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Billy Lucas has record night, leading Cathedral Prep to third straight PIAA 4A title over Imhotep @PrepRamblers @Coach_Linc

Tagged under: District 10, District 12, News

| December 7, 2018


Your 2018 PIAA Class 4A champion Ramblers For Full Gallery click pictureTo say Billy Lucas had a good night would be a disservice to the senior running back. Billy Lucas had a GREAT night, collecting a PIAA 4A title game record 287 yards on a record 40 carries with 3 tds leading the Ramblers to their third consecutive title with a 38-7 win over Imhotep  Along the way, the Prep defense held division 1 recruits Tykee Smith to just 62 yards on 15 carries and Yusef Terry to 17 yards on 4 receptions. “We run a defense a lot of people dont see at the high school level” said Head Coach of the Ramblers Mike Mischler. “We played a great schedule. We didn’t have a scrimmage and we had all kinda of people out of place. We go into St Eds, they just won a division 1 title by 40 some points, we played some good football games and learned along the way, at the end of the day we just put things together”.

This highly anticipated title game started off like everyone expected. The Ramblers took the opening possession 78 yards on 5 plays, all carries by Lucas, the last a 56 yard dash to the end zone. Colin Kelly put the kick through making it 7-0 just 1:39 into the game.

 

Both teams battled back a forth in a first quarter that ended with Prep leading 7-0. The Cougars came up with a great defensive stand when Mischler made the decision after a 21 yard Kelly field goal on fourth that down ended with a roughing the kicker call, to go for the td, taking the three points off the board. It turned out to be about the only time the Panthers defense made a stop.

Taking over with the ball just short of their own goal line, Imotep put together a 16 play, 99 1/2 4A title game drive. Displaying a good mix of runs by Smith, Saint Mcleod and quarterback Jalen Sutton-Christian, the cougars got on the board when D’Shaun Seals reached the endzone from 19 yards out. The point after tied the score at 7 with 10:04 left in the second quarter.

 

Prep answered right back. Running behind a line that opened holes all night, Lucas again led the Ramblers downfield. Quarterback Regan Schleicher had two 15 yard carries in the drive, the second one took him into the endzone. “The line was excellent tonight” said Schleicher, “they played their hearts out. I know they had a good game when I don’t see them very long because they made room for me to get by quickly.”

With the score 14-7 in favor of Prep, the defense took over. After holding the Panthers were forced to punt from their 48. Lucas and Schleicher again led the team toward the Imhotep endzone. The drive took a strange twist when Schleicher scrambled right, then tossed the ball to Alex Baldi who went 24 yards to the Tep 10. During that play a flag was thrown and it appeared the QB would be flagged for being past the line of scrimmage, but the flag was picked up after a conference by the officiating crew. Two straight Prep penalties, a 9 yard rush, then another Prep penalty put the ball at the Tep 16. The Ramblers settled for a 30 yard Colin Kelly field goal with 15 seconds left in the half.

 

Imhotep came out blazing in the second half, moving the ball to the Prep 18 but a fourth down pass from Sutton-Christian went in and out of the hands of Terry. Lucas and the offensive line of the Ramblers took over and controlled the rest of the game. Lucas had his number called nine times on the ensuing drive, leading the Ramblers to the Tep. Schleicher lined up behind center. “I saw their linebackers and safeties stacking the line so I made a audible and took the ball myself” he said of what might have been the best play of the game. Regan faked the handoff to Lucas and sprinted to the right, reaching the endzone in a hurry and untouched making the score 24-7 Ramblers. They never looked back.


On the ensuing kick, Prep pounced on a fumbled kick return on the Tep 22 and 4 Lucas runs later they led 31-7 at the end of the third quarter.”It’s about taking chess pieces and moving them around, I keep thanking my offensive coordinator Jeremiah Conley. He did a great job of doing that this year. With the line blocking the way they were and the fullback blocking like he did we just took what we were given” said Mischler of the dominating rushing game exhibited on this night.

The Ramblers would score one more time, and it was during that drive that Lucas broke both records:

 

Mischler had glowing words for his star running back, who also eclipsed 2000 yards for the season in the game. “Hes’ an outstanding young man and he’s a beast. He one of the greatest players in Prep history, and there’s a lot of them out there but he’s certainly earned that. It’s a great testament to talk about him like that”  “Great offensive line. They worked hard from start to finish. When we were taking our lumps and everybody was getting on us they always kept pushing to get better and now they’re awesome” said Lucas. “This is real special. We took a lot of lumps early in the season, we were basically a new team an nobody knew about us. We just had to figure it out”.

We knew he was going to come in and carry the rock. They just executed better” said Panther head coach Nick Lincoln. “These seniors have been through a lot. They’ve had a lot of tragedy and worked through a lot of adversity. I hope they can stick to the 24 hour rule we have and not let this ruin their great career here.” Imhoteps season ends at 11-3.

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