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La Salle outlasts @SJPrep_Football 28-21 for a historic victory

Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub, News

| October 2, 2021

Photos Nate Hall

There was no denying the magnitude of this game. All week it was being hailed as the biggest game that the Philadelphia area has seen in years. By far the biggest game in Southeastern PA this week and even garnering national attention, ranked as the number 5 game to watch by MaxPreps. To say that the game lived up to the hype would be an understatement, with La Salle defeating St Joes Prep 28-21 in an instant classic.

Coming into the game, Prep hadn’t lost to a team from Pennsylvania since Pine Richland beat them in the State Championship game in 2017, 41-21. The PCL powerhouse hadn’t lost a league game since 2015, holding a 25 plus game win streak since their last loss when La Salle beat them 29-28. Prep has become the gold standard in high school football in Pennsylvania, winning 4 out of the last 5 state championships in the 6A classification, but it was La Salle’s day on Saturday.

“I’m exhausted,” Explained La Salle Head coach John Steinmentz. “What a good football game on both sides. That’s a really good football team down there, but our kids played really hard today.” He added.

 

It wasn’t easy by any stretch of the imagination for the Explorers, having to come from behind in the second half. Down 14-7 at half, La Salle needed a spark and they got one from Senior running back Sam Brown. Brown was held in check for the first half, with -3 yards rushing at halftime, but that quickly changed. On the second play of the half, the Rutgers commit bounced a run to the outside and took it 82 yards down the sideline for the touchdown to tie the game up at 14.

Just like that it was a brand new ball game and La Salle had all the momentum, “Not just me, but I feel like it gave the rest of the team confidence. We finished out strong after that.” Brown mentioned.

Brown would then give La Salle their first lead of the game midway through the 3rd quarter on a 5 yard touchdown run up the middle. Brown’s second score of the game, capped off a 10 play, 79 yard drive for the Explorers, in which he touched the ball 6 times. For the game, Brown finished with 15 carries for 106 yards and two scores against a tough Prep defense, led by Junior linebacker Josiah Trotter, son of former NFL linebacker Jeremiah Trotter. “He’s priceless, you can’t even put a number on him and we wouldn’t be here without him.” Explained Senior Linebacker Abdul Carter when talking about Brown.

 

La Salle would cap off a 21-0 quarter, when Alan Paturzo took a QB sneak up the middle for a 5 yard touchdown, making it 28-14, Paturzo finished 8-11 for 82 yards, with a touchdown and an interception. “We’ve got a senior team; they never panicked all year. We’ve been down before; we talk about how you have to play from behind and our seniors showed their maturity. They were really important on a game like this one.” Explained Coach Steinmentz

One of those seniors was Abdul Carter, who was massive in the second half, flying around the field on defense, making tackles, dropping back into coverage and blitzing the quarterback. The Penn State commit talked about finally getting over the hump and beating St. Joes Prep, “I said when I joined here that you don’t need to join the giant, beat the giant and today we slay the giant today.”

Prep got off to a hot start on offense, scoring on their first drive through a Samaj Jones 20 yard QB keeper. Jones later found David Washington after scrambling out of the pocket for a 25 yard touchdown, but in the second half The Prep offense had a tough time getting going. The La Salle defense was able to keep the explosive St. Joes rushing attack at bay. Even though Samaj Jones, Kasheim Phillips and Josh Barlow, combined to rush for 201 yards on the game, Prep was never able to break one loose. They did cut the lead 7 with 9:31 left in the game after Samaj Jones found Michael Ditrolio in the end zone, but Prep was never able to get anything going after that thanks to being pinned deep in their own end.

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With time running our Prep was forced to throw the ball, which allowed Abdul Carter to tee off on Samaj Jones. Carter wrecked havoc on the St. Joes offensive line, including a big pressure on the last play of the game which forced an errand throw by Jones that was picked off by Ryan Moore. “Abdul was a man alive at the end of the game” Said Steinmentz. “We play as a team. They came into the game and got a quick touchdown, but we didn’t put our heads down. We go by So what? Now what? That’s what we did, they made plays and we made plays too.” Carter Explained.

Ryan Moore was another La Salle senior who stepped up in a big way. The senior contributed in a multitude of ways, including being split out wide as a receiver as well as being used in the back field in wild cat scenarios on offense and playing in the secondary on defense. Moore had 2 catches for 87 yards and 4 rushes for 35 yards, totaling 122 yards from scrimmage. The senior had the special teams play of the game late in the fourth quarter when he lined up in the wild cat on fourth and four. Moore rolled out like he was going to run, but ended up pooch kicking the ball, inside the St. Joes one yard line. He was a big reason why Prep was never able to get anything going their last couple of drives.

Despite the big win, La Salle knows that if they want to be crowned Philadelphia Catholic League Champions, they will likely have to face off against St. Joes Prep for a second time and they’ll be ready. “We have to keep on executing, doing what our coaches are telling us to do, working hard in practice each and every week and we’ll be successful if we do that.” Sam Brown explained

gallery Nate Hall

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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