October 16- In retrospect, Bishop McDevitt's game tonight against the Chambersburg Trojans was the perfect situation for an upset. Chambersburg, long a doormat in the Mid Penn League, came into the game fresh off an inspired comeback against previously undefeated Susquehanna Township. The Trojans had been flexing new-found muscle, averaging over 400 yards per game on the ground in its last 4 contests on the way to a 4-2 record. Also the game, played at Chambersburg's beautifully restored stadium, would be fought under miserable weather conditions (cold, rainy, windy), which usually favors the underdog. McDevitt was in the middle of a four game stretch in which the Crusaders were prohibitive favorites, leading to the possibility of complacency. But McDevitt ignored all of those conditions and rolled to a 47-7 victory. The offense, led by its steadily-improving and continually amazing junior quarterback, Matt Johnson, raced across the slick artificial turf for touchdowns on its first seven possessions. The defense, despite giving up a scoring drive to open the game, shut down the powerful Trojan running attack and made pass completions virtually impossible, leading to another Mercy Rule game, McDevitt's 6th in a row.
Chambersburg surprised the Crusaders by taking the opening kickoff and scoring in 6 swift plays, the capper being a 38 yard touchdown run by ConRoy Smith, the Trojan's lone offensive star. After Colby Perry split the uprights on the PAT Chambersburg had a 7-0 lead, with 9:07 left in the opening quarter. The Crusaders answered that score quickly. Senior return sensation Dawan Smith took the short ensuing kickoff at the McD 30 and weaved his way for a 26 yard return, to the CH 44. Junior running back Jameel Poteat fought for two yards on McDevitt's first play, and then the 200 lb. speedster followed a fine block by senior tackle Victor Shaffer into the Trojan secondary. Poteat made a quick move, avoided a tackle and jetted 42 yards for the Crusaders' first score. Connor Maloney booted the PAT and the score was knotted at 7, with 8:13 left on the first quarter clock. After Maloney's short kickoff was returned near midfield the McDevitt defense gave the Trojans a preview of what was to come. Two short dives by workhorse fullback Derek Burkhardt were stuffed and quarterback Brian Reese dumped an incompletion to avoid the rampaging Crusader pass rush, so the Trojans punted to freshman Brian Lemelle, who produced a 14 yard return to the McD 26. Two Poteat carries netted nine yards, and then Johnson snuck for the first down. Johnson's first pass followed, and was good for a 15 yard gain to senior Jeremy Cornelius, moving the ball into Chambersburg territory. Poteat then dove for a 5 yard gain before a 5 yard face mask penalty against the Trojans was tacked on. Now at the CH 39, Johnson dropped back and launched a beauty of a pass, hitting senior Salath Williams in his outstretched hands as he crossed the goal line. The timing was off on the PAT, however, so the the lead remained at 13-7. The Trojan's next series was another 3-and-out and the punt that followed was gathered in by Lemelle at the McD 22. The exciting frosh darted for an 18 yard return this time, giving McDevitt good field position. This scoring drive was all on the ground, as Poteat started things off with a 14 yard run. Senior Jon Duckett bulled for 2 more before a personal foul against the Trojans moved the ball to the CH 28. Three more Poteat rambles finished the drive, an 8 yarder, a run for 6 and then a powerful 14 yard dash to paydirt, running out of a Power I formation with Duckett and senior Fred Dietz ahead of him. Maloney drilled the PAT and the McDevitt lead had expanded to 20-7, with two minutes left in the quarter. After Maloney's kickoff Chambersburg mounted a seven play drive that extended into the second quarter. Using short runs by Smith and Burkhardt the Trojans were soon facing a 4th-and-1, at the McD 46. Burkhardt took the handoff and was flattened by the Crusaders' line surge, led by senior tackle Stephan Belle, denying the first down. McDevitt Head Coach Jeff Weachter then mixed the run and the pass to produce another scoring drive. First Johnson swung a pass to Poteat for a 12 yard gain, and then 2 Poteat runs netted 11 yards. Momentum slowed after a 2 yard Poteat loss and a procedure penalty, but Johnson kept the drive alive by firing a pass to Williams for a 13 yard gain at the CH 25. Another loss of 2 by Poteat was followed by Cornelius gathering in a Johnson toss at the CH15. On the next play Johnson checked the play at the line of scrimmage, faked a handoff and threw a dart to senior Dan Leonard, in the left flat. The speedy Leonard dashed ahead and skipped into the end zone, posting McDevitt to a 27-7 lead, with 6:42 left to play in the first half. After a squib kick by Maloney gave the Trojans the ball at the 50, the home team advanced to the McD 29. From there Reese tried a short pass to tight end Tyler Fore but senior safety Brandon True, disguised in the #37 jersey of sophomore Anthony Shingara, made a splendid diving interception, at the McD 30. Poteat launched the subsequent drive with a 12 yard gain and then 2 fullbacks, junior Sean Barowski and Duckett, took turns pounding the Trojans for short gains. On the next play Johnson again called an audible and ended up finding Williams between two defenders for a 27 yard gain, to the CH26. Poteat ran for 5 before Barowski took Johnson's short toss and fought his way to the CH 10 yard line. Two Poteat totes moved the ball to the 4 and then senior Aaron Sye made a fine grab of a Johnson laser beam for the touchdown. The PAT was blocked so, after a kickoff and 2 short Trojan gains, McDevitt ended the half with a 33-7 lead.
The second half began the way the first half ended: with McDevitt domination. Leonard took the short kickoff and spun to the McD 37. Johnson then dropped back to pass but found no one open, so the heady junior strolled down the left sideline and stepped out of bounds after moving the chains with an 11 yard gain. Poteat then blasted ahead for 8 tough yards to spot the ball at the CH 44. On the next play sophomore Brandon Wallace made his first play of the night a memorable one by darting for a 25 yard gain. Poteat then trotted back on the field and blasted for his third score of the night, a 19 yard effort. Chambersburg had another personal foul on the play so, after Maloney's PAT made the score 40-7, the freshman kicker pinned the Trojans back on the CH 8 with a towering kick and fine coverage by the McDevitt special teams. The inspired McDevitt defense forced another Chambersburg 3-and-out and, after a short punt ,McDevitt had great field position at the CH 36. Johnson threw a rare incompletion before Poteat finished his productive evening with a 4 yard gain. Johnson then targeted the speedy Cornelius for his next pass and the senior didn't disappoint, hauling in the spiral for a 33 yard score that finished the night's scoring at 47-7 and invoked the “Mercy Rule. By this time the Trojan personal foul penalties had the McDevitt defense in a foul mood, so the Crusader D smothered Chambersburg on 3 straight plays and forced another punt. Lemelle had another productive punt return to give McDevitt the ball at the McD 44 and then Wallace ran for 6. After another Wallace carry for no gain Johnson found a rare target, junior tight end Ted Deily, over the middle for a 19 yard gain, to the CH 31. A couple of incompletions and a pair of penalties stopped the Crusaders, though, so Deily came on to punt for the only time in the game and booted a 28 yarder. The Trojans made one last attempt to score, using a McDevitt personal foul penalty to move to midfield as the fourth quarter started but, after a 33 yard Smith run, the defense came through once again. Senior defensive end Ryan Kuntz dropped a Trojan runner for a 6 yard loss on third down and then half the team ended on top of Reese after a failed passing attempt. The Crusaders then held onto the ball for the remainder of the game, a 16 play possession that featured fine running by Wallace, numerous personal fouls by both teams, a 49 yard touchdown run by sophomore Sean Seif called back by a holding penalty, an appearance by freshman quarterback Alec Werner (who was 2 for 2 passing), and a lot bad blood between the two teams. After the relieved referees had whistled the end of the game and sprinted to the locker room, McDevitt was 7-0 and ready to get out of town.
Next Friday, October 23rd, the Crusaders will travel down I81 to meet the Carlisle Thundering Herd, the next opponent. Game time at Ken Millen Stadium is 7:00 PM.
QUOTES
I was proud of our guys. It's only the second time we've been losing all year when we gave up that early touchdown and we came right back. I thought we played well in all three phases, and I thought the defense played well. Chambersburg had speed with those two little running backs and a good fullback. You know they were averaging over 400 yards a game the last couple of weeks and we did a good job of shutting them down. It was probably our best offensive game overall. I thought Matt was real sharp, he did some real good things and made some real good checks. I thought the line played well, we ran well and caught the ball well. The only thing I'm upset about is I thought that they were a very, very dirty football team. They took a lot of cheap shots, they were cutting our linemen, they were cutting our fullbacks and linebackers, that's just dirty football and they don't need to do that stuff. When we get our reserves in there, well, they're all going to be great players for us. We don't expect a drop-off and really we don't get it. We have some playmakers and our young linemen are starting to come around, so we have a great future ahead of us at McDevitt. I'm sure when we look at the film we'll have a few missed blocks or assignments. We're going to work on getting off blocks better, finishing our blocks, spacing on our passing routes. There's a lot of things we'll be working on but these kids are really responding. I'm very proud of them.
Defensive Coordinator Pat
Berry
That was our main priority, to stop the running game. They had a lot of yards against some pretty good football teams, so we decided to take away some things. They broke one in the beginning of the game; I think that we just weren't up to speed yet, but once we got up to speed we did a good job. Against the sweep we just played Jon (Duckett) up a little tighter and we had the corner come down. Their split end was cracking on our strong safety and hitting him in the back, so we just told our corner to come off and make the tackle and he did, for the most part. Next week, Carlisle is another wing T team. The scout team is getting real good at running it, too!
QB Matt
Johnson
We wanted to come out and be physical, pound the ball and then open up the pass game. I felt fantastic. We wanted to get everyone involved and we did, and then we let Jameel and the line take over with the running game. Coach Harvey and the line do a fantastic job, week in and week out, protecting me and the backs and giving me time to get the ball to the receivers. I'll be working on accuracy, foot speed, everything. You can always get better, you can always improve. Throwing with a wet ball, since it's not always going to be perfect weather, there's a lot to work on.
RB Jameel
Poteat
We came out to play today and our line played great. They were a pretty good football team but we just came out harder. We knew that we couldn't give up tonight because they're good. I feel great watching the other guys run the ball. Little Seif, he's going to be a great running back and so is Brandon (Wallace). They have great potential.
LB/FB Fred
Dietz
We came out, they were playing pretty hard and they did a few cheap things and we responded. We just wanted to play hard the entire game. We made a little adjustments at half time, not too much. We just needed to play our game and get our heads right. When I come in at fullback it's a short yardage thing, pretty much, and we have some things that can go long distance, but we really just want to pound it down their throats. Blocking is fun; it's fun to be on the other side sometimes.
TE/DE/P Ted
Deily
I get excited before every game. Last year I didn't play too much, a quarter every once in a while. Now Coach Wec gave me a chance to prove myself on offense and I get in a lot at tight end. I got a catch tonight so I'm thrilled to finally get that opportunity. The play was a tight end dump, supposed to go only five or six yards. I released, Matt threw it to me and I was shaking so much after I got the ball, then I realized I had to turn and run, so I took off! I saw a couple guys there and got tackled, but it felt good. I'm going to work a lot on special teams because I'm on all of the special teams. I also have to work on playing tight end, to know who I'm blocking and what my assignments are.
DT Stephan
Belle
I think we did a good job of stopping their running game. All I can say is that we had a good week of practice, and then we came out and did what we had to do. I didn't get involved in any of the other stuff, the penalties. I just kept my cool and played like a McDevitt man like I'm supposed to. I'm going to work on coming off the ball, shooting my hands and running to the football.
FB/LB Sean
Barowski
Our main job on defense was to stop the fullback. On offense we just followed our assignments. As long as we keep getting better we should be fine the rest of the year.
OT Victor
Shaffer
We felt like they were disrespecting us, so we went out and showed them that we should be respected. We hit them harder than they hit us and they were cheap shotting us, so that's dirty football. We have to tune up our pass blocking and our run blocking and we have to work on staying low. We just have to work hard.