MECHANICSBURG, PA — Gavin Sidwar chest thumped Joey O’Brien late in the fourth quarter of the PIAA Class 6A championship, playfully grabbed his Notre Dame-bound La Salle College High School teammate, and kept bellowing, “Finally, finally, finally.”
It’s because O’Brien finally grabbed an interception, something the Explorers’ two-way star had some trouble doing at times this season. In the last 3 minutes, 55 seconds, O’Brien stopped three-straight Pittsburgh Central Catholic drives with interception, topped by a 95-yard pick six that capped La Salle’s 34-20 victory in the PIAA Class 6A state championship Saturday night at Cumberland Valley High School’s Chapman Field.
It marked the first time La Salle (13-1) won the PIAA state championship since 2009, when the Explorers won the Class 4A championship in the 4A system under late Hall of Fame coach Drew Gordon.
The victory also marked a first in the 37-year history of the PIAA state football championships, making La Salle coach Brett Gordon and his father Drew as the first father-and-son coaching tandem to ever win a state championships in football.
The Explorers closed the season with one loss, and two victories each over Pittsburgh Central Catholic, which La Salle opened the season against with a 23-6 victory, and three-time state champion St. Joseph’s Prep, La Salle’s archrival.
For the second straight year, the Philadelphia Catholic League has produced two state champions, this season winning the 5A (Roman Catholic) and 6A state titles, giving District 12 the same amount of state champions as District 7, which is the Western Pennsylvania Interscholastic Athletic League (WPIAL) that took home the Class 1A (Clairton) and Class 3A (Avonworth) titles.
This was not as lopsided as it seems.
La Salle was holding on to a 21-14 lead, and had just burned its last timeout with 5:36 to play. It’s when O’Brien swooped in and picked off an Owen Herrick pass, which he returned to the Central Catholic two. The following play, La Salle’s Ahzir Nelson bulled into the end zone for a 27-14 lead.
The first teammate to greet O’Brien was Sidwar, the Missouri-bound quarterback who completed 21 of 29 for 188 yards and two touchdowns. He teasingly grabbed O’Brien and kept saying, “Finally, finally, finally.”
“That’s because Joey had come so close to making interceptions this season, and there were some times he dropped a few,” Sidwar said. “It was good to see him come through like that.”
O’Brien would upstage himself by stopping the Vikings’ next drive with an interception off a deflected pass. He ended with a 95-yard interception return for a touchdown sealing the victory for the Explorers.
For the game, O’Brien threw a touchdown pass, which came on the Explorers’ opening drive of the third quarter, had three interceptions on three successive Central Catholic drives, and made a spectacular diving catch in the first quarter.
“I’m happy we finally finished this,” O’Brien said. “We what we had to do all season long, and that’s get here and win. There was never a doubt we would do it.”
La Salle sophomore receiver Owen Johnson had a career-best three touchdown receptions. Again, O’Brien was the one who made an impact, with opposing teams double- and triple-teaming O’Brien, that left Johnson one-on-one in most cases with a defensive back. O’Brien still led the Explorers with 10 catches for 98 yards, and right behind him was Johnson, who had eight catches for 48 yards, including three touchdowns.
“It’s sinking we just won,” Johnson said. “When we played them earlier in the year, we found out Pittsburgh Central is a good, strong team. I felt we were more hungry, and after losing to Prep last year, we knew we had to come back this year to show who La Salle is. I just had to get open. Right before halftime, we knew we had to get a touchdown. I go against Joey every day in practice, and it was iron sharpening iron every day. We made ourselves better.
“The goal was to get open and do what we do.”
For O’Brien, the state championship game was sweet redemption.
“I finally caught a pick, because I dropped so many, and I didn’t know what it was, so I took extra reps, and worked on catching straight on in practice, which broke into this,” O’Brien said. “All I am glad about it that I get to share this state championship with these guys. We worked so hard and were so committed to it. No one was going to stop us.”
Scoring Summary
(District 7) Pittsburgh Central Catholic (13-2) 0 7 0 13-20
(District 12) La Salle College High School (13-1) 0 14 7 13-34
2nd Quarter
L – Owen Johnson 11 pass from Gavin Sidwar (Chris Heck kick), 10:32
CC – Chrys Black 17 run (Antonio Difatta kick), 4:48
L – Johnson 5 pass from Sidwar (Heck kick), :07
3rd Quarter
L – Johnson 2 pass from Joey O’Brien (Heck kick), 3:00
4th Quarter
CC – Black 5 run (Difatta kick), 10:31
L – Ahzir Nelson 2 run (kick failed), 3:50
L – O’Brien 95 INT return (Heck kick), 1:17
CC – Black 23 pass from Owen Herrick (pass failed), :07