Blue Devils fall in semis
Tailback Zach Mallon had his toughest game of the season as the Blue Devils fell in the District 6 semis to Richland.
November 3, 2020
Triumph seemed to be the theme for this year’s football season as the Blue Devils went undefeated in the regular season and looked to secure a district title after taking a big first round win in the playoffs. But the Blue Devils’ hopes for a district medal were crushed last Friday, falling to fourth-seeded Richland 29-0 at Memorial Stadium.
All season the Blue Devils had dominated on both sides of the ball, scoring at least 35 points in every game, and only giving up 48 total points in six games. So last Friday’s game was a new one for the Blue Devils: it was the first time they had been shut out since 2007 (a span of 155 games) when Bellwood lost the Backyard Brawl 19-0 to Tyrone, and it was the first time they had less than 100 total yards in a game since 2007, when they lost to Philipsburg 34-6.
“It was very frustrating,” said head coach Nick Lovrich. “As a coach you always second guess yourself after a loss. This was the first game we struggled to move the ball all year.”
Senior Zach Mallon led the Blue Devils offense with 57 of the 67 rushing yards. Zach upped his season totals to 901 rushing yards on 100 carries, averaging 127 rushing yards a game with 16 rushing TD’s.
The defense did all it could to try and stop Richlands fast-paced offense, but they just couldn’t get it done giving up 343 total yards and 15 first downs to the Rams.
“We knew that Richland had a lot of weapons that we needed to defend,” said Lovrich. “I thought our defense did a pretty good job for the most part.”
Richaldn scored a touchdown in every quarter, with quarterback Kellan Stahl leading the charge. He ran for a touchdown in the first to open the scoring, and threw a pair of touchdown strikes to Sam Penna in the second and fourth quarters to extend the lead. Stahl finished with 190 yards passing and 94 rushing.
“They won upfront in the trenches,” said senior Nick Plank. “We just couldn’t move the ball, and we were getting overwhelmed.”
The Blue Devils will play Tyrone this Friday in the Backyard Brawl, and Richland will advance to the District 6 2A championship against Cambria Heights.
