The Bishop McDevitt Crusaders arrived in State College ranked No. 1 in Pennsylvania and ranked 18th in the country, according to ESPN Rise.
With 8:54 left in the third quarter, the heavily favored Crusaders were trailing State College after a 21-yard touchdown pass from Dom Mills to Shane Dorner.
“Our guys aren’t intimidated by anybody,” said State College head coach Al Wolski.
Bishop McDevitt did not panic and responded with a steady dose of Jameel Poteat. The Crusaders worked the ball into Little Lion territory and the junior running back showed why he is receiving Division 1 offers, as he rushed to his left for a 35-yard touchdown.
“We knew (Poteat) was too good of a back to not get his yards,” said Wolski.
Poteat’s touchdown ended the Little Lions string of 17 unanswered points and gave Bishop McDevitt a 21-17 lead.
State College (7-2) had a great opportunity to respond. The Crusaders mishandled a punt and State College recovered the ball on the Bishop McDevitt 22-yard line.
State College worked the ball into the red zone but the drive stalled. The Little Lions went for the touchdown on 4th and goal from the 6-yard line and failed to convert. Mills rolled to his right looking to pass, but had to cut it up field and came up short, turning the ball over on downs to the Crusaders on the 2-yard line.
Although the Little Lions failed to put points on the board, State College had flipped field position in its favor.
Bishop McDevitt (9-0) did not seem bothered by the poor field position and marched down the field. Jon Duckett capped off an impressive 98-yard drive with a 2-yard touchdown run to seal the Crusaders 28-17 victory on his second touchdown of the evening.
State College could have given up when Crusaders’ quarterback Matt Johnson threw his 22nd touchdown of the season on a perfect pass to Salath Williams, who has verbally committed to Pitt. The score extended the lead to 14-0.
Following a State College field goal, Johnson made a rare mistake when he threw his second interception of the year to Alex Kenney. Kenney weaved his way down the State College sideline 71 yards for a Little Lion touchdown, igniting the crowd at Memorial Field. This was the second week in a row that Kenney took an interception for a score.
“We lost the game, but at the same time, the effort was there for all 48 minutes,” said Wolski.
Coming into the game with the Little Lions, the Crusaders were defeating teams by an average of 36 points a game. Up to this point, State College is the only team to give Bishop McDevitt a close game.
“We weren’t thinking about keeping it close,” said Mills. “We were trying to win the game.”
The Little Lions end their regular season next week on the road against Chambersburg.
