Bishop McDevitt comes up short against Richland in PIAA-2A quarterfinals
CHAMBERSBURG >> Bishop McDevitt’s season came to an end with a 29-21 loss to Richland in the PIAA-2A quarterfinals Friday night at Chambersburg Area Senior High School.
The Royal Lancers forced a Richland punt to get the ball back with two timeouts and 1:18 remaining, needing to drive 95 yards and convert a two-point conversion to tie the game. A couple short completions and a first down run from quarterback Lonnie Rice, followed by a 22-yard pass to Corey Wright-Downing, gave McDevitt a fresh set of downs near midfield with 18 seconds left and both timeouts. Back-to-back incompletions set up the final play, a Rice scramble that ended after a nine-yard gain.
“We’ve done it before,” Rice said. “I’m not going to say it’s impossible because we did it multiple times before. We just couldn’t get it this time. It’s sad to say, but sometimes you just can’t get every play. It’s just life. You don’t get what you want all the time.”
McDevitt’s offense struggled in the second half. The first play from scrimmage after halftime and the first play of the fourth quarter were both interceptions. The Lancers only touchdown after the intermission was an 80-yard connection between Rice and Emmanuel Sia that was tipped by a defender.
“Coach drew everything up for us and we just had to execute the plays,” Rice said. “I missed reads. I take ownership of that. I wasn’t getting the right reads, reading my keys the right way. There are things we could have done better, but I don’t want to look back at it like that. I want to look back at it like we tried to play our best football and left everything on the field. It just wasn’t clicking the way we thought it would.”
The long touchdown pass tied the game at 21 late in the third quarter.
After a Richland punt and McDevitt interception, the Rams put together the game-winning touchdown drive. The seven-play, 59-yard march was capped off by a two-yard quarterback draw with 8:51 left in the game. McDevitt’s defense struggled with the QB run all second half, allowing Richland’s Kellan Stahl to run for 80 yards on 15 carries in the third and fourth quarters.
“It wasn’t really tough to stop we just weren’t reading our keys right,” Rice said. “We weren’t playing the best disciplined football that we usually play — McDevitt football. We were getting a little jittery, trying to overpower or over-read, biting on plays. At the end of the day we left it all on the field, that’s all I can say.”
“Maybe we started pressing a little bit,” McDevitt coach Mike Watkins said of the second half, “trying to get that lead back to get ourselves in a comfortable position, but (Richland) did a really good job. They created some turnovers, created a lot of pressure there in the second half. It was a tough game.”
The first quarter saw District 6 champion Richland and District 12 champion McDevitt (7-7) trade long touchdown drives. Rice capped a 12-play, 77-yard drive with a one-yard sneak to tie the game at seven.
In the second quarter, Rice hit Sia on a 4th-and-4 slant to score from 11 yards away and take a 14-7 lead with 1:30 until halftime.
A Lancers unsportsmanlike conduct penalty on the ensuing kickoff set up the Rams at their own 42-yard line. Six plays later Stahl tied the game at 14 with a one-yard run.
Rice finished the game 10-for-19 for 165 yards, two touchdowns and two interceptions. He added 84 yards and a score on the ground.
Akrie Lilley led the Lancers with 106 rushing yards.
After the game, Watkins told his team how impressive it was to reach the state quarterfinals and told the underclassmen to be motivated by the feeling of a season-ending defeat.
“The seniors that we have here are the ones that built the program,” Watkins said. “They were the freshman when I got my first job here. They took us from a 2-7 team to a 5-5 team to an 8-4 team and to a district championship team and to get this far in the postseason. It’s going to be tough to lose guys like (Rice) and (Tyrone Fowler) and (Hakim Dodson), (Jack Conran) and (Eric Wilson), but they’ve changed the school in the way that they’ve brought the football program back. The school spirit — everything is a little different now. We’re going to be a force to be reckoned with down the road. We’re very, very young but our leadership is great.”
