By Eric Fortune

sports@vindy.com

MCDONALD

Blitz Live | September 23, 2016

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Podcast Episode

Take a trip through the Valley's week 5 High School football action with Blitz Live hosts Corey Crisan, Greg Gulas, and Sean Ferguson.

This game had a little of everything — a touchdown before the actual seven o’clock kickoff, a 10 minute power outage, and lights flickering in the press box.

But McDonald came out the other side of the assorted wackiness with a 42-20 win against United. The win was a relief for the Blue Devils, who had an uncharacteristic 1-3 start to the season. The Bule Devils entered Friday’s game having lost two of their last three games.

“This was definitely a must-win situation,” Blue Devil coach Dan Williams said. “We knew we had to come in and play well. The kids regrouped after a tough week. We didn’t play our best against Wellsville with seven turnovers. We played well except for those seven plays. It was a big loss down there. We have to focus on winning the league title. We still have some goals ahead of us. If we go 7-3, there is still a chance of us sneaking in (the playoffs).”

Joe Sudol’s 230 yards and two touchdowns on special teams turned the contest from a one-point game into a decisive win.

“Anytime you score on special teams, it’s a real advantage for your football team,” Williams said. “We know Joe has that ability both as a receiver and a returner – both sides, punt and kickoff. He’s a special kid with good speed. He just hit a couple of seems and we had great blocking.”

Sudol’s 90 yard return on the opening kickoff was the start of big plays for McDonald. The last time the Blue Devils (2-3) started off the season with that record was in 2011.

The Eagles (2-3) initially had a lot of success against the Blue Devils’ defense with Cade Wood running off chunks of yards en route to 147 yards rushing on just 13 carries. McDonald didn’t have a lot of answers for him as his nine yard run cut the McDonald lead to 8-7 midway through the first quarter.

Alex Cintron’s 75 yard run put the Blue Devils back up 15-7 at the 6:35 mark of the second quarter. Cintron would lead the Blue Devil rushing attack with 117 yards rushing. For the game, McDonald rushed for 315 yards.

On the first play of the ensuing United possession, Wood’s 72-yard run made it 15-14 Blue Devils.

Wood though suffered an ankle injury next time the Eagles got the ball and it changed the complexion of the game as he didn’t return.

Without Wood, the Eagles punted on their first four drives of the second half and finished with just 54 yards of total offense in the second half.

“They had two big runs in the first half and you can’t give those runs up,” Williams said. “We tried to tighten some things down. We just played harder. We stressed this week that our kids have to sell out on every play. We didn’t feel we were getting 100 percent effort on every play in the first four games. I think it made a big difference tonight.”

On the other side of the ball, the Blue Devils scored each time they had the ball with Sudol starting the second half just like the first half, this time with a 72-yard punt return to make it 22-14.

Touchdown runs from Josh Celli, Joe Celli, and Cameron Tucker put the exclamation point on a resounding ground attack as McDonald only passed three times all night.