Bishop McDevitt denies Berks Catholic a 4th straight District 3 title

NEFFSVILLE >> The charm died on its fourth try. The culprit was a drive for the ages.

Berks Catholic was rebuffed in its attempt to secure a fourth consecutive District 3 football title Friday afternoon at Manheim Township when classification rival Bishop McDevitt produced a 20-play, 69-yard meat grinder down the stretch to salt away the championship verdict, 41-31, in favor of the Crusaders.

The Saints had defeated McDevitt a year ago at Hersheypark Stadium by 21 points to win a third straight district title, its second straight under the “new” 4A classification following a wrap trophy under the “old” 2A division in 2015, the last season to feature four PIAA classes.

Bishop McDevitt celebrates their District 3 Class 4A Championship. @PaPrepLive @Jeff_Dewees @AustinHertzog @BishopMcDevitt pic.twitter.com/JToEAhitra

— Mark Palczewski (@Mark22Photos) November 23, 2018

There would be no fourth straight D-3 trophy for BC, the only champion the current 4A structure had ever known. Black Friday’s rematch at Manheim Township was a different story.

“Give (McDevitt) credit, we played about as good as we can play today,” Saints head coach Rick Keeley said. “I have no qualms with the effort that we gave. I told the kids, don’t let some number on a board at the end of the field dictate how you feel about the season.

“They accomplished a lot of things this year. They played the game the way you should play. … Missing out on this championship, it’s disappointing, but I was proud of the effort. Once the hurt rubs off, these seniors, I hope they’ll know they’ve set the bar pretty high, and the younger kids will buy into the example they set.”

The Saints were also unable to keep the season going with the extra motivation of playing for sophomore teammate Anthony Myers, who was diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor in late October. Myers played in Berks Catholic’s previous game and scored two touchdowns but did not dress Friday ahead of having surgery in New York on Monday.

The Crusaders, bigger and meaner than a year ago, seized control in the trenches with a season on the line; desperately needing to get the football back, BC could not produce an answer to get its defense off the field during the 8-minute, 12-second march. Nazir Burnett’s fourth-down touchdown reception from quarterback Chase Diehl, coming at the BC 5 yard-line with exactly two minutes to play, provided the padding to see the thing through.

It’ll be a drive that lives on in McDevitt football lore, already plenty rich in moments.

“We didn’t finish well as a team, it could have been stopped a lot earlier,” BC star linebacker/running back Brandon George, a senior playing in what proved to be his final game, said. “They made more plays than we did that drive, that’s all.

“I feel as though (McDevitt) underestimated us last year. This year, they came out more ready to play than they did last year.”

Burnett’s touchdown grab was only the second-brassiest play of the drive. On fourth-and-6 from the McD 36 and nursing a 34-31 lead, the Crusaders lined up in expected punt formation, only to see Burnett take the snap and tiptoe seven yards down the sideline to his own 43 to keep the drive alive.

According to veteran McDevitt head coach Jeff Weachter, the fake was Burnett’s call.

“That’s his read,” Weachter said. “That’s his read. (Had it not been successful), we would have played great defense and prayed and prayed.”

The drive was not borne of luxury but necessity.

That’s because Berks Catholic — which looked just about extinguished when CJ Reyes-Diggs went over from a yard out to give McDevitt a 34-17 lead with 2:00 left in the third quarter, the capper to a 10-play, 70-yard expedition  — rallied with 14 quick points to begin the final stanza.

Senior quarterback Terrance Derr found back Abdul Macfoy on single coverage down a seam and delivered a perfect ball good for a 58-yard scoring strike with 11:14 to go. On the ensuing kickoff, the Saints recovered a fumble at the McDevitt 18 and cashed that in two snaps later, when Derr hooked up with Luis Garcia on a 15-yarder to sliced the deficit to 34-31, just 54 seconds after Macfoy’s score.  

Reyes-Diggs was the hammer that McD lacked this time a year ago. He rushed for 160 yards on 27 totes and found the end zone three times. Initially keyed to stop quarterback Diehl and his weapons in the pass game, Reyes-Diggs found room to run between the hashmarks.

“We knew that if they were going to run the ball he was going to be the one to carry it,” Keeley said. “He moves the chains so you’ve gotta be ready to stop him and I guess we didn’t do such a good job at that.”

BC opened the scoring on a 1-yard plunge from Derr to finish off an eight-play, 56-yard drive late in the first quarter. McDevitt sculptured a nine-play, 65-yard response with a heavy dose of Reyes-Diggs, who featured on seven of the snaps, including a 13-yard touchdown jaunt to knot the game at 7.

One play after a blocked punt set the Crusaders up at the BC 35, Diehl ran the distance down the right sideline, encountering his only contact at the pylon, to give McDevitt its first lead early in the second quarter.

After a fourth down gambit came up short at the McD 28, the Crusaders handed off to Reyes-Diggs on the first snap and he carried the ball 25 yards to midfield, a personal foul call 15 yards to the damage. On the next snap, Diehl hooked up with Julian Jordan on a 35-yard strike a 20-7 lead.

BC’s Jamin Smith closed a late first-half drive with a 33-yard field goal to make it 20-10 at the break. McDevitt’s inaugural drive of the second half was a six-play, 81-yard jaunt. Reyes-Diggs went in from 14 to give his club a 27-10 with 8:21 left in the third quarter.

A 42-yard run by George to the McDevitt 5 set up Derr with a his second 1-yard touchdown three snaps later to cut it to 27-17 midway through the third quarter.

George finished with 112 rushing yards on 15 carries. Derr’s final game, as a four-year starter under center, was a 7 of 12 effort for 120 yards.