yard before Koncar hooked up with his favorite target, senior Julian Harrell, for an 11 yard gain and the games’ initial first down. Koncar then ran a clever 11 yard keeper to the CAR 40 before Jones ripped off an apparent 40 yard scoring run. A holding penalty brought the ball back to the McD and then Koncar found Harrell again, this time for 7 yards. Koncar kept for 6, to the CAR 38, before 2 incompletions ended the scoring threat. McDevitt’s defense forced its third 3rd-and-out in a many tries, and the Carlisle punt was fielded by senior Evan McGovern at the McD 30. McGovern scrambled for 6 yards before he was dragged down by his face mask, tacking 15 yards onto the return. After a short Jones run and a couple of incompletions, McDevitt faced a fourth down at the CAR 37. Koncar then passed for 17 yards to senior Tyrell Harris to keep the drive alive. Jones ran for 3 yards before an off sides penalty against Carlisle moved the ball to the CAR 12. Freshman Jameel Poteat fought for a yard before the scoreless first quarter ended.
The second quarter began with a very odd play. With the Crusaders facing 3rd-and-1 at the CAR 11, Jones took Koncar’s handoff and tried the right side of the line. With his way blocked by a number of Carlisle defenders the shifty senior reversed his field, only to find more menacing green jerseys. So it was back to the right once again, where he picked up key block from Koncar and Harrell to gain an apparent first down at the CAR 4. The alert officials spotted a block in the back by a McDevitt player, however, and, after marking the penalty from the spot of the foul, the Crusaders were 42 yards from the goal line! Undaunted by the 31 yard penalty, Koncar calmly dropped back to pass and launched a perfect strike to Harris, streaking down the right sideline. Koncar’s through hit the speedy Harris in stride at the goal line and, following Comasco’s record-setting PAT ( Comasco is the state record holder for career PAT’s, so every one from now on is a record-setter), McDevitt had a 7-0 lead, with 11:34 left in the second quarter. The Herd managed a first down on the next series but 3 motion penalties pushed them backward before junior Pat Vargo dropped Holter for a 4 yard loss on a QB keeper. The punt from the CAR 16 rolled dead at the CAR 42, and the Crusaders went right to work. Koncar found Harrell for an 11 yard gain before Holland ripped off a tough 14 yard run, to the CAR 17. On the next play Koncar tossed a short pass to Comasco, lined up in the slot, and Comasco fought two tacklers for a 16 yard gain just short of the goal line. Jones popped it in from there to stake McDevitt to a 14-0 lead at the 5:59 mark. The ensuing squib kick was returned to the McD48, though, and Carlisle threatened to score after Bunce ripped off a 12 yard run. But the McDevitt defense was up to the task once again, forcing consecutive incomplete passes to regain control at the McD 36. Koncar quickly targeted a pass to tight end Terahje Gratkowski over the middle. The 6’5”, 254 lb. junior made the grab and roared down field for a 25 yard gain, to the CAR 39, and McDevitt was in scoring position once again. When Jones fumbled on the next play and Carlisle recovered it looked like the Herd had dodged a bullet, but Comasco intercepted a deflected Holter pass at the McD 45 and the Crusaders were back in business Following a 3 yard Holland run and an incompletion, Koncar passed to sophomore Salath Williams for a 9 yard gain and a key first down at the CAR 43. On the next play Koncar went back to Harrell, throwing a dart that was gathered in at the 20. Harrell made one quick move to avoid a defender and bolted into the end zone to finish off the 43 yard scoring play. Now leading 21-0 with 2:03 left in the half, McDevitt kicked off and smothered the Carlisle returner at the 27, causing a fumbled that was recovered by the Crusader’s Ryan Kenny. Koncar threw an incompletion before passing to Harrell for a 22 yard gain, to the CAR 5. From there Jones hopped across the goal line to stretch the McDevitt advantage to 28-0. Carlisle managed to field the following kickoff cleanly and ran out the clock to end the half.
The third quarter began with a surprise: an onside kick attempt by the Herd that McDevitt recovered at the CAR 46. With freshman quarterback Matt Johnson now at the helm (Koncar was resting bruised ribs suffered in last week’s Cedar Cliff game), the Crusaders took to the ground. Jones ran for 3, and then ripped off an 11 yarder, to the CAR 32. He followed that with a 5 yard gain before he and Johnson botched a handoff and Carlisle recovered at the CAR 26. On the next play Bunce blasted for a 40 yard gain, to the McD 34, as the dormant Carlisle crowd showed signs of life. Once again the McDevitt defense thwarted the threat, as strong play in the secondary led to 2 incompletions. After regaining possession at the McD 37, the Crusaders went back to the ground attack. Jones ran 5 plays in succession and recorded gains of 12, 1,13,6 and 3 yards. Holland then gave Jones a breather and bounced a carry to the outside, outrunning the weary Carlisle defense for a 29 yard score. After another Comasco record-breaking kick, McDevitt led 35-0, invoking the “Mercy Rule” and its continuously running clock. Comasco’s subsequent kickoff was a touchback and Carlisle was stymied once again by McDevitt’s quick “D”, forcing Carlisle’s 5th punt of the evening. McGovern fielded the kick at midfield and advanced 12 yards, to the CAR 38. Stair promptly broke off a fine 12 yard run before Johnson passed to Comasco for 16 yards, to the CAR 10. Stair ran for 4 more before a holding call moved the ball back to the CAR 18. Johnson then went back to Comasco, lined up in the slot, and the versatile senior fought his way to the CAR 3 as the quarter ended. On the first play of the final stanza Stair dashed 3 yards for 6 and got bounced on his head in the end zone for his effort. Comasco ended the McDevitt scoring with his 6th record breaker of the game to post the Crusaders to a 42-0 bulge that emptied the bench. The Herd then launched a 12 play, 77 yard scoring drive that devoured most of the 4th quarter clock and gave some valuable playing time to McDevitt’s defensive reserves. By the time Bunce rolled across the goal line for Carlisle’s first score, there was 4:08 left in the game. The Herd then recovered an onside kick and took over 3 minutes to score again on a 2 yard Holter keeper to make the final score 42-14
Next Saturday, November 10th, the Crusaders begin post-season play with a first round District 3/6 Class AAAA game against Central York, 7-3 in YIAA Division 1. The game, which will be played at Central Dauphin School district’s Landis Field, will begin at 2:00 PM.
QUOTES
Head Coach Jeff Weachter
I’ll give Carlisle a lot of credit. To come in to a game like this at the end of the season, they played really hard; they really hustled. They were stacking the run and we tried to get outside, but with the grass being wet we had trouble pulling people and Mike had trouble cutting. It actually worked out well for us because we wanted to sharpen up the passing game. Kyle’s lost a little confidence the last couple of weeks and hopefully he got it back, because he played real well the first half. I thought the passing game looked really good. We had some senior receivers step up and do some good things. At half time it was good to see Coach Minnich get on the offensive line because usually that’s my job! But we came out the second half and really wanted to run the ball down their throats and we pretty much did that. I thought the defense played well so, all-in-all, I’m happy. It was tough coming down here. There was an accident on 81, it took over an hour getting here and we were late getting on the field so we started a little slow but it worked out. I don’t care where we’re seed in the playoffs. Hopefully things will bounce our way. Just like last year, we have to take them as they come, no matter where are. Hopefully the Mid Penn teams will be spread out a little bit. You know, it would be nice to play some other teams, to see what teams in other areas do. I feel we should be 10-0 but we’re not, so it’s McDevitt time now. I told the team playoff time is McDevitt time. I think we’re ready for the playoffs. The defense has improved. We started out well at the beginning of the year then we had a 2 or 3 game stretch where we didn’t play well, but we’re starting to play well again. On offense the run blocking has to get better. We did much better on pass protection tonight after we worried about it last week. Now we have to put it together as an offensive line as far as run and pass. I think the offense is going to hit its stride in the playoffs.
Assistant Coach Pat Berry
I think the kids did a good job on defense tonight. We got used to what Carlisle was doing and we pretty much shut them down in the first half. Their fullback (Kahlil Bunce) had a nice game. He’s a good player. As far as the playoffs go, I thing that if we stay healthy we’ll do a good job. We’re still young, but the kids that are sophomores are almost like juniors. They’re doing a great job. Hopefully we’ll make a little run. Today we ran a little bit of a 4-4, a 4-3 and a 50, so we’ll mix it up.
WR/KR Julian Harrell
It felt good to get into the end zone tonight. I’d only scored twice so it was nice in the last regular season game. It wasn’t hard to get open. All week the coaches told us to expect man-to-man coverage so we were ready for it. We have a few adjustments to make for the playoffs, like some of our run blocking but, other than that, we feel pretty good going in. We’ll have to have a hard week of practice to get ready for whoever we play.
RB/KR/DB Mike Jones
We had to work hard for this game, even though Carlisle didn’t have that good of a record, because we’re getting ready for the playoffs. We want to get everything right, get our timing right. We want to win a state championship. That’s our ultimate goal every year. We should have had it twice already. We just have to focus, execute and I think we can get it this year.
QB Kyle Koncar
I’m pretty sore right now. I took a couple of hits in the first half and I fell on the ball on the one play but I’ll be ready for the playoffs. I was kind of tentative tonight at first, but once I got into the flow of the game I got comfortable and started to throw the ball well. I think we’re really confident for the playoffs, coming off a win like this. Everything was clicking for us in the first half, and I think we’ll be ready for whoever we play.
TE/DE Terahje Gratkowski
I’m real happy that they’re throwing at me more lately. I should have scored on that play tonight. I let a little boy tackle me but I’m happy they’re throwing me the ball. We’re ready to win in the playoffs. We have a goal to win the state championship since summer so that’s what we’re here to do. We’re definitely more confident than last year. For a while I thought we were going down the same path as last year, but we beat Altoona instead of losing like last year. Hopefully that will lead to success in the playoffs.
LB Fred Dietz
Carlisle played pretty well in the first half. Our defense played well and it took a while, but the offense really picked it up. This year I wanted to establish myself as a good linebacker. Personally, I wanted to work on getting my feet underneath me and driving through my tackles and finishing my tackles. We had a young defense this year and we’re just trying to pick everything up and put it all together to have a good year. I think that it’s gone pretty well here. We’ve really come together as a team, we’re all pretty close now. I think we’re going to do well in the playoffs.