August 25- A sizeable crowd showed up at Harrisburg High’s Severance Field this morning to see the McDevitt Crusaders scrimmage Manheim Township. Most were McDevitt supporters, no doubt encouraged by the Crusader’s dominating performance at Conestoga Valley the previous week. What they saw, however, was a sloppy, listless performance by the home team, marred by missed tackles and blocks, fumbled snaps and blocked punts. This is to take nothing away from the Blue Streaks, who began the scrum with a powerful running game and eventually outscored the McDevitt varsity, 2-0, in the down-and-distance portion of the scrimmage. But the Crusaders appeared overconfident and the offense never recovered from its mistake prone start on a hot steamy day. The defense did tighten up against the Manheim Twp. running attack, but they allowed a careless touchdown pass late in the half.

The Streaks started things off on the 20 yard line and promptly ripped off a 20 yard run. A 12 yard scamper followed, and then a 10 yarder. Three runs, three first downs and 32 yards gained against a puzzled, arm-tackling McDevitt defense. The Crusaders did rally, though, following an incompletion and a holding penalty, and then forced a fumble on 4^th down that was recovered by sophomore tackle Steve Mosey. McDevitt began its first possession at the McD 41 with a 5 yard run by senior Mike Jones. Junior quarterback Kyle Koncar then passed 4 yards to senior end Julian Harrell and the Crusaders faced a 3^rd-and 1. A fumbled center exchange lost 4 yards and Koncar dropped back to punt. Manheim Township’s rush blew through the weak McDevitt protection and blocked the punt to the delight of the small Blue Streak contingent. Starting at the McD 28, the Streaks started with a run that lost 2 yards, then completed a short screen pass that featured 3 missed tackles by McDevitt defenders. With the ball now on the McD 6, the Streaks ran a dive up the middle. The ball carrier patiently waited for the Manheim offensive line to smother the McDevitt front 7, and then he picked his way through the fallen bodies for the scrimmage’s first score. After a successful PAT, the Crusaders regained possession at its own 20. A Koncar dart to senior Mike Comasco netted 20 yards and the home team began to show some life. Two Jones runs produced another first down before Koncar was sacked for a 7 yard loss. After a 5 yard completion to junior Chris Houston and an incomplete pass, the Crusaders were again forced to punt. Comasco got enough protection to get this one off, and the ball rolled dead at the MT16. On the Streak’s first play after the punt sophomore linebacker Jonathan Duckett broke up a pass, and then, following a 3 yard run, senior Evan McGovern rushed from the defensive end spot and sacked the Township QB for a 6 yard loss, forcing a punt that ended the first quarter.

The second quarter began with McDevitt in possession at the McD 33. Jones bulled his way for 3 tough yards before Koncar again targeted Harrell, this time for a 10 yard gain and a first down. Jones ran for 4 before an incomplete pass, and then the Koncar-to-Harrell connection gained 5 yards to the MT 45. Facing a 4^th-and-1, the Crusaders chose to run Jones but the senior was swarmed as soon as he got the handoff and the Streaks had stopped McDevitt again. Now at the MT 44, Manheim Township completed an 18 yard pass before Mosey dropped a Streaks ball carrier for a 4 yard loss. After a 2 yard running gain and an incompletion, Township had a 4^th-and-7 situation at the McD 40. They completed a screen pass, but the Crusader defenders eventually managed to drag the receiver down inches short of the first down. The next McDevitt series typified the Crusader offense today. It featured two incompletions, a motion penalty and a fumbled snap that Koncar managed to convert into a 6 yard gain. The Comasco punt that followed carried to the MT 22 as the end of the half approached. The Streaks ran for 5 yards and then 2 more, and then managed 4 yards and a first down on a third-and-3 dive. Following another 2 yard run, sophomore defensive end Ryan Kuntz batted down an attempted pass and Manheim gained 6 yards on a counter. With a 4^th-and-2 at the MT 41, the Streaks pulled the anxious McDevitt defense off sides with a staggered count and the drive continued. Two short runs later had Township facing 3^rd-and-9 at the MT 47. The Streaks’s QB launched a long pass down the left sideline. Senior cornerback Darryl Hadley turned around in time to see the receiver make the catch, and then tried to catch him before he scored. Hadley lost the race and McDevitt had a two touchdown deficit in the waning moments of the half. On the last play of the half junior running back Billy Stair darted into the Streak’s secondary and raced for pay dirt before being hauled down at the 5 yard line. All in all, Manheim Township out gained McDevitt 166 yards (57 rushing, 109 passing) to 144 (45 rushing, 99 passing) and had 6 first downs to McDevitt’s 4. Koncar was 5 for 9 for 45 yards and Harrell was the leading receiver with 3 catches for 19 yards. Jones carried 6 times for 24 yards.

The remainder of the scrimmage featured alternating 10 play possessions by the reserves on both teams, and the McDevitt reserves plaed very well. The defense held Township in check, keeping the Streaks from entering Crusader territory. The McDevitt offense was again highlighted by the running of freshman Jameel Poteat and the passing of freshman QB Matt Johnson. Poteat had a number of impressive runs, including a 36 yard scamper that set up McDevitt’s only score of the morning. That came on a 16 yard pass from Johnson to Houston, with Poteat tacking on the conversion.

McDevitt opens the 2007 season on Saturday, September 1^st, against Central Dauphin East. The game, at McDevitt Field is scheduled to start at 10:30 AM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

Obviously we’re not happy. One of the things we talked about this week is looking for consistency. Our players must have thought I meant consistently bad in all areas because we were consistent, just bad in all areas. We need to pick it up and have a great week of practice and guys have to start stepping up and showing some leadership. I’m very disappointed in all phases; we didn’t look good, we didn’t block, we didn’t tackle, we didn’t burst out of our breaks as receivers. We just looked bad all around and we have to get better. It could have been that we got a little big-headed, but the one good thing about this is that we got their attention about showing up each week. Also, historically when we have to go inside to practice for more than a day we don’t play well. Manheim Township has the advantage of turf so they were outside for all but one half of a practice while we’re in a small gym. But we can’t use that as an excuse. We had no emotion and we’ll fix that. Now Steve Mosey did a good job at defensive tackle and we’re very pleased with him. Ryan Kuntz did a very good job when we put him in at defensive end, and Billy Stair popped that long run. Then, among the younger guys, Matt Johnson continues to improve at quarterback. We have some young receivers improving and some of our starters, who are supposed to be Division 1 prospects, are being pushed and we may have to give the younger guys some playing time.

Assistant Coach/AD Tommy Mealy

I think that, in the end, this could be a good wakeup call for our team. With that being said, last week Conestoga Valley was not a good football team and our kids were buying into our potential more than they should have. They were going through the motions today, definitely nothing to write home about. The good thing is that we have a lot of coaching to do and that’s why we’re here. The first two plays of the game we missed two tackles and, from there, it kind of snowballed on us. We also had two penalties jumping off sides, we had a punt blocked, we had two fumbled snaps and some technical errors on some of our techniques and position work. East is an improved program; we saw that last night. It’s our home opener and we’re looking forward to that. We’ll be ready, though.

WR/DB/P/PK Mike Comasco

We weren’t focused at all today, we didn’t have our heads into the game and you could tell. When I get a rush like that when I’m punting I just try to get it off as fast as possible. Maybe next time I try to roll it out and try to kick it on the run. We can’t allow this to happen again. We have to come out next week and turn this around. If we come out in the proper frame of mind we should do well against East.

OL/DL Vince Sullivan

We just didn’t bring any intensity today. We didn’t stay low as a group. The coaches have been telling us to stay low and fire off the ball, and we didn’t do that. It showed on the field; we didn’t bring it. I think we may have taken Manheim Township for granted. Up front they had some big boys and they played physical. We just have to match that physicality and come off the ball. After this East is probably confident so we have to come out and show them what we’re made of.

FB/DB/DE Evan McGovern

I like playing different positions. It’s a lot more work but it makes me more versatile. I like all of the positions that I’m at now. We weren’t really focused today. We didn’t have a really good week of practice and we just came out flat. We let them drive the ball on us and they got a couple of catches. We weren’t that great. I wouldn’t say that we were overconfident, we just weren’t focused. We weren’t ready to play today. Playing defensive end is tough but I have to do what I have to do to get in there. We’re going to have an intense week of practice so we’ll be ready for East. 

OL/DL Ed Mera

We made a whole bunch of mental and physical mistakes today. We’re going to have to pick it up for next week. I don’t thing anybody on the line has a job; we’re still fighting for a position. We have to work harder if we expect to beat East.

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