LaSalle beats Parkland to Advance to East Championship
Written by: Armand Vanore on Saturday, December 1st, 2012. Follow Armand Vanore on Twitter.
Philadelphia, Pa., The LaSalle Explorers earned the right to play in their fourth consecutive AAAA, Eastern Pa. championship game with a dominating 28-7 win over the District 2, 4 and 11 champ Parkland Trojans at Northeast High’s Charles Martin stadium on Saturday afternoon.
The Explorers came into the game after an emotional Catholic league final victory of St. Joe’s Prep and the District 12 championship over Frankford. Parkland won their district by beating Easton and Delaware Valley, whom they lost to at the beginning of the season.
LaSalle had an obvious advantage up front where they outweighed Parkland’s front by 20 pounds per player. Defensive Coordinator John Steinmetz plan was to put as much pressure on the Trojan offense in order to give their explosive RB combination of Jarel Elder and Eli Redmond as little room as possible to run. While they forced Parkland to three consecutive three and outs, they scored two quick touchdowns giving them a 14-0 lead at the end of the first quarter. Parkland bit on LaSalle quarterback Chris Kane’s pump and go to Sean Coleman. Coleman made an acrobatic catch at the one yard line and Mike Eife took it in for the Explorers first touchdown.
Kane then hit a wide open Coleman for a 29 yard touchdown on their next drive. Two series later they produced a nine play 74 yard drive with Kane completions of 13 and 22 yards which culminated in Jimmy Herron’s 5 yard scamper and a 21-0 lead at the half. Parkland continued to struggle to run the ball and by halftime they only produced 42 yards on 31 plays.
The Explorers put the dagger in when Coleman caught another touchdown, this one from 33 with still five minutes left in the third quarter. The Trojans did generate their own 11 play drive and quarterback Tim Barenek scored their only touchdown of the afternoon late in the fourth quarter.
LaSalle sacked Barenek 11 times (five by Jon Nagi). He was pressured all afternoon. Elder ended his day with 139 well earned yards on 20 carries.
Steinmetz defense played this one to perfection. Next week he’ll need a lot more of the same with Coatesville and their high flying offense on the schedule. That winner will represent the east in the AAAA title game in Hershey.
Notes: LaSalle RB Jared Herrmann made a sensational diving 22 yard reception in the second quarter which led to their third touchdown. Xavier Roden had a monster game at LB for Parkland with a plethora of tackles. Penn State LB coach Ron Vanderlindin was in attendance to scout Explorer linebacker Zaire Franklin.
1st 2nd 3rd 4th Final
Parklnd 0 0 0 7 7
LaSalle 14 7 7 0 28
Scoring by Quarter
1st Quarter
LS – Mike Eife – 1 run – (PAT – Ryan Winslow) – 5:40
LS – Sean Coleman – 29 pass from Chris Kane – (PAT – Winslow) – 2:13
2nd Quarter
LS – Jim Herron – 3 run – (PAT – Ryan Winslow) – 4:24
3rd Quarter
LS – Coleman – 33 pass from Kane – (PAT – Winslow) – 5:05
4th Quarter
P – Tim Baranek – 4 run – (PAT – Zach Owen) – 3:41
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December 6th, 2012 at 1:14 pm
FBFan, if the points are so worthless why hasn’t the PIAA added a class 5A? I’ll tell you why. Its a waste of their time. The PIAA has much bigger fish to fry.
As the Philly diocese inevitably shrinks, consolidates and/or closes schools, I think the PIAA believes the PCL schools outside Philly (LaSalle, AB Wood & 6 others) may eventually be absorbed by District 1. Less than half the 14 PCL teams are actually in Philly. Why “fix” the problem when it will happen organically? Because its not on your timeline?
So, for all your pontificating, that there is no Class 5A actually makes yours the worthless points. Please let that sink in.
December 4th, 2012 at 8:40 am
Just make another class 5A
December 3rd, 2012 at 10:16 pm
So you are going to tell these La Salle kids that they are too good to play for a state title?
December 3rd, 2012 at 8:15 pm
@rollie
You make totally worthless points. The only reason those public schools you mentioned have had a nice run is because the PCL was just let into the PIAA playoffs a few years back. LaSalle is a fairly small school but every years makes the state finals in football! Baseball (last year), LAX, soccer, etc
December 3rd, 2012 at 3:11 pm
Professional statisticians will caution against drawing conclusions from small sample sizes. The PCL has now competed in the PIAA tournment for 5 years. At the 4A level, it appears LaSalle has become a powerhouse that D2/4/11 and D12 public league have shown diminishing results against each year. Next year it could be St Joe Prep or RC, etc. but the pattern and results are becoming more predicatble. Private schools by nature do have an opportunity to draw from larger geographic ‘talent’ pools – if they want to emphasize an excellence in sports (not all do) they have can leverage a competitive advantage. Excellence markets itself and some Parents with the wherewithal to get their kids greater academic and athletic ‘visibility’ will seek out those opportunities. The sample size will get larger over time, but my hypothesis after 5 years is that the PCL will likely dominate Eastern PA PIAA football playoffs for many years to come. Good for PCL fans and continued banter amongst PA high school football junkies…
December 3rd, 2012 at 10:11 am
@ Jimbo
I know that La Salle played Bergen twice. Who won both outings? The first year they played each other was very close. Bergen was weaker that year (2010) and they played 1st game of the season which NJ schools start 2 a days later than PA, so PA should have the jump early by having more practice time.
Last year Bergen was winning 41-9 into the 4th quarter. I don’t believe that is a close game and probably could have resulted in a Mercy Rule. Bosco was better than Bergen those two years.
So, no you didn’t convince me that the PCL is stronger than North Jersey private schools. Being that PA’s strongest PCL school lost twice to NJ’s second/third best.
This is no disrespect to La Salle or the PCL, and I was merely saying that if PIAA would just place them into another division, they would benefit by it.
December 3rd, 2012 at 10:03 am
I could care less that your little johnnies have been together since middle school and how this is all so unfair to them, sniffle, sniffle.
I really believe you are all a bunch of whiners. We’ve had dominating Catholic schools before D12/PCL. Erie Prep, PCC, Bishop McDevitt. Pittsburgh and Harrisburg are pretty big areas to pull from. Now you whine because its Philly and its surrounding suburbs? Please.
Plus who have been the most dominating teams in PA? Berwick-6 state titles, CB West-4 state titles, Southern Columbia-6 state titles. Strath Haven, Clairton, Mt Carmel all have multiple state titles. What do they all have in common? They are public schools. Public schools have won the overwhelming majority of PA state titles.
Seriously, you all need to cover up your female parts and go home and take some Midol instead of whining about an EXTRACURRICULAR activity.
December 3rd, 2012 at 8:00 am
@ Brian. NO ONE is hanging 42 on LaSalle. LaSalle made parkland like an 0-10 team. And parkland was supposed to have a Good offense too. I hate to say this, but LaSalle will win 35-21 or something close. They will dominate the line of scrimmage and pressure the QB so much that the talent at the skilled positions won’t matter. They had to have sacked Parklands QB 15 times. Parkland never made adjustments to beat the rush – (screens and quick slants). CV better have an answer or it will be the same. An offensively, Lasalle is just methodical. 4-5 yards a pop and hit u with 3-4 big plays per game.
Bottom line is that these PCL teams pull the best players from all the surrounding schools and form “all star” teams. Then they play these public school teams that no longer have their best players and dominate them. Would a pro sports team be able to compete against a team that took their best player and the top player from every other team in the league?? No. So how do you expect kids to?? The reality is this – Lasalle, St Joe’s, Wood, West Catholic, Imhotep Charter, Cathedral Prep, Bishop McDevitt, etc are the top programs in the state regardless of class. It is not coincidence that all of these teams are at the top of the rankings and CRUSHING teams this late in the playoffs. It’s ruining HS football in the state. These public school kids are losing opportunities (that they’ll never get back) to play in Hershey because they run into one of the above mentioned schools. It’s time for the PCL to go. Personally, I’m willing to concede that these Catholic and private schools are better and send them on their way. Out of the PIAA and let them play eachother. It would make for great football on both sides. Who wants to see blowouts in the eastern semi??
December 3rd, 2012 at 1:14 am
If the Catholic schools have such an advantage, why is it that only 2 of the 16 teams in the tournament at Catholic schools? That seems to me to be proportional to the number of Catholic schools in the state.
Why does nobody mention the advantage of the public schools in having a system taught in their feeder schools so that they come to high school already well indoctrinated in the program. The Catholic schools have kids coming from all over and have to be taught the system from scratch. The public schools also have imminent domain rights which allow them to build stadia that most Catholic schools could only dream about.
And as for NJ, I have lived there.Since they are separate, nobody really considers the public school the real state champion. In fact, a newspaper sponsors a “Tournament of Champions” in some sports to really get a winner.
December 2nd, 2012 at 11:27 pm
There are many if not most public school districts that accept out of district tuition students which most if not all public school parents would not want to pay school taxes and then tuition on top of that…oh wait a minute Catholic parents do just that. So all you “publics” stop all the whining and moaning!
December 2nd, 2012 at 11:14 pm
@Jimbo
You are right, Bergen and La Salle played a 2 year cycle. Who won both outings? Yes 2 years ago it was close with Bergen not being as good as last years team. Last year was 1 point away from Mercy Rule so I apologize for the error. Bergen was beating them 41-9 until La Salle scored at the end of the game. By the way Bosco mercy ruled Bergen last year and they are the big rivalry.
I still think St. Joes is the best PCL team this season however sometimes you just have a bad game.
December 2nd, 2012 at 10:51 pm
@ Josh
Really? You believe that La Salle with a graduating class of under 300 and is an annual power in football is a coincidence? I don’t care that they recruit because they play in the highest class in PA but please don’t be so naive.
I suppose you will also say that Don Bosco or Bergen Catholic in North Jersey don’t recruit. Wow, keep drinking that koolaid.
December 2nd, 2012 at 10:47 pm
Rollie, it doesn’t take a Demographer to realize the PCL has an extremely large population density to draw from compared to Harrisburg, Allentown etc.
Rollie, accept that the PCL and other schools recruit. It doesn’t bother me personally, I just think they should all compete in the same class, class AAAAA.
Not taking anything away from La Salle, they are competing in class AAAA, I have no problem with them at all. Great team. Can’t wait to see them play Coatseville.
The Imhotep team should also be playing in AAAA though, that is my issue.
December 2nd, 2012 at 9:37 pm
No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. No proof. Get some proof about this recruiting!
December 2nd, 2012 at 8:55 pm
the issue is when you have kids who play together sometimes starting in elementary school and then get to HS. A school has a really good team with many of the pieces to make a run, then play charter and Catholic Schools who get good players to attend that school(s) have a huge unfair advantage. it’s wrong and unfair to the publics who have no recourse but to play with the kids who live in their town. If you can’t understand that, we can’t help you rollie. College and pros can recruit and that is what it is. WHy don’t we have A teams play AAAA teams? Because the larger teams have larger pools of players to choose from. Same difference.
December 2nd, 2012 at 8:27 pm
all i can say is imhotep and aliquippa will be some game they are the two teams iam waiting for
December 2nd, 2012 at 7:23 pm
@tsa77, if you knew PCL football, you’d know that LaSalle and Bergen completed a 2 year agreement last season. Neither game was a mercy rule; at least try to know what the hell you talk about.
December 2nd, 2012 at 4:06 pm
lasalle was clearly better but i hate how they have a bye week when other teams are getting beat up in a state playoff game i think thats a huge disadvantage to any opponent they play
December 2nd, 2012 at 2:56 pm
Why are private schools such a huge problem recently? Because of the PCL? You guys never seem to have a problem with Hbg McDevitt, Cathedral Prep, PCC or ACC. Some cheese and crackers with your whine?
December 2nd, 2012 at 2:44 pm
With respect to that subject, the teams representing the state should mostly come from Philly and Pitt. as they have the highest population concentration in the state. Great job to La Salle and good luck.
However fans in this blog, please do not disrespect the team from Parkland as not being as strong as La Salle. They have some quality athletes on their squad and won the right to play in that game. La Salle was the better team.
There is no guarantee is the best team (still think St. Joes is) and would beat Coatseville or the Western State Rep.
Let the kids decide. This upcoming game will be fun to watch.
December 2nd, 2012 at 2:33 pm
I have stated this in other posts, the PIAA needs to create a “private/charter/prep” class which is similar in NJ. The PCL is the best league in the state and yes they do ‘recruit’ athletes. With graduating classes at less than AAA student population it is unlikely to maintain that type of dominance. I still say the best PCL teams in this state would lose the Don Bosco, Bergen Cath. etc. by mercy rule scores. The PCL is not at the level of North Jersey recruiting. That could change is the PIAA changes its divisions.
December 2nd, 2012 at 10:49 am
Agreed with many of the comments here.Coatesville’s OLine will be bigger and a little more polished however Lasalle’s DLine should impose themselves a lot more on Coatesville’s line than their last 4 opponents.
Line play on both sides here should be telling.
December 2nd, 2012 at 10:34 am
Coatesville 42 LaSalle 28
December 2nd, 2012 at 9:52 am
What a poor show from the north! Is Parkland really the best they could send down here? There are 4 teams in the PCL that could beat Parkland. St Joe Prep would have run the score up worse than LaSalle. Roman and Ryan would have beat these guys in close games. By far the PCL is the most talented league in the the state.
And they fill there schedules with tough out of league games.
Finally, they stack their sidelines with the best coaches.
Rumor has it that the PIAA is thinking of better ways to get the best teams in the playoffs, regardless of district.
December 2nd, 2012 at 9:40 am
mikey or you load the box on a running team! Smart D. PArkland is one dimensional and it caught up to them. They deserve to be a top 8 team. ALso t be fair it’s a cathlic school and these kids are from all over not the same town.
December 2nd, 2012 at 9:15 am
LaSalle is very well coached and a great team. Huge advantage to LaSalle, SJP Prep, Wood, etc.. that they can and do recruit kids to play. They should not be PIAA! Just look at their results in all sports. Major advantage. Just a matter of time until they start dominating in hoops and pulling the kids from Chester high. Put them in the Private School League with Penn Charter, GA, Malvern.
December 2nd, 2012 at 9:06 am
LaSalle and Coatesville will be a more interesting matchup. I saw both teams play this season, and Coatesville’s offensive line is much bigger and more athletic than Parkland’s. I doubt if LaSalle’s d-line will be as disruptive this Friday night.
December 2nd, 2012 at 2:05 am
Wilson Bulldogs shut down “The Fab Four”..slam Harrisburg! 39-14 AAAA
December 2nd, 2012 at 12:50 am
This game was over very early. LaSalle in a romp. And while many of the Parkland fans were respectful and dignified at the end of the game, a handful (including Elder’s mother) found a way to embarass themselves. Show some class….your sons deserve better.
December 2nd, 2012 at 12:30 am
See you in Downingtown
December 1st, 2012 at 11:49 pm
Elder was a non-factor; in fact, Parkland was a non-factor.
December 1st, 2012 at 10:02 pm
By the way, 74 of Jarel Elder’s 139 yards came on the last play with 9.9 seconds left where Lasalle was expecting a knee and was tricked. So it was more like 20 carries for 65 yards. That’s a scary stat considering that he had over 200 the game before. Parkland was fast, but speed doesn’t matter when the D-Line is huge and the LB is getting recruited by the likes of Temple, Ohio St, and PSU