Bishop McDevitt Captures the District 3 4A Championship over Lampeter-Strasburg

Tagged under: District 3, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

Carl Frederick | November 27, 2021

  Bishop Mcdevitt Celebrates their first District title since 2018

On a cold windy night, Junior Marquese William’s 30 yard scamper would be the difference as the Bishop McDevitt Crusaders captured their first District Championship since 2018. “It feels great, at halftime we were mad, when adversity hit, somebody had to be the one” Williams said, adding “I just said, I am happy to punch it in for the win”.

The Crusaders took the first possession of the game down on the Pioneers 1 but on third and goal Freshman Stone Saunders was picked off at the goaline by Drexton Frank. Lampeter-Strasburg’s defense certainly did their part, holding Bishop McDevitt to the lowest total yards all season. The rest of the first half saw both teams trading punts until LS was able to get to the Crusaders 12 yard line.

Unfortunately for the Pioneers, Berkeley Wagner could not handle the high snap and fumbled with Bishop McDevitt recovering. After Saunders hit Jeffrey Penn for a big pass play (their longest of the night) LS once again clamped down defensively forcing a punt. The Pioneers ran out the rest of the clock and the score remained 0-0 at halftime.

After a bad pooch punt by LS late in the third quarter, Marquese Williams took it in from 30 yards out for the first and only score of the evening (7-0). Behind the hard running of Giovanni Malatesta (120 yards rushing) and Wagner, the Pioneers made it to the 19 yard line to start the fourth. A few plays later Malatesta fumbled and the Crusaders recovered.

With just over 4 minutes to go Wagner and Malesta converted through the air on 4th and 8 to get to the McDevitt 10. For the third time of the evening the Pioneers fumbled and the Crusaders recovered. LS would have one last chance with 40 seconds remaining but were unable to get the ball past the 50. Ball game over. Bishop McDevitt sacked Wagner six times on the evening and forced three fumbles to capture Head Coach Jeff Weachter’s 10th District title “It was tough night to play, I want to give LS a ton of credit” Weachter said. “We relied on our defense and they really came through for us”.

Lampeter-Strasburg finishes a remarkable run for this senior class with 2 District Championships, and an overall 31-7 record. First year Head Coach Victor Ridenour, despite the heartbreaking loss, was proud of this group. “I’m really proud of our kids, that’s been our mentality all year – we are going to battle” Ridenour said “We have a great group of seniors, I know they are upset but when they look back on this season, I think they will know they did something pretty cool”.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews