Lloyd’s four scores spur McDevitt past Lincoln

WYNCOTE >> Mike Watkins started his first year as head coach of the Bishop McDevitt football program off the right way thanks to a guy in his first year playing for the team.
Senior running back/linebacker Diavante Lloyd certainly put his name on the map with his bruising performance Saturday night. Lloyd, a transfer from Norristown, ran for 130 yards and three scores then returned an interception 42 yards for a touchdown in the Royal Lancers’ 35-8 win over Abraham Lincoln at Cheltenham High School.
Lloyd is the hammer in McDevitt’s running attack, a punishing runner that fits right in with the PCL team.
“I felt as though I was ready to play, especially with a team that’s unit-based,” Lloyd, who played quarterback at Norristown last year, said. “A year ago it more individualized and this year it’s all about the team and that’s how I came in here.”
For Lloyd, that mentality was really hammered home during training camp when the Lancers had a training session overseen by some Navy SEALs. The senior said the SEALS really reinforced that he would be playing for the guys around him and not himself, so Lloyd has taken to the idea of being part of a stable.
Chris Feralio (37 yards), Quamir Reynolds (30 yards) and freshman Dwayne Nelson (9 yards) provided the change-of-pace. But this Lancers team wants to be smashmouth and that starts with Lloyd and the guys grading the road for him.
“As long as we were the first off the football and making contact up front, just staying low, maintaining the block, that’s how he was able to do it,” senior two-way lineman Daniel Church said. “I like that he runs hard and he doesn’t give up on a play. He fights for the extra yards at the end of a play.”
Church, the only senior on the line, had a sack on the first defensive snap of the game and said he’s a big fan of Watkins’ physical approach to the game. Watkins saw Lloyd as the kind of kid he could build a running game around and said the senior is just as big as a leader on defense.
McDevitt struck first when quarterback Max Bryson hit Jaron Macon for a 61-yard catch-and-run, though the Rail Splitters came back and took an 8-7 lead when quarterback Allston Augustine slipped free of a blitz and ran 77 yards for the score. The lead held until the early second quarter when the Lloyd show really got started.
Of course, his teammates already knew what was coming from the 6-foot-1, 205-pound back.
“As a matter of fact, I saw his highlights first and I saw him at quarterback running the way he runs and I said ‘you’re playing running back, right?’ and he said yeah,” Church said. “When he said that, all I said was ‘you are going to punish people on the other side of the ball.’”
Lloyd restored the lead for good with a 13-yard power run with 10:05 left in the second quarter. He added a driving five-yard TD run at the 7:33 mark of the third quarter and plowed in from eight yards out with 8:46 left in the game.
Lloyd had two runs of 16 yards but he was consistent, getting stopped for negative yards just once in his 16 carries. He stayed strong all game, as did his defensive teammates after the big play.
“The moment I got this job, I knew I wanted to run the football,” Watkins said. “I liked the way we ended up finishing. Yes, we gave up the one big play but we bounced back and in this defense we like to take chances. We took a chance, lost on it but learned from it, made adjustments and finished.”
The Norristown native had one more play to make to truly make the game his. Just five plays after his third rushing touchdown, Lloyd stepped in front of a Augustine pass at the Rail Splitters’ own 42 and took off.
“I just saw green,” he said with a smile.
One thing Lloyd and Church both stressed was that while Saturday was a lot of fun, it’s already over. With the Lancers facing Cheltenham, their neighborhood rival, on Friday, they can’t dwell on Saturday’s performance.
Church said the tackling needs to get cleaned up and put some blame on himself, saying he let a few guys slip out of his grasp while Lloyd noted some penalties that could be erased. Watkins will watch the film, but he said it was good to get the first one out of the way and have his guys be rewarded for their hard work since he took over back in April.
The Lancers will have their work cut out for them this season, starting with Cheltenham next weekend and going into the new-look Catholic League. But they have a guy in Lloyd they can take a lot of confidence in.
“When we need a third and three, we call on the horse,” Church said. “When we have a first and 10, we can call the little, shifty guys. Or, we can interchange it because the little guys, they’ll hit you too and that’s what I like about our style.”
Abraham Lincoln 8 0 0 0 – 8
Bishop McDevitt 7 7 7 14 – 35
First Quarter
BM – Jaron Macon 61 pass from Max Bryson (Daniel Fiorella kick) 9:27
AL – Allston Augustine 77 run (Josh Torres run) 5:42
Second Quarter
BM – Diavante Lloyd 13 run (Fiorella kick) 10:05
Third Quarter
BM – Lloyd 5 run (Fiorella kick) 7:33
Fourth Quarter
BM – Lloyd 8 run (Fiorella kick) 8:46
BM – Lloyd 42 interception return (Fiorella kick) 6:43
Team Stats
AL BM
First Downs – 9 16
Rushes-Yards 30-163 34-184
Passing 4-15-0-1 4-9-1-0
Passing Yards 51 111
Total Yards 214 295
Punts 2-28.5 2-36.5
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-1
Penalties-Yards 8-70 7-64
Individual Stats
Rushing: AL- Allston Augustine 10-65, Michael Guyton 17-92, Sam Karr 3-6; BM-Diavante Lloyd 16-130, Chris Feralio 5-37, Max Bryson 5-(-22), Quamir Reynolds 5-30, Dwayne Nelson (3-9)
Passing: AL- Augustine 4-15-51-0-1; BM- Bryson 4-9-111-1-0
Receiving: AL- Guyton 1-7, Josh Torres 1-16, Nassir Colemar 2-28; BM- Jaron Macon 1-61, Lawrence Richardson 2-47, Feralio 1-3
Interceptions: BM – Diavante Lloyd