Roman Catholic makes football history with first state crown: ‘We were on a mission’
In a rematch of last year’s PIAA Class 5A final, Roman took down District 3’s Bishop McDevitt on Friday night. The Cahillites achieved a goal coach Rick Prete has been building toward for years.
MECHANICSBURG, PA — Eyan Stead Jr. blamed himself. The Roman Catholic 5-foot-10, 180-pound senior two-way star carried it with him for months. It bothered him to a point where he lost sleep over the pass that glanced off his hands in last year’s state championship that would have been a touchdown.
Stead also knew something else. He would get another chance. Fortunately, on Friday night, he did, against the same team, in the same stadium, in the same game.
This time, Stead made it right, and was a big part in making Roman Catholic football history, catching a game-high nine passes for 102 yards and a touchdown in leading the Cahillites to their first PIAA state football championship, beating District 3 champion Bishop McDevitt, 28-6, in the Class 5A championship at Cumberland Valley High School.
Late in last year’s state championship, won by McDevitt, 34-31, in overtime, Stead was wide open down the middle of the field when Roman quarterback Semaj Beals unfurled a bomb. It looked like Stead would run right under it, when it bounced off his hands.
The drop plagued Stead for a while.
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“Every day, every day after that game last year I thought about it,” admitted Stead, who’s bound for Temple. “I beat myself up over it. That stayed with me for two months after that game. I had to make it right. I started to stack days and prepare. I lost sleep over that play. I lost weight. I didn’t eat for two weeks. I didn’t start letting it go until late-January. I put it on me. I let my team down, and it bothered me.
“I believe in second chances. I believe in third chances, and when this chance came to play McDevitt again, in this game, I wasn’t going to let anyone down this time.”
The state championship was the culmination of what Cahillites’ head coach Rick Prete had been building since he was named head coach in 2019. He built the program up from scratch, taking considerable time to take players to summer seven-on-seven camps, vanning them to various skills camps, and gradually building the talent of the program.
“I have to process all of this,” Prete admitted. “It feels great being the first to do this. We’re going to celebrate on Saturday and I may not feel one bump on the turnpike on the way home. I want to make sure I tip my cap to (McDevitt) coach (Jeff) Weachter and his team. I learned a lot from him.”
Prete’s supreme find was Beals, who is heading to Akron, and who has thrown for over 12,000 yards as a four-year starter.
Beals completed 18 of 26 for 231 yards and three touchdowns, getting Roman out to a big first half lead before McDevitt scored.
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“I was on a mission, we were on a mission, and we were all motivated from what we went through losing last year,” Beals said. “I know Eyan went through. I know he blamed himself for the drop, but we were all to blame. And we all took it on ourselves this offseason to get back here and do something we felt we should have done last year — win the state championship. It feels great making history as the first Roman team to ever win a state title in football, but this is a brotherhood, and it’s something we all did together. No one was going to stop us this year.”
Roman had the game won at halftime, holding a 21-0 lead. The Cahillites scored on three of their first five possessions, outgaining McDevitt, 197 to 120. The separation should have been by more, with Roman only converting one of McDevitt’s three first-half turnovers into points.
Beals scored on Roman’s first drive with a seven-yard run, Beals found Hanif Sheed on a short, seven-yard touchdown pass early in the second quarter for a 14-0 advantage. The score was created by a fumble recovery by Roman’s Julian Enoch at the McDevitt 33.
Roman squandered a second-quarter interception by junior linebacker Walter Hudson, who brought the ball back to the McDevitt 22. But a fumble, which was recovered, pushed the Cahillites back to the 24, and followed by an illegal shift flag that put the Cahillites in a fourth-and-13 at the McDevitt 25.
Defensively, Hudson came spearing through to stop a McDevitt fourth-and-one at the Roman 46, which the Cahillites turned into a 40-yard touchdown pass from Beals to Ash Roberts to take a 21-0 lead with 1:53 left in the first half. Hudson led all defenders with 11 tackles, which included four tackles for losses.
“We had to stop the run, and we knew our defensive backs would stop their pass game,” Hudson said. “On the fourth-down play, I knew what they would do by watching film. I ran through the A-gap and I stopped it. On the interception, I dropped back in my zone, and I knew the ball would come to me. I tried to score, but everything started giving up. We didn’t do last year, and were determined this year to finish the job.”
It was Stead who tacked on the last score, when Beals hit him with a short 1-yard pass with 1:16 left in the third quarter.
“Eyan beat himself up over last year, but we made sure he knew we would not have been in that position without him,” Prete said. “He made sure. Eyan, he will always be our guy, and I keep saying it, he’s the best player in the state. He showed it tonight. I’ve been pounding that table for two years now how good Eyan Stead is. There is not a better football player in Pennsylvania than Eyan Stead.”