PHILADELPHIA: Archbishop Wood Head Coach Steve Devlin should know first hand what a mobile quarterback can do for a team after all, while he was the Offensive Coordinator powerhouse St. Joseph Prep during their dominance of the Catholic League in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s he had one of the best mobile quarterbacks in Catholic League history in Chris Whitney. Now a days Whitney is the starting Quarterback Villanova who enters this weekend the third ranked team in FCS and Devlin is in his third season has head man at the Wood. Devlin has a signal caller that reminds very much of Whitney and his name Jerry Rahill. All the 6 foot 180 pound Senior did was let his legs to the damage Friday night as the Vikings rolled to a dominating 21-7 victory over the North Catholic Falcons in front of packed house at Northeast High’s Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium. “Chris (Whitney) was one the best I ever coached but Jerry’s right up there, I see a lot of Chris in him they both are special. Is how Devlin would describe Rahill in compairson to Whitney.
On their second drive on the game the Vikings appeared to be poised to take an early lead as they were driving deep in Falcons territory when Rahill was intercepted by Juilan Higgins who pulled it in with an outstanding one hand grab. The Falcons would be unable to capitalize on the Vikings miscue.
After the Falcons would punt the Vikings would finally break the scoreless tie with 7:48 left in the opening half when Kevin Murt would power his way in from two yards out. Murt’s run would cap a 11 play 65 yard drive. The big play would come courtesy of Rahill would scamper 22 yards to put the Vikings at the Falcons 39 yard line.
From that point the Vikings turned the game to their hard nose defense and their defense respond forcing the Falcons to zero first downs in the opening 24 minutes. The Vikings would add to their lead on their final drive of the first half when Murt plunged in from a yard out giving the Vikings the 14-0 lead heading into the half. Rahill would finish the first half with 11 carries that produced 95 yards on his way to a 20 carry 109 yard performance. “We came into today expecting to be able to run,(Conwell)Egan had ran well against them last week.” Is how Rahill would describe his teams expectations heading into the game.
The Falcons showed life on their opening drive of the game when they needed just three plays all runs by All Catholic Running Back Eugene Byrd to cover 62 yards including the 34 yard run that cut the Vikings lead down to 14-7 with 10:39 left in the third quarter.
Rahill would let his arm put the final nail in the Falcons coffin when he connected with Kevin Shaw for 23 yard touchdown.
With the win the Vikings rolled off their eight consecutive win after losing their first two games by a 35-14 margin to Cardinal O’Hara and a heart breaking 29-23 overtime lost to Chestnut Hill Academy. When asked about the Vikings slow start Rahill said“We started out slow and got down on ourselves but than we beat Ryan 17-7, win again West Catholic was biggest win of the season it gave us confidence that we can beat anyone.” With the win the Vikings advance to District XII Title game against the winner of the Philadelphia Public League AAA Championship game between Murrell Dobbins Simon Gratz. Last season the Vikings steamed roll Dobbins 56-7 for the District XII glory, on their way to a state championship appearance.
