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Tenacious Tate Former McDevitt student Mike Smith, aka "Tate", attended the McDevitt/North Catholic game and sent a "report" (term used loosely -- ha ha). He was a character in his days of reporting for the site, so don't take this report too seriously. |
SEPT. 17
NON-LEAGUE
McDevitt something, North Catholic something
I'm not really sure what you want to do with
this information, but this
is what happened at the McDevitt-North game tonight.
First, I get there and
the first person I see upon entering is Jack Rutter.
He looked at me for a
second and he says, "What, you aren't going to shake my
hand?" You bet I'll
shake his hand! He then asked me how I got in for free in
which I
responded, "Because of my legendary status I guess."
So I sat down at the
top of the bleachers and got ready for the game. Where to
start? I guess I
was first surprised at the kicking. I'm not sure if
McDevitt's kicker was
intentionally kicking the ball 20 yards or what, but every time
he kicked
off, it went really high in the air and only like 20 yards.
Unbelievably at
one point in the game, he kicked it like this and McDevitt
actually
recovered the ball. I'm not sure if this was intentional
or what, but it
sure took me off guard, as well as North Catholic's kickoff
return team.
Right after this, McDevitt surprisingly threw like a 60 yard
pass and later
scored on the drive. It's not as if North's kicker was
any better, he did
the same flub kick that McDevitt's kicker did. I was
pretty confused
actually. McDevitt basically dominated the game with a
stunning running
attack. Manny Harrison is a very talented kid
and has the potential to be a
serious playmaker. He scored the first touchdown of the
game in a very
impressive run in which he left 3 North players lying on the
ground
wondering what happened. McDevitt's defense was also
pretty strong. Their
defensive line looked very good tonight. The quarterback
was sacked
somewhere around 3 times and was also hurried a good deal as
well. One of
the boldest things of the night was watching a McDevitt player
get a sack
and looking to the sideline to see Coach Bock
getting really hyped. Often
he was jumping on the sidelines after such a play.
McDevitt's quarterback
looked pretty good tonight throwing 2 passes right on the money
for
a lot of yards. One pass was like a 50 yard bomb to some
kid in double
coverage. Another pass was a touchdown in the corner of
the end zone.
However, he did have one play in the beginning of the game in
which he went
back to pass, threw his arm up, and something happened. I
hesitate to call
it a pass because the ball flopped out and wobbled end over
end, and went
right into a North defender's grasp. He then proceded to
return the
interception for a touchdown, but it got called back for a
block in the
back. Another great player for McDevitt is Brian
Mitros. He's a very quick
and agile player who has great vision. He returned a punt
at one point by
catching the ball, barely evading the first guy, breaking the
second tackle,
doing a spin move, and stepping out of the next tackle.
He then ran the
punt back to the 20 yard line, and there was one guy in front
of him.
Before I finish I would just like to say that it takes alot for
me to
actually cheer for a team or to actually get visibly upset at
someone who
does something wrong, what happened next actually made me get
up and yell,
"NOOOOOOOOO!" What happened was #1 for
McDevitt, who I think is Mark
Newton, came from across the field and drilled
this last defender in the
back sending him flying. This was the last defender
between Mitros and the
end zone. I don't know how to say this, but this was one
of the most insane
plays I have ever personally witnessed. I could see that
this was going to
happen about 5 seconds before it actually happened. I
think the crowd was
with me on that because I could have sworn I heard someone say,
"No, don't!"
Because of this action, Mitros did actually score, but
it was brought
back. I think the North defender would have tackled
Mitros anyway, but
we'll never really know. This wasn't that big of a deal
actually, because
McDevitt got the ball on the 20, and they scored 2 plays later.
However, it
was just such an amazing thing to see a disaster unfold before
your eyes,
and be able to tell that it was going to happen well before it
did, and have
absolutely no power to stop it. North managed to drive
down the field with
about 1:30 left before half, and score. However, they
missed the extra
point. To be honest, I'm not really sure who won.
I'm assuming they called
the game because of rain, but again I'm not sure. I just
left at half
because it started to rain a lot and I didn't really feel like
getting
soaked, or electrocuted for that matter. So when I left,
the score was 21-6
McDevitt. Hopefully they won and I don't look like an
idiot.
(Ted's note: I read my wife the last part of this report and she
said, "He calls
himself 'Tenacious Tate'? If he left at halftime, you should change his name to
Not-too-Tenacious Tate. Ha, ha, ha, ha.")