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
32 Responses
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.
Just make another class 5A
So you are going to tell these La Salle kids that they are too good to play for a state title?
@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
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…
@ 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.
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.