November 8- For the fifth year in a row the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders, under the direction of Head Coach Jeff Weachter, have opened the District 3 Class AAAA playoffs with a win. This afternoon’s victim was the Lions of Red Lion, who fought gamely but eventually succumbed to the Crusaders, 28-6 at Harrisburg High’s Severance Field.  McDevitt jumped to an early 14-0 lead, allowed a quick touchdown and then kept the Lions at arm’s length the rest of the game. The Crusaders started sophomore quarterback Matt Johnson, who had missed the last two regular season games with a concussion. Johnson played superbly, throwing for two touchdowns and 163 yards and running for another, but Weachter’s plan was to keep Johnson as protected as possible. As a result, McDevitt milked a 20-6 lead for much of an uneventful second half, shunning the spread offensive sets that offer limited protection to the quarterback. The Crusaders did manage to tack on a late score to account for the final margin. The McDevitt defense, coming off a woeful performance against Erie McDowell, yielded only 192 total yards to their York League foes. The Lions found some success running the ball but, except for a first quarter 50 yard touchdown pass, Red Lion’s passing attempts usually ended up with an incompletion or a sack.

Red Lion won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, a decision the Lions’ coaching staff immediately regretted. Junior safety Jonathan Duckett fielded the high kickoff at the McD 23, made a quick move to his right and sprinted down the middle of the field untouched for an 82 yard touchdown. The score gave the rugged safety a rare chance to show off his sprinter’s speed (he is a member of McDevitt’s District 3 championship 4 X 100 relay team) and provided his team with a lead that would last throughout the game. Kicker Kyle McDonnell drilled the first of his 4 perfect PAT’s and the Crusaders had a 7-0 lead with a mere 12 seconds elapsed form the game clock. Red Lion took the ensuing kickoff to the RL 29 and used an effective ground game to advance into McDevitt territory, but a sack by junior defensive end Ryan Kuntz delayed the advance and helped force a Lion punt that rolled dead on the McD 5. Sophomore running back Jameel Poteat, who had another superb game for the Crusaders, could only manage a yard on his first two carries so Johnson attempted his first pass, to junior Salath Williams. The pass fell incomplete but the Red Lion defender was called for holding, extending the McDevitt possession. Poteat ran for 5 before dancing for a 22 yard gain, to the McD 42. Johnson passed to junior Aaron Sye for 3 yards and then Poteat gained 7 more to move the chains. After a 4 yard Poteat scamper senior Aaron Marks made his usual splashy entrance by darting for a 21 yard gain, to the RL 23. One play later Johnson lobbed a pass down the left sideline toward the closely-guarded Williams. The lanky junior extended to make a fingertip catch just as he crossed the goal line, and the McDevitt lead was now 14-0, with 3:25 left in the quarter. The Lions next series featured the hard running of quarterback Dalton Miller, who quickly moved his team to midfield. Miller then used an effective play fake to freeze the McDevitt secondary before passing to wide-open tight end Todd Maciejewski. Maciejewski rumbled across the goal line and Red Lion had pulled within a touchdown of the tying the game. However, the snap on the PAT attempt sailed over the holder’s outstretched arms and the score remained 14-6, with 31 seconds left in the quarter. After a 17 yard kickoff return by junior Jeremy Cornelius and two short runs the quarter ended.

McDevitt’s first two possessions of the second quarter both ended uncharacteristically: with interceptions. The first drive featured a splendid screen pass to Poteat, but a mix-up resulted in Johnson passing to a Lion defender at the RL 10. The Crusader defense forced a punt and the Crusaders were soon threatening to score again. This time Marks had a 23 yard run to spark the drive, but a 35 yard Poteat scoring run was cancelled by a holding penalty. Two plays later Johnson threw another pick that was returned to the McD 48, but senior linebacker Dante Ushery and junior tackle Stephan Belle teamed up to sack Miller for an 8 yard loss to end the threat. The teams then traded punts before McDevitt regained possession at the McD 17 with 2:44 left in the half. Poteat ran for 4 yards and Marks ran for 3 before a motion penalty left the Crusaders facing a 3^rd-and-8. Johnson then targeted Sye for a clutch 14 yard gain, with Sye skipping out-of-bounds to stop the clock. Next the heady sophomore passed to Cornelius for a 21 yard gain, to the RL 45. After a 13 yard Poteat scamper was called back by a holding penalty, Johnson dropped back to pass but was soon scrambling to his left as protection broke down. He raced toward the line of scrimmage and then pulled up and flipped a pass to senior Kyle Koncar. Koncar made a juggling catch at the RL 16, good for a 26 yard gain as the end of the half approached. Weachter’s next play call was a good one. Johnson again dropped back to pass, turned and lofted a screen pass to Poteat, who galloped the final 16 yards accompanied by a trio of McDevitt blockers. Johnson had directed the 83 yard scoring drive in 2 minutes and 22 seconds, using 7 plays, and McDevitt had a 21-6 half time lead.

The third quarter was a real snoozer. It soon became obvious that the Red Lion offense was no match for the McDevitt defense. Short running gains in the early downs would inevitably lead to a disastrous third down passing attempt and a punt. The Crusaders were content to play it close to the vest to protect their lead and their quarterback. Both squads punted twice in the quarter before it ended with the Lions punting to the RL 7. Two Poteat runs totaled 8 yards and then Johnson passed to Williams for 5 yards and a first down. Two plays later McDevitt was facing a third-and-3 at the McD 27. Johnson used a staggered cadence to draw the defense off sides and the drive continued. Poteat had a 6 yarder before Johnson passed to Koncar coming out of the backfield. The pass hit Koncar in stride in the left flat and the speedy senior raced for a 24 yard gain, to the RL 38. Poteat then fought for a hard-earned 14 yard gain, moving a pile of defenders with him. On the next play Johnson faked a handoff and circled around left end. He looked like he was content to get the first down and cruise out of bounds, but blocks by Cornelius and Koncar gave Johnson a lane down the sideline. He skipped down the sideline and finished off the 10 play, 93 yard scoring drive with a nifty 24 yard touchdown run. Red Lion had one last try to score and managed to move to the McD 24. From there Miller passed over the middle but the pass was tipped and then intercepted by senior linebacker Pat Vargo.Vargo took off for the goal line with the entire Red Lion team in pursuit and Vargo’s teammates running interference. Bodies were flying everywhere as Vargo weaved his way down field, avoiding tackles. He found some open field around the RL 40 but soon ran out of gas and was downed at the RL 24 as the home crowd cheered happily. The Crusaders then ran out the clock and put the finishing touch on Coach Weachter’s 100^th career victory.

Next Friday, November 14^th, the Crusaders travel to York to meet the 4^th seeded William Penn Bearcats in a quarterfinal matchup. Game time is 7:00 PM

We got a good boost when Duckett returned the opening kickoff. We know he can do a lot of things and we’d like to play him on offense but he means so much to our defense. Then we take the next drive and we go right down and score and then I thought we relaxed a little bit. We gave up that big play. We tried to be a little more conservative than we normally are because we’re protecting Matt. We didn’t want to run a lot of spread and have him take a lot of hits so we went back to old school, early McDevitt years football. You know, full backfield and running the ball. But it’s good to get the win, especially after these last two weeks. Hopefully our timing will come back when Matt has a full week of practice and take most of the reps again. Defensively we just have to tackle. We work so hard in practice on tackling and we just missed too many tackles today. Overall Matt did well. The timing wasn’t quite there. The interceptions, well, everyone is going to say it’s him but on the first one the receiver took it too deep. He was supposed to run a slant and it ended up looking like a post and Matt threw it where he should have been. And on the second one I thought and the coaches on the sideline thought that it would have been a completion if the receiver hadn’t slowed down on the final two steps. Matt did what he had to do to get things done. It was very limited today. We know we have a good defense. We looked at the film and we were in position to make most of the plays against McDowell. We work on tackling every week but we really went back and worked on breaking down. For the most part it was good today but then we had some missed tackles. We had a great week of practice, but, then again, we had good practices the last two weeks. I thought that we would have been sharper against McDowell . The older kids told the younger ones that the intensity is going to jack up because it’s the playoffs and for the most part they’ve responded well. York High is athletic. They have a quarterback who can run and throw and he’s dangerous getting out of the pocket. They have two good running backs, a big, 6’5” receiver who’s going to UConn so we’ll have our hands full with them, but I think our team is going to be all right.  

Defensive Coordinator Pat Berry

Today we played good defense, especially in the second half. In the first half I think we were just a little bit over-anxious. We were missing wide open tackles. We blitzed a couple of times right into plays and ran past it. We made very few adjustments at half time. The kids just came out and played well in the second half. We did a much better job on the veer than we did last week. Actually that was a tough offense last week and people should be concerned about our defense, but we’re going to build on this game. We have some young kids and they’re getting better every week. I went down to see York last night. They have a lot of talent, some good speed, their quarterback is good and they have some nice running backs. It’s definitely going to be a challenge.

RB Jameel Poteat

Red Lion was a very good team who came out and fought hard right away. At first we were a little shaky but we got it together. When I get in a middle of a pile like I did today, well, that’s where all the work on the squats in the winter comes in. I just keep moving my legs; they’re real strong. The playoffs are “Go hard or go home”. We have to have a good week of practice and do everything right because York High is a really good team.

LB Dante Ushery

I don’t think we really practiced well the last two weeks, but this week we stepped it up in practice. We felt that we had something to prove to the western teams, that we’re still in this thing. I thought Red Lion would have played us a little tougher. They looked tougher on the films but I guess that can be misleading sometimes. I think for me, a senior, that there is more of a sense of urgency in these playoffs. There is an intensity that comes with trying to get a state championship. I haven’t had it in 4 years, came pretty close, but I think we have a good shot this year.

LB Pat Vargo

After last week, when an offense is that successful against our defense, you have to ask yourself, “Do we want to play or not?” We wanted to dominate this team defensively and I think we did. We used our basic defense, the same one we used against Erie McDowell. Last week we didn’t execute and we missed a lot of tackles. If we do our assignments we’re a very difficult defense to score on. On the interception, oh my gosh, I had it and I said to myself, “You’ve got to score!” I’ve never scored in a varsity game. Going all the way down field I started to run out of gas and I just couldn’t make it. During the playoffs everything is more intense. Everyone is more focused and we all know it’s one-and-done, especially the older guys. We try to stress to the younger guys that it’s a big deal when it’s playoff time in Pennsylvania .

S/KR Jonathan Duckett

In practice this week we knew that Red Lion wasn’t that good on kickoffs so that was a point of emphasis. We did what we needed to do. Our blockers came back, set the blocks and I just took it from there. They made a nice wall. It’s always fun to run out in the open with the ball! That’s a good start for us. We were disciplined on defense today. We had to play our positions; we had to do everything right and we had to come out and smash them in the mouth.