Rice, Bishop McDevitt run over Cardinal O’Hara

SPRINGFIELD >> On Saturday afternoon Bishop McDevitt quarterback Lonnie Rice used both his feet and his arm to lead the Lancers to a 26-0 win over Cardinal O’Hara in Philadelphia Catholic League Blue Division action.

“He (Rice) has grown up so much. Being our quarterback for three years now, he’s played a lot of varsity football,” Bishop McDevitt head coach Mike Watkins said. “I get all my information from him. What routes he likes to throw, what the defense is giving us, I lean on him to give me the information and go out there and execute and he did that today.”

Rice finished with 111 yards and a touchdown through the air and ran the ball for 95 yards and two more scores.

“We’re a power football team and I like to run the ball,” Rice said. “We can get it going in the air too, and we did that today, but I was really comfortable running the ball against them.”

Rice’s first touchdown of the day came with about three minutes left in the opening quarter as he dropped back and saw his wide receiver Gilbert Kinsey III streaking down the right sideline. Rice let go of a pass that found Kinsey in stride and allowed him to run away from his defender and into the end zone.

“I trust my receivers,” Rice said. “I just put that one up there and tried to throw it so he could go get it and he did.”

The 6-foot-1 205 pound senior took over with his legs after that, gashing the Lions for rushing touchdowns of 16 and 32 yards to break the game open.

The O’Hara defense struggled to keep Rice in check for most of the afternoon, and head coach BJ Hogan said the team’s performance could be blamed on a lack of preparation.

“It’s embarrassing. It’s 100 percent on me, and I have to do a better job getting these guys prepared,” Hogan said. “The first long touchdown the kid just ran by us, but some of the other long runs they had should have been defended by us.”

The Lions were led offensively by senior quarterback Cole Sprague but couldn’t get much going without the ball in his hands.

Sprague rushed for 76 yards and threw for 64 more, accounting for 140 of O’Hara’s 152 total yards. He also forced McDevitt into its only turnover of the game, intercepting Rice in the second quarter.

On the Lions’ first possession of the game, Sprague broke free from the McDevitt defense for a 51-yard run that put his team on the two yard line, but O’Hara fumbled on the very next play.

“We kind of struggled everywhere, we need to play harder than we did,” Sprague said. “They did a good job stopping our run game and getting pressure on us up front.”

The McDevitt defense controlled the line of scrimmage from the opening kick, led by the strong play of Tyrone Fowler. No matter what the Lions tried, the Lancers were there to stop them.

“We talked all week about simplifying things and letting our defense play fast,” Watkins said. “We want them to put their hand in the dirt, line up where they need to be and let them go play football. We did that today.”

McDevitt capped the win in its 2019 PCL opener with a 27-yard touchdown run by James Bermudez in the fourth.

Next up for the Lancers (2-2, 1-0) is a matchup with another PCL Blue foe in Bonner & Prendergast on Sept. 21.

O’Hara (1-2, 0-1) hosts Archbishop Carroll on Sept. 20 in a division game.

Bishop McDevitt 26 Cardinal O’Hara 0
Bishop McDevitt 6 7 0 13 — 26
Cardinal O’Hara 0 0 0 0 — 0
Scoring
First Quarter
BM — 50 yard pass from Lonnie Rice to Gilbert Kinsey III; 3:04
Second Quarter
BM — 16 yard run by Lonnie Rice; 4:12
Third Quarter
None
Fourth Quarter
BM — 32 yard run by Lonnie Rice; 10:19
BM — 27 yard run by James Bermudez; 4:18
Team Statistics
BM CO
First Downs 11 7
Rushing yards 154 88
Passing yards 111 64
Total yards 265 152
Passing 6-11 10-15
Penalties 6-45 5-25
Fumbles-Lost 0-0 2-2
Punts-Avg 3-31 4-31.75
Individual Statistics
BM: Lonnie Rice 10-95 2 TD; James Bermudez 9-51; Tymair Moore 3-0; Brandon Mack 4-7; Josh Nieves 1-1.
CO: Cole Sprague 17-76; Dante Paolletti 3-3; Keed Kpoto 4-7; Hunter Whitlock 1-2.
PASSING: BM: Lonnie Rice 6-11 111 Yards 1 TD 1 INT; CO: Cole Sprague 10-15 64 Yards
RECEIVING: BM: Corey Wright-Downing 3-30; Gilbert Kinsey III 2-70 1 TD; Joachim McElroy 1-11; CO: Matt Leicht 3-6; Dante Paolletti 2-26; Keed Kpoto 1-(-4); Mike Levy 2-18; Liam Morrissey 1-6; Hunter Whitlock 1-12