La Salle Defeats Calvert Hall in Northeast Philadelphia

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Patrick Birkhead | September 14, 2025

Today La Salle blew out Calvert Hall, who came all the way from Maryland to Northeast High School, by a score of 48-7. It seemed like everything was clicking for the Explorers who dominated the Cardinals in every aspect of the game. 

Calvert Hall got the ball first and the La Salle defense came out with great physicality. Junior linebacker Zykee Scott, who was flying all over the field commented “The past 3 games that we have had we didn’t set the tone defensively and today we did that because we had to show everybody we’re the real deal on defense.” The offense took the ball and scored quickly, Gavin Sidwar faked out the defense and hit Owen Johnson for a very long touchdown.

Zykee Scott has had a big impact on the Explorers and really feels at home, Scott remarked “It’s been a great brotherhood, ever since I got here in January, they treated me like I’ve been there for years and La Salle is just a great place.”

The defense got a stop and not long after La Salle marched down the field and Ahzir Nelson punched in a short touchdown. Still in the first quarter, the defense continued to battle and La Salle scored again, this time on a beautiful completion from Gavin Sidwar to Jimmy Mahoney.

Going into the second quarter Calvert Hall was having a tough time picking up first downs, let alone scoring. The blue and gold defense kept up their intensity. Joey O’Brien, Trey Hopkins, Zykee Scott, and Keenan Stahl were all making huge plays to keep the game a shut out.

With this incredible defense, La Salle’s offense was able to score two more touchdowns in the second quarter. Both of these were from Gavin Sidwar to Joey O’Brien. The first was a long 40 yard touchdown where O’Brien caught a screen and ran across the field to score. The next was a quick out route in the red zone where Sidwar placed a perfect ball.

Going into halftime Gavin Sidwar had 213 yards and 4 touchdowns, two of those were caught by Joey O’Brien who totaled 4 catches for 78 yards.

The main highlight of the second half was that some of the younger La Salle players gained experience on the field. One of the most impressive was sophomore quarterback Luke Gordon. He completed his first touchdown pass to JP Oates who ran a long distance after the catch for a touchdown. Gordon showed his excitement when he said “I threw it to my guy JP and knew he was going to make a play with it, and shoutout to the offensive line for the blocking.”

Gordon also seemed to have a dynamic connection with fellow sophomore Owen Johnson, Luke talked about this and said, “Owen and I have had that connection since freshman year and I’m excited for more to come.”

Desmond Ortiz ended up scoring again for La Salle putting the score at 48-0. Not too long after Oliver Noll put Calvert Hall on the board with a touchdown pass to Micha Morozov. La Salle got the ball back and did not look back as they were able to drain the rest of the clock out and secure their fourth win of the season. 

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