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Richland overcomes turnovers, holds on to beat McDevitt

Tagged under: District 6, Gameday Hub, News

| November 23, 2019

 

Richland helmets up for victory rendition of their Alma Mater

 

The Richland Rams are heading to the PIAA Class 2A Semi-Finals. Sophomore quarterback Kellen Stahl threw for over 200 yards and 2 scores and ran for 2 more to lead the Rams to a 29-21 win over District 12 champion Bishop McDevitt at Trojan Stadium in Chambersburg. “The Philadelphia Catholic league is probably one of the best leagues in the state of Pennsylvania, McDevitt came in and they played well, they’ve got D1 athletes and they’re coached very well. Our kids just kept playing one play at a time. We knew Lonnie Rice is a great athlete back there and we just had to make him keep snapping the football” said Richland Head Coach Brandon Bailey of his teams win.

Trailing 14-7 with 1:30 left in the first half, the Stahl took the reins of his offense and drove them 58 yards to tie the score at 14 heading into halftime. “That was big, we were kinda struggling there in the first half” said Bailey. We saw some things on film and we tried some different stuff but on that drive we just went back to what we do by going 4-5 wide and slinging the ball around and we were able to get into the endzone there at the end of the first half”. Stahl finished the drive with a 2 yard run after completing three passes, including two to Caleb Burke for 6 and 27 yards. “My line just did a great job on that drive” said Stahl. “My receivers, They’re the cream of the crop and I was just out there looking for the open guys.”

Richland jumped out to a 7-0 lead on the first drive of the game, going 80 yards on a nice mix of run and pass. Stahl found Jordan Foster for a big 31 yard gain to the 21, then finished the drive with a td pass to Burke from 12 yards out.

The Lancers answered right back with a nice drive of their own. Lonnie Rice and Akire Lilley shared carries to get inside the 20 of Richland. Then Rice ripped off a 15 yard run to the one and followed his line in for the score. With 3:36 left in the first quarter it looked like we were in for a shootout. On the ensuing series, Stahl found Burke in the flat and he headed to the endzone, but lost the handle on the ball just before getting over the five. Rice picked up the rock and returned it to the 40 yard line. Richlands defense then stepped up and got 2 fourth down stops, but they were losing the field position battle and it eventually paid off for McDevitt. Rice found Emmanuel Sia from 11 yards out to put the Lancers up 14-7.

 

Coming out in the second half, Griffin LaRue stopped the Lancers cold on the first play, picking off Rice in Lancer territory. Stahl and Burke again connected for six points, this time from 12 yards out to put the Rams back in the lead at the 10:19 mark in the third quarter. After forcing a Lancer punt, the Rams coughed up the ball. Rice and Sia made them pay. The Buffalo bound senior nearly had his pass intercepted, but the ball bounced right into the hands of Sia and the speedy receiver did the rest, racing to the endzone for and 80 yard scoring play to tie the game at 21 with 3:27 left in the third quarter. “Well, we talked before the game that and we wanted to control two phases of the game. The turnover battle and the line of scrimmage. We won one of those. I don’t know what happened, the kids were dropping the ball all over the field” said Bailey.

“The small things man. We did a great job on defense of getting the ball back when we needed to” said Burke who had the interception that led to the winning score. Stahl carried much of the load on the second half, running for 70 yards and a score, the final one from two yards out to seal the game for Richland.

 

“We knew it was going to be a very good battle, they have a lot of athletes and they were just a little bit better than us” said McDevitt Head Coach Mike Watkins. I’m just so proud of these guys”.

Richland will face Southern Columbia next week for the opportunity to go to Hershey.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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