November 14- The Bishop McDevitt Crusaders advanced in the District 3 Class AAAA playoffs tonight by pounding the York High Bearcats, 39-7, at Smalls Athletic Field. The Crusaders exploded out of the locker room and scored on the first four possessions to thoroughly demoralize their York League opponents. Smothering pass coverage by cornerbacks Chris Houston and Corey Ford combined with a lethal pass rush to disarm the Bearcats’ most dangerous weapon, its long passing game. On offense sophomore quarterback Matt Johnson spread his completions among six talented receivers and sophomore running back Jameel Poteat topped 100 yards rushing behind the effective McDevitt offensive line. After dropping the last two regular season games the Crusaders have now won consecutive playoff contests in preparation for a major challenge: undefeated Wilson .

For the second week in a row junior Jonathan Duckett jump-started the game with a long kickoff return. His weaving, 54 yard return gave McDevitt excellent field position, at the YK 24. Poteat then ran for two yards before Johnson’s first pass of the evening found a home in the soft hands of junior Salath Williams. Williams cradled Johnson’s accurate toss in the corner of the end zone and McDevitt had a 6-0 lead with 51 seconds expired on the game clock. Senior Kyle McDonnell was short on the PAT attempt. After the ensuing kickoff the Crusaders surprised York by coming out in a 3-4 defense, with linebackers Dante Ushery and Pat Vargo moving up to defensive end and Duckett moving up to linebacker. The Bearcats immediately threw to Malik Generett, the 6’5” UConn-bound wide receiver, but Houston had tight coverage. Two plays later Vargo had the first of a multitude of McDevitt sacks, forcing a punt. Senior Kyle Koncar fielded that punt and darted 17 yards, to the YK 31. Poteat then carried three consecutive times, netting 26 yards and advancing the ball to the YK 4. Sophomore fullback Sean Barowski bulled just short of the goal line before Poteat finished the drive with a 1 yard plunge that stretched the McDevitt lead to 12-0, with 7:17 left in the quarter (another McDonnell PAT kick was unsuccessful). After the Crusaders kicked off the Bearcats managed a couple of first downs before Houston and Ford swatted away two long passes, leading to another York punt. Koncar had a short 5 yard punt return to set up McDevitt at the McD 27. From there the Crusaders began a 16 play drive that used up what was left of the first quarter and extended into the second. It began with a 9 yard Johnson-to-Williams hookup. After a motion penalty against McDevitt Poteat moved the chains with a 7 yard run, and then the tough soph fought for 5 more. Johnson threw an incompletion before connecting with junior Aaron Sye for 9 more yards and a first down at the McD 48. Two plays later junior Jeremy Cornelius had a clutch 24 yard reception on third down to keep the drive alive. Then, after a Poteat sweep lost 6 yards and an incompletion, Koncar went low to save an under-thrown Johnson pass and gained 13 yards. On 4^th down Poteat fought for a 4 yard gain and a first down, to the YK 13. On the last play of the quarter Johnson faked a handoff and ran around right end for a 10 yard gain.

The second quarter opened with McDevitt on the YK 3. Poteat carried twice for 2 yards before Barowski barreled in for the score. After a pass for the 2 point conversion went astray McDevitt had an 18-0 lead, with 10:41 left in the half. On their next possession the Bearcats did manage to complete a long pass to Generett, as quarterback Jordan Davis pass to the talented senior, who made a circus catch for a 32 yard gain, to the McD 37. But the Crusader defense rose to the occasion again, forcing consecutive incomplete passes as McDevitt regained possession at the McD 30. This time the Crusaders used 14 plays to score. A crucial third down, 13 yard completion to Cornelius started things off, then Poteat had a 5 yard gain. On the next play Poteat darted for a 34 yard gain, but a holding penalty shortened the gain to 15 yards. Senior Aaron Marks came on to run for 7 yards and then he posted a 5 yard gain, good for a first down at the YK 20. Two plays later Johnson overthrew a wide-open Koncar, running a wheel route, on 3^rd-and-12. Undaunted, Johnson dropped back to pass on 4^th down and completed a pass to Koncar for a 17 yard gain to the YK 5. Two Barowski smashes moved the ball to the goal line and Johnson snuck it in from there. McConnell tacked on the extra point and McDevitt lead had bulged to 25-0. York moved into McDevitt territory in the waning moments of the half but freshman Noah Spence sacked Davis on 4^th down to give the Crusaders one more crack before half time. From the YK40 Johnson passed for a short gain to Williams before his “Hail Mary” attempt fell incomplete to end the half.

The second half began with a dispirited York team receiving the kickoff and punting the ball away three plays later. McDevitt started with a 28 yard Johnson-to-Koncar hookup, but a penalty and a sack doomed the advance. Koncar came on to punt for the only time of the game and the Bearcats regained possession at the YK 11. Davis passed for a 13 yard gain but 3 incompletions followed. When York dropped to punt the McDevitt rush, led by linebacker Fred Dietz, swarmed the punter and the Crusaders took over at the YK 18. Poteat gained 9 yards on two carries and then Johnson drew the Bearcats offside with a staggered cadence. With the ball spotted on the YK 4 Johnson dropped back and fired a bullet to Williams for the score. McDonnell’s successful PAT made the score 32-0, with 4:39 left in the third quarter. When York fumbled the ensuing kickoff and the Crusader’s Colin York recovered at the YK 25 it was time for some experimentation by McDevitt Coach Jeff Weachter. The Crusaders lined up in the popular “Wildcat” formation, with Poteat receiving the shotgun snap and Duckett lined up next to him. Johnson was lined up at split end on one side and Marks was on the other. Marks went in motion and took a handoff from Poteat and sped around left end for a 13 yard gain. The same play yielded 3 yards before a backfield mix-up resulted in a fumble that was recovered by the Bearcats at the YK 12. The next two plays gave an indication of how explosive the York offense could be. First running back Wilfredo Martinez broke free and raced for a 58 yard gain before being run down by 3 Crusaders. Then Davis threw a 30 yard touchdown pass to Newt Miller for York ’s first (and last) points of the night. The Bearcats followed with an on-side kick attempt, but the ball rolled out of bounds at the YK 49 and the Crusaders took over. Poteat ran for 5 yards and then fought for 5 more to gain the first down. After a 2 yard Barowski run Cornelius made another fine catch, good for a 15 yard gain to the YK 22 as the Quarter ended.

McDevitt’s drive ended up sputtering out at the 18 and York took over. Crusader Defensive Coordinator Pat Berry decided to dial up the blitz and the result was consecutive sacks of the harried Davis . The Bearcat’s next punt drifted to the YK 44 and Koncar ran it back to the 28. Then facing a 3^rd-and- 7, Johnson passed to Sye for 11 yards and another clutch third down conversion. With the ball now at the YK14 Poteat sliced through the line for a 7 yard gain. After another Poteat effort lost a yard Johnson called an audible at the line of scrimmage and flipped a scoring pass to wide-open tight end Terahje Gratkowski. McDonnell ended the scoring with his third straight PAT and, after the Crusader reserves stopped York one final time, thoughts turned to the undefeated Lancaster-Lebanon League champs.

Next Friday, November 23rd, the Crusaders travel to West Lawn to take on the Wilson Bulldogs. Wilson, a physical, senior-dominated outfit, has been the favorite to win the district since preseason. Game time is 7:00 PM.

We knew that we could do some things against them offensively, running and throwing. We thought that we could out-physical them and I thought our offensive line did that, especially early in the game. The big key, defensively, was to shut them down from big plays and they only got one. We had to contain the quarterback so we went back to a defense that we ran a lot last year, the 3-4. That put Dante and Vargo up on the edges and moved Duckett back home to inside linebacker. That really helped us with their team speed, because their quarterback can make some plays. He has a strong arm and he can really run. Our three inside guys and our linebackers did a great job. What really made the defense go was the play of Chris Houston. Most teams had to double cover their big receiver and Chris had him by himself and he did a great job. On his only big play Chris had great coverage and the kid made a great, one-handed catch. We feel that with Matt back and opening up the offense again that we’re going to score but the big key will be the defense, and I was very happy with their play tonight. We rotated a lot of guys in at nose tackle and they all played really well. Pyzikiewicz is a kid who is coming off an injury and missed the first 7 or 8 weeks of the season. He came back and is working hard and does a good job when he’s in there. Wilson is big and they’re physical, especially their defense. They have the front 8 back from last year when they really shut down Harrisburg and their two inside linebackers are both about 6’2”, 240 and 4 year starters. We have to really look at them and come up with a couple of things. I’ve seen them twice, once against Warwick and once against Penn Manor, so I have some idea about Wilson . 

Assistant Coach/AD Tommy Mealy

I knew that the focus all week was good and we had a great walk-through yesterday. This was more about us. Again, obviously it’s Mid Penn against York County and our kids wanted to play well. I’m especially proud of the secondary guys. Chris Houston and Corey Ford really covered well today. We really built this up as a challenge, especially for Chris. He held that big time receiver to two catches, one late in the game. Who knows, maybe we’ll see Chris playing that guy on TV in a couple of years in a college game. I also think we got our swagger back tonight. You see guys like Terahje Gratkowski stepping up, blocking, and he caught a TD pass. It’s the little things like that we have to improve to win against Wilson next week. The question as a staff is, what do you want to take away, the run or the pass? We didn’t think that the pass could beat us so we jammed the box and covered one-on-one. We were technically sound in our coverage. Next week will be one of the most anticipated matchups in the state. Going into it we feel confident against that type of team but they have great personnel. 

QB Matt Johnson

We knew that if we came right out of the gate and hit them with a big shot that we could deflate their momentum since, coming in, they’ve only lost one game this season. That was our goal. We also knew that we could pound the middle and get Jameel some yards in the second half and pass when we had to. It’s easy to complete a pass when you have 4 top receivers instead of one. If I scramble I know that I can rely on any of them to catch the ball. The team’s confidence is very high right now. After the two losses we knew we had to come out and establish ourselves again as Bishop McDevitt. I feel that we’ve done that so far.  I haven’t seen film of Wilson but I know that they have a big front 7. We’ll see what we can do against them.

OG Vince Sullivan

We wanted to come out and do our thing. We had a real good week of practice and we wanted to come out and show them what Mid Penn football is all about. I think we did that. We prepared for a 6-2 front all week but yesterday Coach Harvey told us that they may run a 3-3 stack. That’s what they gave us. Coach Harvey had a funny feeling about that so we were ready for that, too. When we came into the playoffs we wanted to look at it like a new season. We want to go 6-0 so we have to play hard next week against Wilson, a tough team.

LB Fred Dietz

We have been working on our blitzes and we had a couple of them set up just right.  We made the plays and had a good game. We had their offense pretty much contained. We’ve been working on the Veer a whole lot and I think we have it down now. Our corners did a very nice job. York came right at those guys but they did the job. We started the season off very strong, then we had a few mistakes in the last two games. We picked it up last game and then we came out today ready to play. Yes, today’s my 17^th birthday.

CB Corey Ford

We came in and put Chris Houston on their big Division One receiver, who’s going to UConn, and it was Chris’ job was to stick with him the whole game. I thought I did pretty well on the back side, we got good pressure and it worked out pretty good. They tried to pick on me a little bit but that’s been going on all year. I’m used to it now. In those last two regular season games we lost our swagger. We’ve gotten our swagger back these last two weeks. I don’t know anything about Wilson except we have to beat them.

NT Anthony Pyzikiewicz

To get penetration from the nose tackle you have to constantly work, to keep trying and do whatever you can. It’s hard work but you do it for the team. We did our best to keep pressure on the quarterback the whole game. I’m coming off an injury that made me miss a lot of time so I have to step it up for the team. It’s been hard sitting and watching but I’m happy to be in there now. We’ve heard that Wilson is a good team so it will be a challenge.

WR Salath Williams

I thought that this would be a tough game. We heard that they averaged 51 points a game or something like that. We knew that we had to come out and execute and we did. I didn’t have any problem getting open but their corners played good. Actually, I’m glad that we lost those last two games! It opened up our eyes; I thought we were getting big-headed prior to those two games and that woke us up a little bit. I hear that Wilson is a good football team but I heard that York was a good football team, too, so you never know.