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Grella boots McDevitt to title game

Tagged under: District 3, District 7, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

| November 29, 2025

Bishop McDevitt had 1:33 to go with the score tied at 28 following a Peters Twp field goal. The Crusaders got a nice return on the kick to the 43, then after a few plays McDevitt quarterback Sebastian William saw pressure coming on a play designed to go to the outside. Ishmael Palmer, who earlier in the game fooled the entire Peters Twp special team unit when he grabbed a punt nobody thought was going to be fielded, and raced 25 yards for a score, looked at his QB and they both traded excited looks. “It was a concept route we have designed to go into the middle. I saw the pressure, I saw his eyes light up, mine did too and I hit him and he made a good play”. Palmer raced 42 yards to the Peters 8, they ran one play to the center of the field to position the ball and then Aidan Grella hit the 24 yard game winner with the clock at zeros propelling the Crusaders to the 31-28 win. McDevitt will face Roman Catholic in a rematch of a classic title game from last year. 

The kick was sort of a redemption from the first McDevitt drive of the game. After blocking a Peters Twp. punt, the Crusaders attempted a 38 yard field goal that missed. They scored on their next drive when Williams hit Howard Holton Jr. for a 58 yard score to make it 7-0 with 2:10 left in the first quarter.

Then on the ensuing drive Peters committed a double penalty resulting in a 30 yard loss back to their own 12. McDevitt forced a punt and the the kick didn’t travel far. With everyone yelling to get away the punt team kinda fell asleep. Then while everyone was just sort of meandering Palmer flew up out of nowhere, grabbed the bouncing ball and flew straight to the endzone to put McDevitt up 14-0 just 4 seconds into the second quarter.

The Indians finally got on the board thanks to a 27 yard field goal with 9:45 left in the second quarter, then Cole Neupaver picked off Williams to give the Indians the ball back and halt a Crusader drive at the 32. Peters Twp then went on a 77 yard drive to claw within 4 with a 6 yard td run by Neupaver making it 14-10. That lasted exactly 12 seconds. Nazir Jones-Davis took a handoff and raced 42 yards to put the Crusaders up 21-10 and that’s where we remained at the half.

Not much happened near the endzones in the third quarter until, with 46 seconds left, Nolan Dilucia hit Lucas Rost then they got the 2 pointer to draw withing 3, 21-18.

Peters then took their first lead of the game when Dilucia found PJ Luke for a 70 yard scoring stike to make it a 25-21 game.

McDevitt responded with a 60 yard drive capped by a 26 yard td pass to Jontai Quick with 4:11 remaining in the game.

On their next drive, Peters nearly sealed the deal when Lucas Shanafelt got behind the defense and Dilucia found him wide open. The Crusader defender had no choice but to interfere and prevent a sure TD.  The rest is history. Peters tied the game, and McDevitt got the win. 

McDevitt Head Coach Jeff Weachter, who coached from the press box due to illness, said “Our kids never gave up, I’m proud of them. Grella, I hope we can get him one more game winner”.

Bishop McDevitt       7-14-0-10 – 31
Peters Township       0-10-8-10 – 28
First quarter
McD-Howard Holton Jr. 58 pass from Sebastian Williams (Aidan Grella kick), 2:10
Second quarter
McD-Ish Palmer 27 punt return (Grella kick), 11:36
PT-FG Anthony Maiello 27, 9:45
PT-Cole Naupaver 6 run (Maiello kick), 2:56
McD-Nazir Jones-Davis 42 run (Grella kick), 2:45
Third quarter
PT-Lucas Rost 9 pass from Nolan DiLucia (Reston Lehman pass from DiLucia), :46
Fourth quarter
PT-PJ Luke 70 pass from DiLucia (Maiello kick), 7:51
McD-Jontai Quick 26 pass from Williams (Grella kick), 4:11
PT-FG Maiello 24, 1:33
McD-FG Grella 24, :00

Team statistics                       McD                PT
First downs:                            17                    19
Rush-yards:                             33-102             25-46
Passing:                                   250                  253
Comp-Att-Int:                         16-22-1           19-37-0
Fumbles-lost:                          0-0                   0-0
Punts-Avg.:                             3-40                 4-33.5
Penalties-yards:                      18-157             4-58

 
Individual statistics

RUSHING: Bishop McDevitt, Nazir Jones-Davis 21-117, Maurice Barnes 2-3, Jerome Larue Jr. 4-(minus-2), Sebastian Williams 6-(minus-16); Peters Township, Cole Neupaver 16-31, Nolan DiLucia 9-15.

PASSING: Bishop McDevitt, Williams 16-22-1—250; Peters Township, DiLucia 19-37-0—253.

RECEIVING: Bishop McDevitt, Jontai Quick 7-78, Howard Holton Jr. 2-67, Gage Ruth 5-59, Ish Palmer 1-41, Liam Fuller 1-5; Peters Township, Lucas Rost 8-91, PJ Luke 2-76, Lucas Shanafelt 3-39, Jeremy Poletti 2-21, Neupaver 2-11, Reston Lehman 1-8, Ian Watson 1-7.

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