District 12 6A Championship Game Previews

Tagged under: District 12, News, pfn, Playoffs

Anthony Franklin | November 10, 2023

This week both the Public League & Catholic Leagues will crown their 6A Classification Champions. Abraham Lincoln & Northeast will battle for the Public League title while in the Catholic League St. Joes Prep & La Salle will take the field for the CL title.

Game Schedules:

Saturday 12pm: Northeast @ Lincoln HS (South Philly Supersite)

Saturday 3pm: La Salle @ St. Joes Prep (Norristown HS)

Public League Championship Game Breakdown:

Northeast enters with a 7-4 record on a two-game winning streak as they entered the playoffs just over .500 but had an impressive 54-0 shutout win over Kensington in the quarterfinals round. Last week against a strong GW offense they pitched a shutout and added enough offense to advance to the championship game. Earlier in the season they were shutout and handled by Lincoln 37-0. In that 3 weeks the Vikings seemed to have fixed defensive issues & settled down at the quarterback position. The last 2 weeks they’ve been more successful throwing the ball. Jr. WR/DB Dymere Durham has stepped up huge the later of the season on both sides of the ball and figures to be a big key to the Vikings success. The offense once again starts with Jr. David Akpuru who leads the team in rushing (750 yards) & touchdowns (11). Jr. QB Lamont Brown has taken reigns as the primary signal caller (281 yards, 3 TDs). Defensively they’re led by Sr. LB George Truitt who has an impressive 43 tackles, 1 forced fumble, 1 fumble recovery (40 yards), 1.5 sacks & a blocked punt. In the secondary Jr. DB Dymere Durham has been solid registering 3 interceptions amongst his 23 tackles. Jr. DL Deshawn Woodhouse has been huge racking up 43 tackles, 2 interceptions (1 TD), & a blocked PAT.

Lincoln enters the contest at 6-5 after their shutout win over South Philadelphia in the semi-finals. Senior QB Gabe Smalley accounted for 5 total touchdowns with 4 coming via the air and one on the ground. Lincoln despite a rough start to the season is peaking in all 3 phases of the game this late in the season. Gabe has thrown for over 2400 yards, 28 TDs while rushing for another 4 on the ground. His favorite targets have been Sr WR Nathaniel Rivera & Jr. WR Roling Davis. Defensively Sr. DL Reginald Faison, Jr. Ziyyon Bradell, Sr. Athlete Nayshawn Corley & Jr. LB Andre Gordon have been leaders for the Railsplitters unit.

Previous meeting: In October these teams met in the regular season in a division game and Lincoln rolled to an 37-0 victory behind a stingy and suffocating defense that allowed less than 100 total yards of offense. Meanwhile the Lincoln offense made quick work through the air on the Vikings with 4 touchdown passes by Gabe.

Catholic League Championship Game Breakdown:

La Salle enters the contest with an 6-4 record. They advanced to the championship game with their convincing win over Father Judge in the semifinals 49-14. The Explorers are led by So. QB Gavin Sidwar who has 2430 passing yards to go along with 29 touchdown passes. Senior RB Stevie Davis leads the team in rushing with 692 yards & 6 touchdowns while also adding 208 receiving yards & 1 TD. Gavin has a plethora of receiving targets led by Jr. WR Julian McFadden (794 yards & 13 TDs), Joey O’Brien (332 yards & 3 TDs), John Patrick Oates (290 yards & 4 TDs). Defensively the Explorers give up 21 points per game. Leading the unit are Jr. LB Dylan Clair (62 tackles, 1 interception, 1.5 sacks & 1 FF/FR), So. DE Grayson McKeogh (4 sacks), So. DB Joey O’Brien (3 interceptions & 12 passes defended) & Jr. LB Jack Leuthe (45 tackles, 1 interception returned for TD, 1 fumble recovery, 2 sacks & a blocked punt).

St. Joes Prep: The Hawks are riding an 8-game winning streak. Their lone loss was to #4 nationally ranked IMG Academy by 3 points. Prep has an offense that features Cincinnati Bearcat commit Sr. QB Samaj Jones (954 yards passing, 10 TDs, 296 yards rushing & 6 TDs), Jr. RB Isaiah West (525 yards & 9 total TDs), Sr. RB Taj Dyches (4 TDs) & Sr. RB Erik Sanchez (2 TDs). Through the air they have a trio of WR’s that can take it to the house at any point in West Virginia commit Sr. Brandon Rehmann (321 yards & 4 TDs), Cincinnati commit Sr. Elijah Jones (179 yards & 3 TDs) & Kentucky commit Sr. David Washington Jr. (213 yards 2 TDs). Defensively they’re led by Wisconsin commit Sr. CB Omillio Agard (2 interceptions), Jr. DB Athony Sacca (34 tackles, 1 interception, 1 FR for TD & 8 passes defended), Sr. LB Nick McGlynn (31 tackles, 2 interceptions returned for TDs, 1 fumble recovery & 3 sacks), DL Sean McNutty (40 tackles, 1 interception returned for TD, 1 fumble recovered for TD, & 7 sacks) & Jr. DL Maxwell Roy (34 tackles, 1.5 sacks).

Previous meeting: A month ago St. Joes defeated La Salle 42-6 after the Explorers kept it close the opening quarter. The Hawks defense took over after the 1st quarter recording 2 interceptions and held the Explorers offense to just 92 yards of total offense. In that game Samaj threw for a season high 201 yards & 3 TD passes. Isaiah West also had a season high 106 yards on the ground.

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