Bishop McDevitt uses fast start, strong finish to roll past Lansdale Catholic

SPRINGFIELD >> Lonnie Rice could not get the hold down on the extra point, but the Bishop McDevitt junior quarterback kept the play alive, rolled left and found Lawrence Richardson in the end zone for the two-point conversion.

“I was going to run and score. Fortunately, L.A. he blocked a man, he got under, tried to react to me,” Rice said. “Flat was wide open and I just fired it right to him.”

By the end of Saturday afternoon’s matchup with Lansdale Catholic, Rice and the Royal Lancers had everything under control.

McDevitt raced out to a 19-0 lead early in the second quarter then pulled away in the fourth with a pair of touchdowns to roll past the Crusaders 34-7 at Springfield-Montco to keep the Lancers’ hopes of a Philadelphia Catholic League Blue Division title alive.

 “It’s a big win for us,” Bishop McDevitt coach Mike Watkins said. “We knew coming in Lansdale is a very well-coached team. They play everybody tough, it doesn’t matter and I keep telling reporters this each week, our division, top to bottom, is just so good and it’s strange, it’s almost like each matchup, you never know.”

Jon-Luke Peaker ran for two touchdowns in the first quarter and finished with 192 yards on 24 carries as Bishop McDevitt (6-2, 4-1 division) rebounded from a 41-0 defeat to West Catholic by snapping a six-game losing streak to Lansdale Catholic.

The win also sets up a showdown with first-place Conwell-Egan — 5-0 in the PCL Blue after beating West Catholic 21-13 Friday — back at Springfield 1 p.m. Saturday.

“We weren’t too concerned about Egan because we knew we had a business trip to complete today,” said Rice, who ran for and threw for a touchdown in the fourth. “So right after West we just said we’ve got to bounce back because there’s no way 41 points should be put up on the board on us.”

Jason Carr pulled LC to within 19-7 when he dashed for a 47-yard touchdown with 2:58 left in the second quarter. But the run was one of the few big plays on the day for the Crusaders (2-5, 1-4), who dropped their second straight.

“Was kind of proud of the way that we responded back, got a touchdown, defense got a couple of stops but it’s a good team that you’re playing when you’re behind to try to catch up to,” Lansdale Catholic coach Tom Kirk said.

The Crusaders were still down 12 after halftime but never got on track in the second half — recording just two first downs and never crossing into McDevitt territory on its four possessions after the break.

“We just seemed to self-destruct,” Kirk said. “Turning the ball over or just not doing exactly what we should be doing so. As you can tell I’m a little frustrated right now, but it’s just the way it goes.”

Danny Dutkiewicz led LC with 89 yards on 23 carries while Carr added 75 yards on seven carries. Lansdale Catholic hosts Archbishop Carroll 1 p.m. Saturday at Wissahickon.

Rice was 4-of-10 passing for 105 yards and a touchdown and also ran seven times for 84 yards and a score.

Bishop McDevitt took a 19-0 lead eight seconds in the second quarter on Jovon Hinton’s 14-yard TD run but did not get back into the end zone until 11:03 in the fourth when an under-pressure Rice found Emmanuel Sia in a crowd for a 22-yard touchdown pass.

“It was a seam route on the left side and a slant backside. I looked off the seam route but I kind of see someone was open,” Rice said. “As soon I’ve got that outside linebacker to jump it on that side, I turned my head, middle of the field was wide open, the safety drilled down too. Middle of the field was wide open.”

After forcing an LC punt, Bishop McDevitt made it 34-7 with a two-play, 53-yard drive — first Peaker on a 33-yard run then Rice up the middle on a QB keeper for a 20-yard score with 8:25 left in the game.

“After the West game was over and that clock hit zero, we forgot about it. We got on the bus, we forgot about it, came Monday we studied film on Lansdale every day,” Rice said. “We studied, we studied film, executing a practice, making plays. We actually took some of the film that Lansdale did and we had that applied to our scout team. We just repped it, repped it and studied it.”

The Royal Lancers took a 7-0 lead on their first offensive series, Peaker capping a four-play, 71-yard drive with a 26-yard touchdown run at 9:30 in the opening quarter.

A Crusader fumble set McDevitt up at the LC 17 but the Lancers came up empty — turning the ball over after a fourth-down incompletion. The Lancers, however, forced a three-and-out, got the ball back at the LC 42 and on the first play Peaker streaked to the end zone for a 42-yard TD at 5:11 in the first to put McDevitt up 13-0.

“It was huge for us, to finally get going again,” Watkins said. “We struggled last week but we made some adjustments, we changed up some personnel, some packages. We spread the ball around a little bit better. And we just had some really good looks that we capitalized on early.”

On its next drive, Lansdale Catholic moved 34 yards to the McDevitt 35 but gave the ball away on a fumble — a Lancers scoop and score on the play negated by a penalty.

McDevitt faced a 1st-and-34 on the ensuing series after a peel-back block penalty but Rice connected with Emmanuel for 27 on 2nd-and-29 with Rice picking up six on the ground on 3rd-and-2. Three players later, Hinton took a QB option 14 yards for six for a 19-0 lead at 11:52 in the second quarter.