As a Cumberland Valley student and fan, this one was hard to watch. The final score of Bishop McDevitt 48-CV 28 indicates that this game was completely one sided. And through all four quarters, it was exactly that.
Right from the opening possessions, McDevitt manhandled CV. The Eagles went three and out and were forced to punt away their opening drive. The Crusaders received and went to work right away. RB Rashad Lawson took McDevitt’s first play to the house with a 53 yard catch and run only to have it called back by a holding penalty. But that wasn’t going to stall or even slow down #5 Andre Robinson. The very next play Robinson ran right up the middle, shed a few tacklers, and was gone for an easy 62 yard touchdown.
That set the tone for the night.
While the Eagles were able to answer with a 7 yard touchdown run by RB Tyler Hartzel, that would be their only score in the entire first half. With the score 7-7 going into the second quarter, CV had the opportunity to have their only lead of the night, but Garret Long missed a 36 yard field goal and the Crusaders were going to make him pay for that. Lawson decided it was his turn and took the first handoff 80 yards for a touchdown. This one was not called back.
After a Tyler Updegraff fumble and an offensive pass interference call stalled the Eagles next two drives, McDevitt received the ball with 3 minutes to go in the half. Helped by a big 30 yard catch by #7 Brian Lemelle, Robinson burst through a hole for a 21 yard touchdown run giving the Crusaders a 21-7 lead. Leaving only two minutes on the clock, you would think that The Crusaders were done for the half, but they weren’t. McDevitt forced yet another CV punt, and got the ball back with 46 seconds left on the clock. 46 seconds was plenty of time for them to drive all the way into Eagle territory and kick a 30 yard field goal capping off the half for a 24-7 lead.
The Crusaders continued their absolute domination in the second half. WR Brian Lemelle really seemed to come alive and the two headed monster of a backfield didn’t miss a beat. Lemelle was all over the field on McDevitt’s opening drive, setting up a 28 yard field goal to distance the Crusaders further from the Eagles. CV came out looking almost defeated. QB Ben Ferback dropped back for his first pass of the second half…and threw an interception. Capitalizing on the turnover, Lemelle ran right past the defense for an easy 34 yard touchdown catch to continue to bury Cumberland Valley.
While the Eagles (mainly RBs Jeremy Salmon and Tyler Hartzel) were not out, their fans definitely were. As fans were exiting the stadium, the two put together a nice drive ending in a Salmon seven yard touchdown run to spark some hope into their team. If it worked, it was short-lived as Andre Robinson reminded everyone that he was still on the field, busting through the Eagles D for a 63 yard touchdown run.
As if that wasn’t enough, his counterpart Lawson rumbled for a 12 yard touchdown to put the nail in the Eagle’s coffin with McDevitt’s final score of the game. CV kept their starters in for one more drive, giving Hartzel and Salmon one last hoorah. Hartzel fought his way to get down to the 17 yard line and Salmon finished it off with a 17 yard touchdown run.
The rest of the quarter was garbage time but that meant quality reps for the second team. Backup QB Chris Harrell, and TE Logan Short connected for a 21 yard touchdown pass to end the game. The final score: Bishop McDevitt 48 – Cumberland Valley 28. The Crudsaders improved to 3-0 on the season as the Eagles fall to 2-1.
After the game, on the topic of McDevitt’s RBs Andre Robinson and Rashad Lawson, Cumberland Valley Head Coach Tim Rimpfel said, “They kept us off balance on defense. You can be concerned about the two running backs, but they killed us on the line. Those two are good, but they hammered our ends, our tackles, our linebackers, then got into the secondary and we couldn’t tackle.”
And he was absolutely right. The offensive line knocked CV’s defense around and created huge holes for these two all night long but that’s not to take anything away from the individual skills of the two dominant backs. They were absolutely phenomenal. Andre Robinson rushed 14 times for 226 yards and three touchdowns. This kid is a beast at 5’10 and weighs 205 pounds and he’s just a sophomore! He showed power to run over people and speed down the sideline winning foot race after foot race. He’s rushed for two or more touchdowns in every game this season. The rest of the league better look out. Oh and not to mention the other head of the monster Rashad Lawson. He rushed 13 times for 126 yards and two touchdowns.
That’s better than CV’s leading rusher Tyler Hartzel who ran 12 times for 126 yards and a touchdown. Jeremy Salmon had the other two rushing touchdowns and 86 yards on 15 attempts. These two created the only bright spot for an otherwise embarrassed CV team. QB Ben Fernback badly overthrew open receivers all night and the defense could not wrap up a tackle. Besides the run game, CV looked like they need work.
Taking that into consideration, I asked Coach Rimpfel what his biggest area of concern is and he said that “it’s to reestablish the team’s confidence. We got spanked, and that’s not just something that we blow off. It’s painful.”
Hopefully next game will be a confidence builder for Cumberland Valley against a 1-2 Central Dauphin East team.
