Cheltenham rallies past Bishop McDevitt
CHELTENHAM >> If there were three words that describe the 2018 Cheltenham High School football squad, head coach Ryan Nase gave “Bigger, stronger and faster.”
After starting 0-7 in the 2017 season, the Panthers are 2-0 to start the year with a thrilling 34-27 victory over visiting Bishop McDevitt on Friday afternoon.
“Our kids bought into the strength and conditioning program during the offseason,” said Nase. “We were in an indoor turf facility on Saturday mornings and we started speed work last January, so we are bigger, stronger, and faster from last year.”
That mentality definitely showed out in the game Friday night for running back Jamir Barnes as he started the game on the very first play with an 80-yard touchdown run.
“I just trusted my offensive line, see a hole, and just went at it,” said Barnes. “Just had to hope for an open lane and I was off and running at that play.”
Bishop McDevitt was able to score right back in its first drive, which was capped off with a 34-yard pass from Lonnie Rice to Lawrence Richardson to tie the game at 7-7.
Barnes later got his second touchdown in the first quarter with a long 38-yard run to take a 13-7 lead before the PAT got blocked.
Bishop McDevitt eventually took the lead in the second quarter after Rice took the ball himself for a 5-yard touchdown run to take a 14-13 lead.
The Panthers got the lead right back though with two touchdowns, including a running and passing touchdown from quarterback Adonis Hunter to take a 27-14 lead at halftime.
The Royal Lancers won the third quarter 6-0 when Rice ran for his second rushing touchdown to decrease the Cheltenham lead to 27-20.
Then things started to get interesting in the end of the fourth quarter.
Barnes scored his third long touchdown of the game with a 49-yard run to make the score 34-20.
With 50 seconds left in the game, Rice took the ball for 20 yards into the end zone for Bishop McDevitt and make the score 34-27.
As the crowd held its breath, the Royal Lancers recovered the onside kick after the ball bounced off a Cheltenham Panther.
Bishop McDevitt did manage to drive the ball down after starting the last drive close to midfield, but the Cheltenham defense came up big in the end to walk away with the second straight win to start the season.
Hunter seemed to be the Cheltenham player to be the most nervous during the last drive, but says he wasn’t too nervous.
“I was really just praying to God,” said Hunter. “But I wasn’t too worried because we have a great defense and great coaches to get us the win.”
Nase was thrilled with his team’s victory despite practicing in the intense heat this past week.
“We had a tough week with the heat especially losing practice on Wednesday because of an early dismissal,” said Nase. “This is a rivalry game, sometimes we say we don’t like each other, but they are a really well-coached team.”
“After the last McDevitt touchdown and onside kick, I told them that if want to be the team that we think we’re going to be, good teams go win games and don’t let other teams lose games,” added Nase. “If we want to win games, we have to be better at the end of those games.”
Rice finished the game with one passing touchdown and three rushing touchdowns in the loss, including 102 rushing yards on 20 carries.
Barnes finished the game with 165 yards and three touchdowns on the ground for Cheltenham.
Hunter also did well as the quarterback with a rushing touchdown and a passing touchdown in the win.
Bishop McDevitt had 330 total yards of offense, which is only one yard more than Cheltenham’s 329 yards.
Cheltenham 34, Bishop McDevitt 27
BM 7 7 6 7 -27
CH 13 14 0 7 -34
CH – Barnes 80-yard run (Grady kick)
BM – Richardson 34-yard pass from Rice (Alcorn kick)
CH – Barnes 38-yard run (PAT Blocked)
BM – Rice 18-yard run (Alcorn kick)
CH – Hunter 1-yard run (Grady kick)
CH – Emfinger 5-yard pass from Hunter (Grady kick)
BM –Rice 8-yard run (Grady kick missed)
CH – Barnes 49-yard run (Grady kick)
BM – Rice 20-yard run (Alcorn kick)
CH BM
First Downs 7 14
Rushing yards 223 257
Passing yards 106 73
Total yards 329 330
Passing 7-12 7-12
Penalties 9-60 11-80
Fumbles lost 1 1
INDIVIDUAL STATS:
RUSHING – Bishop McDevitt: Rice 20-102, 3 TD; Peaker 16-132; Feralio 1-11; Hinton 1-7; Laurie-Clark 1-3; Stanton 1-2. Cheltenham: Barnes 16-165, 3 TD; Hunter 6-20, 1 TD; Sykes 4-38.
PASSING – Bishop McDevitt: Rice 7-12, 73 yds, 1 TD. Cheltenham: Hunter 7-12, 106 yds, 1 TD.
RECEIVING – Bishop McDevitt: Richardson 3-54, 1 TD; Price 2-18; Peaker 1-7; Sia 1-(-6). Cheltenham: Edwards 2-51; Harris 1-30; Williams 1-10; Sullen 1-5, 1 TD; Sykes 1-7; Barnes 1-3.
