September 20- Utilizing a quick strike offensive attack and a suffocating defense, the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders powered past the Central Dauphin Rams, 47-17 this morning at McDevitt Field. After spotting the Rams a 17-7 lead as a result of shoddy special teams play and untimely turnovers, the Crusaders used a late first half touchdown to propel them to a 34-0 second half advantage. Sophomore quarterback Matt Johnson had an inspiring performance, ignoring the pain of an injured throwing hand to pass for 269 yards and 3 touchdowns. Runners Jameel Poteat and Aaron Marks both topped the 100 yard mark rushing, and wide receiver Salath Williams was outstanding. The lanky junior caught 8 of Johnson’s 14 completions for 197 yards and 2 scores. The McDevitt defense surrendered only one score for the fourth week in a row, a turnover-aided field goal. Linebackers Fred Dietz, Pat Vargo and Dante Ushery shut down the versatile Central Dauphin attack with aggressive play. Dynamic senior cornerback Chris Houston blanked Rams receivers with suffocating coverage, helping the Crusader secondary to hold CD to only 48 passing yards.

McDevitt’s Poteat took the game’s opening kickoff 19 yards, to the McD 23. Three plays later Johnson completed his first pass to Williams, good for a 39 yard gain into CD territory. Johnson ran a keeper for 4 yards before passing to Aaron Sye for 5 more. After Poteat was held for no gain and a motion penalty was called against McDevitt, Johnson’s pass to senior Kyle Koncar was 2 yards short of a first down and CD took over at the CD 35. The defense wasted no time in impacting the game. On 3^rd and 5, CD’s starting quarterback, Tyler Thompson, was hit by Ushery as he attempted to pass and fumbled. Vargo hopped on the loose ball at the CD 36. Then, after a 1 yard Poteat run and an incompletion, Johnson hit Sye on a deep corner route and the junior strolled into the end zone for the game’s first score. Kyle McDonnell added the extra point and McDevitt led 7-0, with 6:33 left in the first quarter. CD’s Marcus Armstrong took the ensuing kickoff at the 12 and broke free at midfield. Only a diving tackle by Jeremy Cornelius at the McD 5 prevented Armstrong from scoring. The Rams versatile senior, Justin Shirk, carried twice for a total of 4 yards before replacing Thompson at quarterback. Shirk mishandled his first shotgun snap, however, and Dietz dove on the rolling pigskin at the McD 5. Johnson gave the Crusaders some breathing room with a 17 yard run on an option play, but an 11 yard sack by a blitzing Shirk forced a McDevitt punt. Sophomore Ted Deily, punting from his own end zone, was swarmed by the Ram rush and the punt was blocked. CD’s Kris Weikel recovered the ball in the end zone and the score was tied, 7-7 with 1:29 left in the quarter. After a 21 yard Poteat kickoff return, Johnson’s pass to the right flat was picked off by the ever-present Shirk, who strolled 31 yards untouched to pay dirt, giving CD a shocking 14-7 lead. Poteat’s next kickoff return went for 33 yards and, after a 3 yard Marks run and Williams lost 3 on a short pass, the eventful first quarter ended.

McDevitt’s first possession of the second quarter stalled at the McD 40, so Deily came on to boot a 34 yard punt. The Rams moved the ball successfully for one of the few times of the game, helped by a pass from Shirk to Lewis Correale on a 4^th down fake punt. Great coverage by Houston on a couple of long pass attempts caused the drive to grind to a halt near midfield, though, so the Rams punted to the McD 6. The Crusaders started the next drive with a 4 yard plunge by fullback Sean Barowski, followed by a 6 yarder by Poteat, good for a first down. Poteat ran for 3 and McDevitt was hit with an illegal substitution penalty, and then Poteat took an option pitch and bolted around left end before being collared after a 44 yard gain to the CD 45. Johnson threw an incompletion and then ran a keeper around right end. The QB was stopped after a 9 yard gain and looked to be down at the CD 36, but the ball squirted loose and CD recovered, despite the protests of the McDevitt coaching staff. The Crusaders were quickly hit with a 15 yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty, giving the Rams possession inside McDevitt territory. A 15 yard Shirk scramble on 3^rd down helped CD advance to the McD 20, but the Rams were stopped by tight pass defense, including a near-interception by Houston in the corner of the end zone. CD’s Daniel Fisher came on to drill a 33 yard field goal to stretch the Ram lead to 17-7, with only 1:27 left in the half, but that was plenty of time for McDevitt to answer the score with one of their own. Jonathan Duckett advanced the short kickoff to the McD 22 and Poteat took a short Johnson pass 15 yards. After 2 incompletions Johnson drilled Williams with a 29 yard pass to the CD 34. Then, after 2 more passes barely missed, Johnson took a wide snap and avoided the CD rush as he fired the ball down the right sideline. Williams turned and made the catch while protecting the ball from the defender and fell into the end zone to cap the 78 yard scoring drive that took only 42 seconds off the clock. McDonnell’s extra point attempt was blocked, so CD took a 17-13 lead into the locker room.

An inspired McDevitt defense began the second half by forcing CD into a 3-and-out, and the Rams punted to the McD 46. Two Poteat runs and one by Barowski left the Crusaders facing a 4^th-and-1 and the punt team took the field. Ushery, the up back, moved along the line of scrimmage apparently checking blocking assignments. Suddenly Ushery ducked behind center, took the snap and bulled ahead for 5 yards and a first down at the CD 40. Johnson was sacked for a yard loss and then Marks ran for 6 yards. Johnson kept the drive alive with a 10 yard pass to Williams that moved the sticks before a motion penalty pushed McDevitt back to the CD 30. Johnson then threw another floater toward the right corner, and Williams again went high for the catch, falling out of bounds at the CD 1. Poteat scored on the next play to give McDevitt a 19-17 lead, so Crusader Head Coach Jeff Weachter decided to go for the two point conversion. Johnson faked a handoff and passed to the far corner of the end zone where tight end Trahje Gratkowski was waiting. The sure-handed senior made the catch and the Crusader lead was now 21-17. That was followed by another Ram 3-and-out and, after a 4 yard Dawan Smith punt return, McDevitt took over at the McD 24. Marks then took the handoff and followed blocks by Barowski and guard Andrew Miscannon, breaking free down the right sideline. Marks outraced the speedy Ram secondary to finish the shocking 76 yard scoring run. McDonnell missed the extra point, but Marks’ run posted the Crusaders to a comfortable 27-17 lead. Central Dauphin managed a first down before punting again and McDevitt regained possession at its own 14. Poteat rumbled for 19 yards to start things off and one play later Marks added an impressive run, spinning and twisting for a 33 yard gain that ended with a 5 yard facemask penalty against the Rams. Poteat added 2 short runs before the quarter ended with McDevitt at the CD 27.

On the second play of the 4^th quarter Johnson passed to Williams in the left corner and the lanky junior came through again, leaping to gather in the throw for his second score of the game and a 34-17 lead. On the kickoff that followed, Armstrong watched the ball bounce past him and turned to pick it up. But the speedy Cornelius dove on the ball at the2 as the home town crowd roared.Poteat swept right end for the score on the next play and McDevitt had exploded to a 41-17 lead with 10:59 left on the clock. CD’s Colton Charles gave the Ram faithful something to cheer about when he returned the kickoff 51 yards to the McD 32, but 2 plays later Shirk booted a low snap and, after a scramble, Dietz scooped up the ball and motored 55 yards for an apparent touchdown. The play was called back to the CD 30 due to a blocking penalty, but it only delayed the inevitable. Poteat ran for 3 and then 11 to gain the first down, but 2 penalties moved the ball back to the McD 28. Johnson then passed to Williams for a 17 yard gain, followed by a 7 yard toss to Koncar. Now at the CD 4, Barowski only needed 2 carries to score the game’s final points. The Rams next drive was ended by a sack by senior Lukas Mason and junior Harrison Mutch made his debut as a McDevitt quarterback. The Crusaders ran out the clock, finishing the impressive win.

Next Saturday, September 27^th, the Crusaders welcome the Lower Dauphin Falcons to McDevitt Field. Game time is 10:30 AM

They came out defensively and gave us a little bit different front than what they have shown all year. It hurt us a little bit in the run game in the first half. A couple of times in the first half Matt’s thumb was bothering him and the timing was a little off. He didn’t throw this week until Thursday. We knew we had some things in the passing game that would work. We gave CD everything they got in the first half; they didn’t earn anything. We stayed calm at the half and made some offensive adjustments. Coach Berry made no adjustments because the defensive staff did a great job of preparation this week. That includes the scout team, with Coach Minnich and Coach Everett preparing us for all the different shifts, formations and everything. Normally we don’t have to make a whole lot of offensive adjustments but we made some to our blocking schemes and obviously they worked. In hindsight it was a good test for us, to be down at half time and to have to play four quarters and face some adversity. The kids were great, they handled it well and hopefully this will make us a better football team. We knew at the half that the problem was us and we knew that we had plenty of offense and that we could shut them down defensively. We just had to improve special teams-wise because we could throw on them any time we wanted. On Matt’s interception he didn’t have a great read but the ball just fluttered out. We figured if Matt could throw that, if nothing else, we could throw all day on them. Matt’s a tough kid, but Kyle was ready to step up and so was Salath. Hopefully the thumb will be 100% next week and we can see him throw the ball the way he really throws it. Our kids love to run the 2 minute offense. If we could run all 2 ½ hours of practice on the 2 minute offense those kids would do it because they take so much pride in it. And not just the skill kids; the linemen take pride and they’re in such great shape that they can just line up on the ball and not be tired. I may be biased but I think Salath (Williams) is the best receiver in the state and we have other good receivers. Jeremy Cornelius would have had a touchdown if Matt could have thrown the ball like he usually can. Aaron Sye had a big touchdown and Kyle Koncar is coming back from an injury and Terahje (Gratkowski) had some big catches for us so we have some receivers now. When we sat down for our defense staff meeting we talked about whether to double cover that slot. That hurt us last year against the run, so we decided that we’re going to play the run and if Chris Houston is a Division 1 corner like we think he is then he should be able to shut down that receiver. He’s a pretty good receiver but Chris had to shut him down and he did. LD is a good football team; they’re very good defensively. They have some good athletes, they do some nice things on offense and I remember the last time they played here. Enough said.      

Defensive Coordinator Pat Berry

The kids really concentrated at practice. It’s all on them. They were making adjustments on the field. CD would go into a formation and they would just adapt to it. We came off the ball on defense and played really well. One thing we decided from the get-go was that Chris Houston and Corey Ford would play shut down on their two receivers. Chris is a good athlete and so is Corey and they just did their job. We got to Dante (Ushery) this week. I think he’s feeling a lot better and he’s a big part of our team. Freddy (Dietz) did a good job because he had to call a lot of things and adjust to a lot of things. We had them at half time and told them what we had to do. On defense I told them to keep on doing what we were doing. Lower Dauphin is a pretty good team. They have pretty good athletes, their tight end is a good player and their tailback is good so we’ll have to work hard again.

Assistant Coach Jamie Harvey

I think our conditioning played a major factor in this game. We may not have the biggest and strongest guys on the line, but they stay after it and stay after it. I think our conditioning definitely wears people out. I was happy with our play in the second half. I would like to see us sustain long drives. I want to see if we can grind it out down the field once it starts getting cold. I think LD is capable of doing a lot of different things. I think they’ll try to confuse us, show us a lot of different fronts similar to what CD did to the line in the first quarter.

FB Sean Barowski

We finally got our assignments right in the first half. We knew that we could run the ball against them and that’s what we started doing. I don’t know how tired CD got; they’re a good, physical team. We just took it to ‘em. We had great blocking. My touchdowns are due to my line; it’s as simple as that. It’s great to block for our tailbacks because they get good runs off my blocks and make me look good and make my job easier because they’re such good backs. I haven’t heard much about Lower Dauphin. We’ll have to see how they look on film.

RB Aaron Marks

My touchdown run happened fast. It was supposed to be 44 hip trail, and Sean just opened up that hole real nice. I just hit it and cut back and it was a touchdown. In the first half me and Poteat had to get used to their defense. We’re flow backs; every game we come out and see how we’re going to run against them. In the second half we attacked and it was touchdowns from there on out. It’s a good rotation with Poteat because we compliment each other. He comes in and gets his then gets a little water break and I go in and it’s the same result. Nothing’s different. Lower Dauphin is just another game. When we get our tapes we’ll go practice, make our corrections and come out Saturday to show the results.

WR Salath Williams

We practice all week passing the ball, moving the ball. Matt, with his hand not feeling that good, he still threw the ball pretty well. Coach Deuce always talks in the wide receiver drills about getting dominant. He threw the ball and I had to get dominant. When we got behind I was shocked. We shot ourselves in the foot and had dumb penalties. We picked it up, though, in the second half. Matt threw the ball well, for his hand being messed up. For LD it’s “Let’s Go”. It’s a division game.

OG Andrew Miscannon

My season has been pretty successful so far. We’re just physically dominating teams right now. We tire them out in the second half; we’re just out at them. We didn’t worry at all in the first half. We know that when we get to the locker room we will keep it calm. We know what we have to do, so we just go back out there and finish them off. I love playing on this field. Home turf, man, it is the best to play at home! You have all the crowd cheering; the energy is always there when you’re at home. We’re really well conditioned but it’s not just that. There’s always more energy in the second half because we know what we have to do: we have to go out, dominate and get the big win. For LD we’ll finish it here, we’ll look at the film Monday and we’ll go out and play.

OG/DT Vince Sullivan

We came out and started a little slow and let CD’s defense put some points on the board, but after half time we kicked it in, played physical and started rolling. Every game we come out better in the second half. Coach Harvey works us hard so conditioning is a big factor that the other teams don’t have. Not much confusion with the different sets. During practice this week we went over a lot of different defenses. They told us that there would be a lot of running around so we just followed our rules and did what we had to do. We work a lot on pass blocking, too. Coach Harvey emphasizes that we need to pass block like our mom’s back there and we have to save her life! We can’t let them touch the quarterback. Lower Dauphin is in our division and we have to show them what McDevitt football is all about if we want to go 5-0.

QB Matt Johnson

We started off slow but we made good adjustments at half time and we knew what to run. We just had to execute better. Throughout the week my hand was a little sore but once you get in a big game like this the adrenalin kicks in and you’re fine. Throwing to Salath is awesome. If you need to get bailed out all you need to do is just throw it up and he’ll go get it. On the first touchdown to Aaron (Sye) we knew we could get one-on-one on the back side so coach said get it to him and I did and he did the rest. I had questions early about running the option; I wasn’t sure I could hold on to the ball but, like I said, when the adrenalin kicks in everything goes away. On the fumble I thought my right knee hit but, you know, the officials called it and you can’t do anything about it. You can’t let something like that bother you, you just fight through it. We didn’t panic at any time. We scored right before the half. We knew we were beating ourselves, we could move the ball and they couldn’t. If that blocked punt doesn’t happen we were going into halftime up. Our line is great, one of the best lines in the state, no doubt. They give me time and I do my thing. I went to see Lower Dauphin against Altoona and I didn’t see anything we can’t handle.