 |
Explore This Dennis McLaughlin is
a senior at La Salle College HS with an interest
in writing. He has been
loyally attending Explorer sporting events since he was a "young lad"
and last year scrapped with The Prep's Hawk Talk guys. His e-mail is
Dnicebnice21@yahoo.com. His
partner this year is Chris Grady, who writes for La Salle's school paper. **In pic, Dennis holds Chris. This was taken on an ambassadorial trip to the South Pacific (Fiji, New Zealand, Australia).** |
NOV. 24
CATHOLIC RED FINAL
La Salle 14, St. Joe’s Prep 7
“I've paid my dues
Time after time
I've done my sentence
But committed no crime
And bad mistakes
I've made a few
I've had my share of sand
Kicked in my face
But I’ve come through
And I need to go on and on and on and on
We are the champions - my friend
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'cause we are the champions of the world
I've taken my bows
And my curtain calls
You've bought me fame and fortune
And everything that goes with it
I thank you all
But it's been no bed of roses no pleasure cruise
I consider it a challenge before the whole human race
And I ain't gonna lose
And I need to go on and on and on and on
We are the champions - my friend
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'cause we are the champions of the world
We are the champions - my friend
And we'll keep on fighting till the end
We are the champions
We are the champions
No time for losers
'cause we are the champions”
Let that sink in for a second...Ok, well I am back. I know many
people have been waiting for the return of Explore This and here it is,
and it couldn’t have come at a better time, but before I get to the
Championship, I will start somewhere in the middle. The middle of this legend
begins with a crushing defeat to St. Joe's, 42-14, where La Salle was beaten in
every facet of the game, the offense was overpowered by the Prep defense and the
La Salle defense was torn apart by Jamir Livingston and Chris Whitney.
This game looked like a turning point for the Explorers this season. From this
point everything started to look down. Key members of the La Salle offense --
John Harrison, Chris Ashley, and Bill Castelberg -- were either
injured or recovering from injuries during and after that game. After the game,
St. Joe's kids began talking more and more trash than normal (now that’s a lot
of talk), and it seems as if all the news reporters, yes including our Ted
Silary, were high on Prep and down on La Salle. This very well may have had
an impact on the Explorers. From this point on, the season went downhill and
nothing the Explorers did over the next few games seemed right. Ryan came into
Germantown a huge underdog, and came out on top. Mistakes cost La Salle this
one. The defense couldn’t have played better but two tipped balls cost the
Explorers this game. Chris Ashley had a career day but wasn’t given the
ball near the goal line. This was La Salle’s second loss in as many games, and
it seemed like the season may have been coming undone. The hard work that the
players put in at practice did not seem to be showing on the field. But the
team went back to work, thought of ways to get back on track, and it seemed like
they were going to need to get a big game from all of the players and coaches in
order to beat Roman, a team they had beaten in a few years. The game was back
and forth, and it looked as if things were going well for La Salle. They had
the ball and were driving in the fourth quarter when Harrison dropped back and
overthrew his wide receiver and guess who was there? Dom Joseph, again
to intercept the ball. He had an amazing game, intercepting the ball three
times. It seems like these two teams can never get it done in 48 minutes; for
the second straight year it went to overtime. The La Salle offense scored as
did Roman’s. On the next series, Roman's ball carrier rushed untouched for 15
yards and the score, Harrison would go on to throw a pick to end the game. This
was a three-game losing streak for the Explorers heading into the playoffs. Now
unranked in Southeastern PA after being Number 2 for a good portion of the
season. They were now the number No. 3 seed, having given up their bye to
Roman. Things again were looking down for the Explorers. Fans began to
question the team. The only people who seemed to not question the team were the
players and coaches. They still went to practice everyday and practiced hard,
so that they could have a chance for revenge. The playoffs were coming, and it
looked possible for the O’Hara team to pull off the upset. The game approached,
pitting two teams who had a tendency to be stingy on defense. And it showed
during the first half, but the second was a different story. The first half
looked sloppy and La Salle did not see its phenom QB John Harrison until
the waning minutes of the half. The second half was the polar opposite of the
first half, likely because of the late arrivals of the newly spiritualized and
Kairosified Robert Waitkus, Kevin Turk and me. We brought hope to the
team for a strong offensive outburst which led them out of the locker room and
into the end zone, numerous times over. A healthy Harrison seemed to make all
the difference. The scoreboard exploded. 31-31 was the final at regulation.
Overtime was coming. La Salle won the toss, decided to let O’Hara take the ball
and they promptly scored. La Salle was up next. They struggled to get into the
end zone and on fourth down Harrison delivered to Joe Migliarese
who brought the ball down easily in the mid-right of the end zone. Everyone
thought that they were going to kick a PAT and continue the overtime, everyone
except Brett Gordon and myself. We decided to go for it and it paid off on one
of the most generous calls in PCL history. La Salle won in overtime by going
for the win on the gutsiest call of the season. La Salle fever was back. The
buzz of the big win was going around the school, mostly because a lot of the La
Salle kids were not even in attendance. La Salle later learned that weekend
that Roman was next. Roman, the team who ended the regular season on such a
sour note, the same Roman who beat them two years in a row in Double Overtime
was now on the menu. The team was pumped and so were the students. It seemed
like as soon as I got there, La Salle’s offensive juggernaut decided to take
over, and manhandled the Roman defense. Many writers chose Roman to beat La
Salle, even some of the members of this very website, who will remain nameless
(but it’s posted so go ahead and browse if you will). La Salle dominated every
facet of this game. Harrison lit up Roman for 4 touchdowns and was not
about to let Dom Joseph pick off another meaningful pass. LA SALLE WAS
GOING TO THE PCL CHAMPIONSHIP. Finally in the last of my four years, La Salle
was going to the Ship. We were going to play the archival, St. Joe's . . .
PART 2 COMING SOON . . .
OCT. 8
CATHOLIC RED
La Salle 24, O'Hara 7
What is it that this Explorer offense
can’t do? I mean really, come on guys, this is just getting pathetic,
PATHETIC!! … With one of the Catholic League’s most shifty and explosive players
out with a knee injury, Joe Perese answered the call and helped lead the
Explorers to a 24-7 win against O’Hara. Perese only had 77 yards, but against
this team and having never started a game in his career, he put forth a gutsy
effort. He was even rewarded with the exclamation point in the form of a
27-yard rush for a touchdown. But he wasn’t the only star of this game; John
“Wish I had 7th period Economics” Harrison continued his MVP season with 202
yards passing and 2 touchdowns, which is more than twice the amount of Prep’s
Chris Whitney. Harrison seemed to find Jack “The Rodney Dangerfield of
the CL” Forster whenever a big third down and long came. Jack finished the
game with 11 catches, 126 yards and 2 touchdowns. The most impressive team of
the day was the La Salle defense. They SHUT DOWN the O’Hara offense, John
“Can he spell Villanova?” Dempsey was completely dominated the whole game by
the La Salle D-Line and Linebackers. JB Campanella spent the much of his
time on the field blowing up O’Hara’s plays. The Defense started the game with
a three and out, a sack by a La Salle player was the exclamation point on
that series. John “Still Better than Haber” McBurnie also helped lead
the defense as he was all over the backfield and helped keep the O’Hara running
backs at bay as well as the passing game under check. 147 yards of total
offense was all that the La Salle Defense allowed the struggling Lions to gain
that day. On the second Explorer drive Ryan Cain connected on a
25-yard field goal. Now this lead was short lived when the referees decided
that they were going to make this one difficult for La Salle and basically
handed O’Hara a touchdown with about five awful spots. But again the Explorers
showed their dominance, Harrison connected with his main man Forster for a 5
yard touchdown pass. While all this was going on, O’Hara Fans thought it would
be cool to not be sitting down but to just stand by the end zone. The funny
part is that La Salle still went down the field and scored quite easily. At
halftime the Catholic league’s best looking girls from O’Hara paraded around for
Homecoming. Now most people were trying to get this game done pretty early to
get home to watch the Birds, but I think I clocked the half time at about 1 hour
and 30 minutes. In the second half Forster caught another pass and Perese
capped the game off with a huge touchdown in the end. This game had been
circled ever since La Salle was knocked off by O’Hara in the playoffs, after
that O’Hara was promptly destroyed by Prep and La Salle went on to shock the
world by beating Prep on Thanksgiving. The La Salle O-line, which had been
pretty crappy the last couple years, is now performing the best it has in recent
memory. They have allowed fewer sacks than normal, mainly due to the leadership
by Bill “the Pro Backup” Castelberg who should be nominated for the best
lineman in all of the country. The La Salle Explorers came into this game and
dominated, they are 6-0 for the first time in over 6 years.
GAME NOTES:
-- MVP WATCH- Max “The Juice” Luce has started
for the third straight game, and was able to pancake the man-children O’Hara
linemen with ease. When asked how excited he excited he was, Max stated that he
was really extremely excited. He may have said more but the screams from the
O’Hara girls who wanted to take him to Homecoming were just too loud for these
reporters to hear him.
-- John Harrison continues his dominance in the Catholic League and now has 1087
yards through the air and 16 touchdowns. Harrison has been picking apart
defenses and will look to break the La Salle record for passing yards in a game
against the Bonner Friars, because let's be honest . . .
-- On a more serious note, quoting the Prep kids, “La Salle won another tight
game against Father Judge, 35-14.” and “the Prep demolished Archbishop Ryan,
31-12." So, do you guys take math over there at the Prep? 21 point victories
constitute “tight” games, and 19 point wins receive the term
“Demolished”??…C’mon, guys, seriously, your mathematical skills are PATHETIC.
Also, you clearly knew the author of those books, you are just upset that
someone beat you to The Prep’s library and checked out the newest Where’s
Waldo since we know that the students from the 24th best high school in
the Philadelphia area need to rest their brains from reading such literary works
as The Berenstain Bears and Curious George.
Besides, they can’t get enough of spotting that shifty man in his outrageous red
and white striped outfits.
-- n response to the accusation that we don’t have any fans, I would like to
refute that; the great Mr. Colistra is a huge fan, and personally that’s
all we need.
-- Mike “Steel” Stahl, who after receiving a 16 yard screen pass, was hit
by some overzealous O’Hara defenseman and snapped his collarbone halfway between
the “sternal and acromial ends of the clavicle” (another addition by Kevin
Turk, he says “thanks Mr. Crowe”). Stahl, who was going to have a
promising season, is most likely out for the regular season, and will hopefully
try to come back for a championship game.
-- “I would like to say congratulations to the brain surgeons of The Hen Den. I
was reading The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka and I decided to take
a break from the intellectual literature. I decided I'd rather kill some brain
cells, so I did what most people do when they want to instantly drop their IQ by
roughly 50 points, and I read the newest report by The Hen Den. It only took
you a month and a half to figure out that a student at your school has the same
last name as I do. Bang-up job, gang. Next week on The Hen Den, “Scott
Waters has red hair lololol omg!!!” (Chris Grady)
-- Props to my main men Kevin “the fan” Turk and Chris “Biff” Grady, who
helped out huge this week especially with the game notes.
-- So the Explorers have Bonner next. This game is a warm-up for the backups
for La Salle. Bonner has about 42 points on the season, the amount Chris
“Fatty” Ashley has scored this season. Look for some records to fall,
La Salle 55 Bonner 0.
SEPT. 23
CATHOLIC RED
La Salle 14 North Catholic 6
After the slim victory against West Catholic last week, La
Salle figured to dominate North Catholic, the laughingstock of the league for
the past few years. However things looked up for those Falcons at game time as
they battled it out with the sick Explorers. Friday night was the biggest mixer
of the year and it looked as if some of the guys on the squad had a little too
much fun judging by their performances. The La Salle offense, which has had no
trouble scoring points, looked sluggish against the defense of North Catholic.
The Falcons were led by Daryl “Temple?” Robinson, on defense as well as
offense, and his silencing of WR Joe Migliarese was pretty impressive.
It didn’t help that Harrison’s passes were sometimes thrown nowhere near the
receivers, and when they were, the short North defenders were all over the La
Salle wide outs. The game was by far the worst of the season for La Salle
offensively. Also there was a severe lack in fan support for the first time
this season, which didn’t really help Brett Gordon’s struggling offense.
However the defense was stingy as always, led by John “The Shocker” McBurnie,
who had a strong game as always. The D stopped the North offense cold
throughout the first half. At key times in the half, when needing a stop, the
Explorers seemed to always come through. The defense had stellar efforts from
many of their senior leaders who put pressure throughout the game on QB
Dennis Logue, as well as plugging the holes so that it was nearly impossible
to gain any yardage on the ground. The league's best secondary had a great day
and kept Norf out of the end zone for most of the day besides one
perfectly thrown TD. With the exception of that one long pass play, the offense
of the Falcons looked like typical North Catholic teams of years past, a bunch
of kids playing with a much more physical and aggressive La Salle defense. The
first sign of life for the Explorers came when the North punter couldn’t handle
a snap and decided to run, but was met a couple yards later by a pack of
Explorers who took him to the ground. The La Salle offense took to the field on
Norf’s 45 yard line, drove down the field easily and capped off the drive with a
1 yard QB sneak by my main man John “Ladies Man” Harrison. He got a
great push from the O-line, as he entered the end zone right on top of Captain
Bill Castelberg. Not gonna lie, with a pretty boring half, many fans
lost enthusiasm and were thinking about what they were going to be doing later
that night, myself included. The second half looked to be another boring 24
minutes, and people started to think that some of the guys on the football team
must have had a pretty hardcore night of dancing. The game got interesting when
a prayer from Logue landed in the arms of Ryan McCullough. The joyous
North Catholic sideline could not believe that they still had a chance late in
the game. However this was short lived because Jack “2nd best Lax player in
the country” Forster blocked the PAT. The Explorers realized that they were
actually going to have to put some more points up on the board. The
offense drove down the field and promptly scored on another rushing touchdown by
my boy Harrison, which was from 16 yards out.. Despite overcoming a poor start
to this game Harrison still threw for 117 yards and ran for 2 touchdowns, all
while being sick and having a sore arm. After this the defense again stifled
Norf and put the ball back in the hands of the offense. La Salle’s offense
promptly drove down the field again, but in order to make the Norf kids feel
better about themselves, Harrison kneeled the ball and ended the game, and La
Salle had defeated Norf for the 20th straight time … maybe next year, Falcons.
GAME NOTES:
- According to the North Catholic’s football website,
La Salle ’s freshman football team does not play its subs. That is an extremely
inaccurate statement. La Salle’s second and third string is just that much
better that they look like starters…hope that clarifies things for you guys over
there.
- Chris “Biff” Grady was forced to miss this game because he had work,
which explains why so few people decided to attend the game. He is probable for
next week.
- For those who are living under a rock La Salle was named team of the month in
Philadelphia and was featured on the Andy Reid Coach’s Show on Monday.
- I had the pleasant surprise of meeting Mr. Ted Silary, who I apologize to for
taking so long to get this report in.
- Okay, now to what everyone has been talking about, these new Prep kids and
their little Hen Den. Fellas, calm down, no one said you were guilty of being
funny or witty, because in all honesty you guys certainly are not. Congrats for
using my nicknames. Why don’t you think of some material on your own instead of
asking my friends for stuff to rip on me about?
- MVP WATCH: Max “The Juice” Luce started for the first time…EVER
on Saturday. The MVP chants have been raining down on Max all of this season,
on Saturday he was awarded with the MVP award for the Alma Mater as well as the
national anthem…Keep up the good work Max.
- On Saturday night La Salle will take on another team from the Northeast. This
Judge team looks to be the biggest test so far for the Explorers. But I think
that Drew Gordon will get his team back together, and John Harrison will have a
big day, and will lead La Salle to victory. The game is Saturday at Northeast
High School, on Cottman Avenue at 7. Heres my prediction: La Salle 35, Judge 17.
SEPT. 15
NON-LEAGUE
La Salle 42, West Catholic 34
Another Friday night another easy victory…or so we thought.
After an hour and a half long bus ride to the beautiful campus of Widener
University, we arrived see that La Salle had taken a 14 to 6 edge. All looked
well for the Explorers, whose offense continued its dominance in this, the third
game of the season. QB John Harrison was dominant in this game going
19-28 for 256 yards and 5 TDs. But I am getting ahead of myself, this
was a back and forth slugfest was reminiscent of the mid 90’s when La Salle was
run by Brett Gordon. The two teams paid no attention to defense in the first
half. The Explorers had several seemingly majestic drives throughout the first
quarter and looked to be well on their way to their third victory. However,
they counted the Burrs? of West Catholic out too early. West Catholic responded
with a huge game from Dennis Shaw who was pretty unstoppable in the first
half, with his quick cut back and breakaway speed. It didn’t matter whether it
was a kick off, a punt, a pass, or a run, he had his complete game going and he
was causing headaches for the stingy defense of the Explorers. West Catholic
continued to get all their offense on the ground while their passing game was
just awful. The only good thing about the first half defensively was the
pressure up front from the experienced front four of the Explorers. Throughout
the game, a member of the Burrs felt it necessary to do some taunting. Some
fifth-year freshman thought it would be funny to point and laugh, and make
obscene gestures at the La Salle fans. He and the rest of the West Catholic
bench continued to mock us, and it got to the point where members of The Pack
started a “You have no class" chant, which seemed to motivate them even more
to point and laugh as West Catholic took the lead. Soon after the taunting of
the fans by the WC bench, players from West began to drop like flies. Their
players were getting hurt at an alarming rate, and what seemed to be only a
minute after Taunt Man mocked us, he went down with an injury. As he was
sitting on the bench being tended to he promptly received a “Karma” chant.
While all this commotion on the sideline took place, there was a football game
going on, and it was not looking good for the Explorers. They played pretty
lifeless ball for the last couple minutes of the half. At halftime the score
was 26-21, advantage West Catholic. At halftime, I was treated to seeing two La
Salle legends, Bert “Pride of the Naval Academy” Bender, and Mike “Mcwing”
McLaughlin, who then told me that I needed to take my shirt off in order to
be a real fan. As I ran back to my seat I saw that the second half had started,
and La Salle got back to its stingy form. The defense completely shut down the
Burrs offensively thus giving the Explorer offense many opportunities to score.
Unfortunately it took a while before La Salle would capitalize on these
opportunities. Big Hits from the Explorer secondary and linebacking crew
instilled a sense of fear in the West Catholic specialty players. Hit of the
day came from Sean Saverio on a touch pass over the middle to one of the
wide outs from West. Saverio delivered a Dawkins-like hit that got the visiting
fans riled up. Celebration was short due to the player crumpling to the turf,
which turned a joyous Student Section into silence. But after a couple silent
minutes the player was helped off the field and was seemingly alright. After
this the defense came up with a huge fumble recovery which was recovered by a
hard nosed Sean Saverio, who spends all day in the backfield. This play allowed
for John Harrison to connect with Jack “I think Prep kids tend to forget that
he scored the game winning touchdown to BEAT them in the Thanksgiving Day game”
Forster in the back of the end zone for the go ahead touchdown. The
Explorers never looked back afterwards. The offense, led by Harrison, picked it
up in the fourth quarter, scoring twice more to put the game away for good. The
defense, led by Sr. Captain Greg “The animal” Frantz, held the Burrs to
mainly three and outs in the final half of the game. He and the other members
of the defensive backfield shut down any threat of a comeback because of their
tight coverage. Through good pressure from the front line caused QB Brennan to
struggle and never get comfortable with his receivers. The Burrs scored very
late into the game to break their goose egg for the second half with their only
touchdown pass of the game. I seem to have forgotten about the La Salle running
Chris Ashley who continues his Brian Westbrook like games. He ran for
150 yards and had 37 receiving. In a game where Harrison throws for so many
yards it is easy to overlook Ashley’s game. He is one of the strongest backs in
the league this year. Not only does he have his strength, but he can make some
moves to completely fool defenses. Oh and another thing Joe “Not as tall as
Waitkus but overall a much better athlete” Migliarese had a career game,
three touchdowns and 87 yards receiving. The La Salle receiving corps going
into this season was one of the offense’s weaknesses. With the addition of this
young tall talent has helped Forster to take somewhat of a load off by not
having to play on offense all the time so that he can continue his dominance in
the defensive backfield. Another benefit in the receiving corps has been
Mike “Sure Hands” Stahl who had his first TD as a Varsity Football player.
He scored on a play that made the man, (Drew Wilkins) who Stahl succeeded a
famous one on Thanksgiving Day one year ago, the naked bootleg to the left to a
wide-open Stahl, who easily came down with the reception. The game ended with
the final score of 42-34. Overall it was a disappointing game, but the West
Catholic Burrs gave the Explorers a run for their money, and they didn’t give up
until the bitter end. The West offense was impressive and they had a huge day
out of their star running back Dennis Shaw. The West Catholic Burrs have a
great team and hopefully they will continue to play well and be able to dethrone
the Archbishop Wood Vikings as Catholic League Blue Champs.
GAME NOTES:
-La Salle is now 3-0 for the second time in a row;
they did not quite match their offensive output from last year after three games
but they were very close to it.
-The La Salle Explorer defense was hitting as hard as ever in this game. There
was an inordinately large amount of injuries for the Burrs, but the Explorers
only lost one player -- Sr. Captain Bill “Starting Center” Castelberg was
sick throughout the game and tried to gut it out but was unable to finish.
-Chris “Ahyeah” Grady and Dylan “J-E-T-S” Leighton were forced to endure over an
hour of sitting on a bus with only freshmen en route to the game, and barely
survived.
-Okay, okay, now I would like to get to my discussion of the Hen Den. Which
already has blatantly attempted the whole Hawk Talk rip-off that I was accused
of last year. Lets look at something: The first report already has the same
quotes used by Hawk Talk, and has already used the dumb comparison of Jack
Forster to Freddie Mitchell. But, hey, I am going to give them some
time, even though my Prep friends (and yes I have friends at The Prep) tell me
it is not going to get any better, so I suppose we shall be in for a good year.
-Despite La Salle being 3-0 and St. Joe’s being 1-2, The Inquirer has yet to
acknowledge La Salle as the number one team in the city…Oh well at least we are
ranked ahead of them in Philadelphia Magazine’s top forty area high schools. (I
couldn’t resist-Chris Grady)
-For those questioning La Salle’s somewhat soft non-league schedule here’s a
little statistic for you, the Explorers are averaging 37 points per game. (This
includes the first two games where the starters played barely into the second
half)
-OK so let’s take a look at next week’s game against the Norf Catholic Falcons.
Even with RB Daryl Robinson, look for North to get very little on the ground and
through the air. I am thinking a blow out . . . La Salle 42 North Catholic
6.
- PS. I think I should clarify something for the Hen Den, but a Hen is a
female chicken, in case you didn’t know that.
SEPT. 9
NON-LEAGUE
La Salle 40, Neumann-Gorretti 0
Another game comes and another victory follows for the La Salle
Explorers. Backed by a large crowd at Springfield (Montco) High School, the
Explorers went on to dominate the fledgling Saints. The La Salle defense was up
first and set the tone early by getting the ball quickly to the offense. The
offense took to the field and seemingly ran down the field with no problems,
anchored by the O-line led by seniors Bill Castelberg, Chris Cabrey, and Dan
“The Prez” Connors. They opened gaping wholes in the Saints' line,
making it easy for backs to get positive yardage. John Harrison had a
near-perfect day passing the ball, throwing 8-10 for 146 yards and three
scores. He continues to pick apart opposing offenses very efficiently. My main
man Chris “The showstopper” Ashley continued his dominance with 57 yards
on 6 rushes and 51 yards receiving on 1 reception. For all you Prep students,
that is a little more than 15 yards per touch. Jack Forster caught two
scores, bringing his touchdown total to three. Not only was the offense rolling
on all cylinders, but the defense too seemingly pushed the Saints around with
apparent ease. Led by senior D-Linemen John “The shocker” McBurnie they
held the overmatched NG to about 78 yards rushing, for about 2 yards per carry.
After last season where the D-Line was much less experienced, this line is full
of veterans, and McBurnie is the leader. The Nuemann-Gorretti Saints at times
drove the ball against La Salle's backups, but were thwarted by a crucial
interception inside the end zone. At the half La Salle was dominating the
Saints, 33-0. Ryan “The helmet” Cain somehow had an awful game on the
field. He was 4-6 on PATs and his kickoffs were very erratic. Not gonna lie,
the fellow members of the pit and I were completely taken out of the game after
the end of the first half. Neumann-Gorretti took to the field thinking they
were going to go out there and score some points. With the starters benched,
the subs seemingly dominated the game. On offense Max “MVP” Luce made
another appearance to the delight of the fans. When asked how it felt to get
into the game he responded, “Delicious." He and other senior Brian “The Pain
Train” Trainor continued to dominate the NG Saints, who in all seriousness
should stay in what I like to call “the secondary league” where they can play
with teams like C-E and McDevitt and other “small” schools. The defense may
have faltered a little bit, which made NG’s offense look a little more
impressive than they really are. I think around the beginning of the fourth
quarter it was 40-0, I am not sure of this because I put on the mascot costume
on and was too busy “taking advantage” of the costume. But finally, the horn
sounded ending the “game," if you can really call it that.
GAME NOTES:
-This game in all honesty should never have been
scheduled. No offense to all you Saints players/coaches/fans out there, but La
Salle should be more like Prep and O’Hara and play top-level teams . . . But
what do I know.
-There was a large turnout for the Explorers fanwise. The stands were packed
and there was an overflow, yet the freshmen were still too afraid to cheer.
-The Pack was back…again and in full force, but we are still looking to
have a load of people at the West Catholic game. It should be a tougher game,
and it is at Widener which means one thing….after the game we can go check out
the chicks at Widener U…in the words of the great Chris “Biff” Grady “AHYEAH”.
-There will be a Pit BBQ prior to the game…free food, I mean c’mon. As
well as a FREE BUS!!!
-Here is the score for Friday’s game. La Salle 34, West Catholic 6
SEPT. 1
NON-LEAGUE
La Salle 29, Plymouth-Whitemarsh 8
La Salle football is back and that means one thing…so is
Explore This. It is great to be asked back to write for this great site. After
a shocking victory over The Prep, La Salle was looking to keep the momentum
going this season for the first stop on the championship run against Plymouth
Whitemarsh. La Salle, led this season by Senior Captains Bill "the Captain?"
Castelberg, Greg "Bo Jackson" Frantz, Dom Baker, and Junior
John "Bummed I'm not taking Latin 1 again" Harrison, had been waiting since
Thanksgiving to live up to the hype they have been receiving. The game was in
jeopardy when the rain started pouring as Hurricane "Not Ditka" Ernesto
rolled through the region. The game was pushed up from 7ish to 2:30. When I
had got to the game not many people had arrived but one local celebrity, our
favorite, Mr. Tony Resch, fresh off his coach of the year award for the
MLL, was in attendance. So let's get to the game . . . The Explorers won the
flip and received the kick. And that was basically it for the Colonials of PW.
The young Explorer offense, led by vets QB Harrison and RB Chris "the
thief" Ashley, took to the field and had no trouble going down the field and
scoring as a result of a few key runs by Ashley. Harrison connected on a 6-yard
touchdown strike to new FB Kevin "the disease" Tamasitis.
Immediately following the Harrison TD strike the freshmen in the back started
chanting something which was promptly shut down by the seniors. The fan
attendance was lacking for both sides in this game, but notable legends appeared
at the game, Ben "Ronald" Courtney, Kevin "Gay for Dan" Turk,
Chris "ahyeah" Grady and Mia "I am so emo" Palatano. La Salle kicker
Ryan Cain hit the ball through the upright. Reports say that the PW
defense was so hurt that they were seen running to AJ "the trainer" Weisbon
for some consoling. The kickoff after the first touchdown went right through
the hands of the PW KR and into the end zone for a touchback. After the kickoff
Max "The Juice" Luce promptly ran onto the field and picked up the tee;
the rare sight of Luce on the field excited many fans into chanting MVP. The La
Salle D made a statement throughout the game by having a huge amount of pressure
on the PW QB Lance Wilson, who was sacked several times and threw a
pick. The Dawg Pound, the Plymouth Whitemarsh Colonials fan group, was
silent the whole game and yes they were in the sitting position. The offense
continued to show its dominance in both running and throwing the football. The
La Salle running game has been forgotten over the past few years due to a lack
of a big-play back, but this year Chris Ashley can and will fill that role. He
finished the game with 130 yards on the ground and 40 yards receiving. John
Harrison completed 12/17 for 97 yards and three touchdown passes. One of those
went to newcomer Joe Migliarese, who is a nice addition to the
already great La Salle offense. Ashley seemingly bounced off defenders like it
was his job, which I am pretty sure it is; his moves were reminiscent of the
late great Sweetness. The rains in the game were holding off until halftime
when it really started to come down. The rain was steady and many people feared
the outcome of the game. But the second half started with La Salle leading,
22-0, and the game went on with many of the La Salle starters sitting for a
majority of the second half. The PW Colonials got their first and only sniff of
their end zone in the final minutes of the fourth quarter. Their drive was
impressive, although it doesn’t really count considering it was against the
subs. The game was already out of hand and was extremely easy victory for the
number 2 team in Southeastern Pennsylvania. The game was a mere tune-up in which
Drew Gordon got his first victory as the head coach of the Explorers.
GAME NOTES:
-La Salle moved up to Number Two in the Inquirers Rankings. The Prep still
remains at Number One in those rankings. Prep plays on ESPNU against Don Bosco
Prep where they will hopefully get hammered.
-The Pack has made its return to La Salle, we are seeking fellow La Salle
Seniors to come to the games because there were very few against this one at PW.
-Chris “Biff” Grady managed not to get fired from his job for taking three hours
off from work during the busiest day of the year to watch the season opener.
-La Salle was the home team in the game at Plymouth Whitemarsh yet they were on
the visiting side and had visitor on the scoreboard. This was pointed at me by
the Whitest Kid Ever (Dylan Leighton).
-I apologize for the length in which it took me to
write this. I was down at the shore working after the game, and the beginning
of school can be pretty traumatic.
-La Salle plays Neumann-Goretti at Springfield (Montco) at 7 on Saturday night.
I don’t know why La Salle schedules this game because . . . Well, this game will
most likely just be another tune up for the West Catholic game.
-Game Prediction La Salle 42 NG 6