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Revenge is Best Served Cold: St. Joseph Prep advances in 21-14 win over La Salle

Tagged under: District 12, Gameday Hub, News, Playoffs

| November 9, 2024

Sold Out. That’s the best way to describe a game of this magnitude. The two top teams in the State meet again for the second time in the season. Even after winning the first meeting, La Salle would still be considered the underdog as most of PFN projected SJP to win. The opening kickoff would tell everyone that this game wasn’t going to be like the last meeting.

“It feels great to get a win anytime you get a win but it feels different when it’s a win against La Salle” said Prep S/LB Anthony Sacca.

“It’s a playoff game at this time of the year. We’re just playing to stay together. The young guys playing for the seniors to keep this thing going. Every team’s got one year life expectancy and this group we’re able to move forward and play for another week and try to keep this mission alive and I think over the last time it was painful in that loss we had over a month ago but we were able to reset and get this opportunity” said Coach Tim Roken.

La Salle opened the game by kicking it off to Prep, and Prep made quick work with it. While Masiia Acrey didn’t score, he ran it all the way back to the La Salle twenty before getting tackled out of bounds. seven plays later and draining almost four minutes off the clock Prep’s Khyan Billups punched it in from one yard out on fourth with eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds remaining in the first. While they started their drive at the twenty, it still took them almost four minutes to score. La Salle’s defense was the bright spot for the team today. Prep forced a La Salle punt on La Salle’s opening drive, not a great start for them. Prep’s second drive ended shortly after with Justin Hawkins flying off the right edge on a corner blitz and sacking Charlie Foulke IV. The first ended 7-0 with La Salle in possession of the ball to start the second quarter.

La Salle wasted no time getting into the endzone to start the second. 4-Star ATH Joey O’Brien somehow caught the tipped pass from Gavin Sidwar and took the ball into the endzone putting La Salle on the board and tying the game up at seven with eleven minutes and thirty-five seconds till half. However, it didn’t take long for Prep to strike right back. On their first play from scrimmage, Foulke found a sprinting Rameir Hardy and launched the ball as far as he could getting it up and out for fifty-five yards. Prep jumped right back in front and retook the lead going up 14-7 with eleven minutes and twenty-one seconds remaining in the half.

La Salle couldn’t get much going after that. With a run game that couldn’t get going and constant pressure in Sidwar’s face, it was hard to move the ball. Eventually, the pressure would get to Sidwar. Penn State’s Cam Smith came flying up the middle and got Sidwar by the legs putting La Salle in a now fourth-down situation. A great punt would push Prep back to their four-yard line with nine minutes and nineteen seconds left in the half.

After a grueling drive getting to the twenty-five-yard line, Foulke found the wrong person on fourth down. A miscommunication led to the ball going straight into the arms of O’Brien for his first pick of the game to go with his touchdown. But as well as La Salle’s defense was playing, Prep’s upped that. Forcing yet again another punt Prep took over at their eleven with two minutes and eleven seconds. They had a little drive going but soon it ended and we went to halftime with prep leading 14-7.

La Salle opened up the half with the ball to start. Hoping to get a good drive going and tie the game up, but it didn’t go to plan. On their opening drive, they found themselves in a fourth down position, but unfortunately, the snap went by Sidwar and they turned the ball back over to Prep setting them up at the La Salle thirty-eight with 8 minutes and thirty-nine seconds left in the third. La Salle’s defense fortunately stood tall and forced a field goal. A field goal that ended up short. Prep started at the thirty-eight and ended with no points. Pretty good stand-by La Salle. Sidwar and the Explorers moved down the field into scoring range with under forty-five seconds remaining in the third. To not many’s surprise, they were in fourth down. Instead of taking the field goal and getting the points, they went for it. A right-side rollout and forced pass went straight into the hands of Acrey for his first pick of the day. Prep took over at their twenty with thirty-three seconds left in the third. Prep ended the third with the ball at their twenty-nine still up 14-7 going into the last quarter.

Prep moved the ball on their grueling five-minute and fifteen-second drive to the La Salle ten Billups decided that he wanted two touchdowns on the day and wouldn’t be rejected. Powering through hits and keeping the legs moving Billups found his way into the endzone to extend the Prep lead to now 21-7 with six minutes and forty-five seconds left in the game. All seemed to be in the bag for Prep. Only by allowing one touchdown in three and a half quarters of play could going up two scores be the knife in the side.

La Salle had no quit in them, however, on their first drive down two scores, they needed something. Launching the ball a few times, they got it. Sidwar launching one deep to O’Brien not only drew the pass interference as O’Brien was being dragged down, but also got the touchdown. A sixty-five-yard touchdown brought La Salle back within seven down 21-14 with four minutes and forty-seven seconds remaining. La Salle had all three timeouts in their pocket, so they used them to get the ball back.

Forcing a Prep punt after no other than O’Brien making the first down-saving tackle forced Prep to punt the ball back. La Salle took over at their twenty-six with one minute and forty-nine seconds remaining. Not only was the perfect season on the line, but so was a shot at the championship. La Salle needed something, and they got nothing. Going four and out on their final drive of the game ended their season. Prep left Wissahickon not only winning 21-14, advancing onto the next game, and getting their revenge win.

With many seniors graduating last year, this is a young Prep team and a lot of them are getting their first playoff start against La Salle.

“You got guys coming into this year that either had their first opportunity as a starter as a senior or junior. You have some young guys, Charlie’s one of them within the starting lineup on both sides of the ball. Getting their first opportunity to play in this atmosphere of a game and they experience this a month ago in this game and we’re able to kind of reset, put our focus on ourselves for the past month and be able to come out on the right side” said Coach Roken as he finished off saying how much respect he has for La Salle’s coach Brett Gordon and the program.

St. Joes Prep now faces Imhotep next week. Imhotep has been itching to get a shot to play Prep for the past few years, now they have their chance.

“We’re not worried about that we’re just worried about getting better” said Sacca when asked about Imhotep’s talk over the years.

“Next game right is the most important because it’s the next game on our schedule.  And this time of the year we’re trying to stay together for another week and so we got to reset. Still got things we got to clean up from this game for sure and making sure next week we can capitalize on those things and stay together for another week” said Coach Roken on Tep next week.

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