September 25- It was a powerful, confident Bishop McDevitt football team that brutalized the Central Dauphin Rams, 48-13, tonight at Landis Field. A vibrant crowd of near 10,000 looked on in awe as the Crusaders dominated every facet of the game. Central Dauphin, a team that had looked so strong against State College a week ago, couldn't generate any consistency on offense and was virtually helpless against the versatile McDevitt attack. The Crusader's offensive line of center Steve Mosey; guards Tony Harris and Andrew Miscannon; tackles Victor Shaffer and Justen Garlic and tight ends Ryan Kuntz and Noah Spence led the way, as McDevitt produced 214 rushing yards and 225 through the air. The defense was stung by a long pass on CD's first possession, but otherwise frustrated the Ram's multiple-formation attack. Defensive ends Spence and Kuntz, tackle Stephan Belle and linebackers and Brock Dean and Fred Dietz limited CD to 89 rushing yards and forced 6 punts and 3 interceptions. An unmistakable presence on both sides of the line, however, was senior Jonathan Duckett. Normally the starting safety, Duckett filled in for the injured Sean Barowski at linebacker and rotated with Dietz at fullback and was always in the middle of the action. Long receptions, powerful blocks, interceptions, touchdown-saving tackles, Duckett did it all while constantly encouraging his teammates.

McDevitt wasted little time in getting on the scoreboard in the first quarter. After senior speedster Dawan Smith returned the opening kickoff 24 yards to the McD 29, brilliant junior quarterback Matt Johnson fired a bullet to senior Dan Leonard for a 9 yard gain. Then it was time for Jameel Poteat. The indestructible junior tailback started with a 2 yard run for a first down before racing for a 40 yard gain to the CD 20. Two plays later Poteat was high-stepping into the end zone for the game's first score. Freshman Connor Maloney drilled the PAT and McDevitt had a lead it would never relinquish, 7-0, with 9:51 left in the quarter. The Rams gave every indication that the game was going to be a shootout on the ensuing series when quarterback Lewis Correale found Marcus Simpson behind the Crusader secondary and hooked up for a 61 yard TD pass. Senior cornerback Corey Ford, who was victimized by the score, promptly blocked the PAT attempt to maintain the McDevitt lead at 7-6. Smith ran the following kickoff back to the CD 21 and Poteat followed a 4 yard run with a 22 yard gallop, to the McD 47. Johnson then passed to senior Salath Williams for a 29 yard gain and the Crusaders were threatening again, but Poteat fumbled at the CD 24 and the Rams recovered. CD managed a couple of first downs, moving into McDevitt territory, but the Crusader defense stiffened, forcing a punt that rolled dead at the McD 7. After a 4 yard Poteat run Johnson was sacked for a 3 yard loss as the first quarter ended.

 Now facing a 3rd-and-9 at the McD 8 yard line, head coach Jeff Weachter reached into his bag of tricks and pulled out a shovel pass to Duckett, who weaved his way down field for a 62 yard gain, to the CD 30. That play, with McDevitt facing a long third down within the shadow of the goal line and converting a 60 yard gain, broke open the flood gates. Three straight Poteat carries gained a first down and then Johnson and Poteat had short runs to set up a third-and-5 at the CD15. Johnson took the snap and fired a bullet low to Williams, running a slant from the right end. The lanky senior dove and gathered in the ball as he crossed the goal line and McDevitt's lead was 14-6, with 9:18 left in the half. On its next series the Rams got a first down courtesy of a McDevitt off sides penalty, but pressure from Kuntz and Spence forced Correale to throw a pair of incompletions and the Rams punted to the McD 17. Johnson quickly threw a swing pass to senior Aaron Sye who swerved and fought for a 23 yard gain. Then, after 3 Poteat carries netted 15 yards, Johnson found Sye again, this time for 9 yards, to the CD 36. On the next play Poteat burst over the right side and cruised to pay dirt. His 36 yard scoring jaunt (and Maloney's PAT) pushed the Crusader lead to 21-6, and there were still 3:50 left in the half. On the next possession CD coach Glen MacNamee decided to go to the air to get a score before the half. The strategy backfired when Duckett picked off a screen pass and returned it to the CD 7. The next play was supposed to be a fade to Williams in the corner of the end zone, but the senior slipped to the ground after the snap. Undeterred, Johnson simply drifted behind the line of scrimmage until his receiver got up and then lofted a soft pass where only the 6'4” receiver could get it. Williams made the catch and got his feet in bounds to complete the scoring play. CD managed to block the PAT attempt but McDevitt's lead was now 27-6. The Crusaders then held CD to a quick three-and-out, using time outs to leave some time on the clock, and, after Smith returned the Ram punt 6 yards to midfield, McDevitt looked to add a score before half time. A screen pass to Poteat was good for 13 yards before Sye gathered in a toss for 10 and another first down, to the CD 27. Poteat caught another 10 yard Johnson pass, but a holding penalty pushed the ball back to the CD 31. Johnson then hit senior Jeremy Cornelius on a beautiful scoring pass, but another holding penalty, followed by three incompletions, ended the threat. Suddenly the Rams showed a little life when running back Colton Charles, held in check by the Crusader defense the entire first half, broke loose for a 37 yard gain to the McD 29. On the next play Kuntz broke through the line and sacked Correale for a 10 yard loss, but the senior QB then passed to Simpson for a 35 yard gain, to the McD 4. A strong pass rush and solid secondary defense led to 2 Ram incompletions, though, and the clock ran out to end the half.

Central Dauphin came bursting out of the locker room to start the second half, looking and sounding like they were ready to make a game of it, but Ford had a better idea. On the second play of the half he jumped a sideline route at the CD 36 and outraced 2 pursuers to the score, making the margin 34-6, with only a minute elapsed in the half. The Rams gamely fought on, though, but were soon punting again to the Crusaders at the McD 32. Despite a 16 yard Johnson-to-Cornelius hookup the next Crusader drive stalled, and Ted Deily came on for his only punt of the night, a 38 yarder that rolled dead on the Ram 9 yard line. Another 3-and-out led to another CD punt, this time to the McD 38. A holding penalty moved the spot back to the 28 before Johnson lofted a pass toward the right sideline. CD's Simpson intercepted the ball and returned it for a touchdown. With the score now 34-13, the moribund Central Dauphin cheering section began to show some life, but that was short-lived. Smith took the ensuing kickoff at the McD 10 and roared past the entire CD team en route to a 90 yard touchdown return that stunned observers on both sides of the field. Just like that, the McDevitt 28 point advantage was restored, and the many of the CD faithful decided to ease the traffic problem by leaving early. The Rams made another attempt at scoring, though, moving from the CD 30 to the McD 19 before Cornelius came up with McDevitt's third interception of the game, a leaping grab in the back of the end zone. The third quarter ended on the next play.

Cornelius' pick jump-started McDevitt's last scoring drive of the night, an 80 yard, 12 play journey that saw the durable Poteat carry 6 times in a row to move the ball to the CD 43. After a short Johnson pass to Duckett Poteat was at it again, carrying 4 more times to add 17 yards to his impressive resume and earning a much-deserved rest. Johnson finished the scoring by tossing a sweet, 22 yard TD pass to Williams, the third scoring pass for both. After Maloney drilled the PAT, the 48-13 margin led to the enactment of the “Mercy Rule”, and its continuously-running game clock. The rest of the game was a quick blur, as the Rams couldn't advance against Crusader reserves and ended up punting on the last play of the game.

Next Friday, October 2, The 4-0 Crusaders travel to historic HersheyPark Stadium to take on the Lower Dauphin Falcons in a Keystone Division contest. Game time is 7:00 PM.

QUOTES

Head Coach Jeff Weachter

I was very, very pleased tonight. The challenge was put out to our offensive line and they did a tremendous job. The first three weeks of the season the timing of the running game wasn't there, so we worked hard. We worked on it the first 50 minutes of practice every day this week and I can't say enough about the timing tonight. When we get the running game like that, and we have the passing game we have, the defense and special teams played well, that's a great overall effort. Cd put the challenge to us. They put it up on the internet that we couldn't run the football and that they were going to run the ball all over us, so our offensive line took exception, our defensive line took exception, our line coaches took exception and, well, I'm just very proud of our guys. They caught us on the draw when we were in a nickle package early, late in the first half, but other than that, we did a great job of staying home. The adjustment at halftime was, in passing situations to put Duckett up on the tight end and let him man him and play Jeremy Cornelius over top and then Corey could press #10 (Simpson). The other thing was, they had great success all year running the Jet sweep with #1(Charles) but we did a good job rolling zone there. We have to get better the next couple of weeks. We can't relax. It's like what I said coming into this game: it's not about the other team, it's about us. We have to improve each week.

Defensive Coordinator Pat Berry

The kids did a really nice job. They did everything we asked them to do tonight. We worked hard all week and I think some of our young kids actually improved a great deal tonight. We worked all week on staying home,not jumping around. We didn't switch sides on defense, we went to a real basic defense. Don't worry, we'll have enough to correct that we'll keep the kids working.

Offensive Line Coach Jamie Harvey

The offensive line is taking off. Tony Harris stepped up real big for us today. We came out and wanted to be physical and, for the first week, I thought that the guys were together. They wanted to make a statement, because we felt like we've been disrespected by the newspaper and by a lot of different people. The guys wanted to come out and earn some respect. I told them they had to earn it and they earned it tonight. We'll keep the intensity up these next few weeks by moving and working and practicing harder and harder every week. That's my job: to keep the kids up and keep pushing them, and I'll do that.

G Tony Harris

I think the offensive line did pretty good today. We all took care of our blocks and assignments and we looked pretty good! Central Dauphin is a great team, don't get me wrong, but we knew that we were going to come out and win. Coach Harvey has had me running after practice, he's had me on a diet so I could drop a couple of pounds for the season so he can keep me in for all 4 quarters. It's worked out well. This is a feeling of overwhelming joy.

LB Brock Dean

The defense stayed at home and we were disciplined. Our game plan was to be disciplined, stay at home and watch for the reverses, watch for the cutbacks. We did a good job holding them to 13 points, as you can see. The concentration coming out for the second half was not to let up, not to give up. We wanted to come out and treat it like a brand new game, like it's 0-0. CD hung their heads a little toward the end. When you come out and smash a team in the mouth like we did it gets their confidence down. That's what we tried to do and that's what we accomplished.

QB Matt Johnson

I was very happy tonight. We had a goal of coming out and running the ball, and Jameel and the line did a great job. Once we got the running game going we just opened up the passing game. It helped our passing, no doubt. We have a great line and we have a great back. When you have those two things the secondary has to cheat up to help with the linebackers, and that just opens up the wide receivers. At half time we just wanted to stay focused, because sometimes it's tough to stay focused when you have a big lead. We have to do a better job of that down the road. We have a saying at McDevitt: We're not playing the team across from us, we're playing ourselves. We want to keep the mistakes to a minimum and get better every week.

DE/TE Noah Spence

We worked all week on staying back for draws and everything like that. We tried to stay in our positions so we could come out here and get the win. I was a little nervous before the game but I had confidence that we could win. We're still going to have to keep the intensity up, or we could come out here and lose any time.

FB/S Jon Duckett

We grew up with these CD guys all our lives, so this is great. They looked pretty good on film and they played on their home field and their crowd was outstanding, but we came and played like we had to. On the first half interception, we were in one of our basic defenses and I saw the tight vend coming down and the quarterback didn't see me. He just threw it and I picked it off. I should have scored but...

The shovel pass, we didn't really put it in until a couple of days ago. Matt did it perfect, the line came out and blocked everyone, I made a cutback and went down the sideline. We have to keep the intensity up now. We can't be lackadaisical. There are no trap games; every game is a CD game, every game is a Harrisburg game. We have to keep that up.

WR Salath Williams

I'm feeling great; we just got a big win. This was a test for us, especially the line. All week everybody was talking about if our line was any good, and they worked real hard in practice this week. They were up to the test. Coach Weachter keeps telling us that we need to get better every game. We can't take anyone lightly; we just have to keep getting better on the road to the state championship.

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