NOV. 22
CLASS AAAA CITY TITLE
Washington 23, La Salle 14
  The onfield celebration had barely begun when someone tapped my shoulder. "Ted, I have a headline for your story . . . Only in the Pub!" The speaker was Kelly Barton, former Northeast principal and now the interim director of Public League sports/physical education. He knows how I usually use that phrase -- to poke fun at all of the Pub's goofy developments, or to express my disgust when someone/anyone does not do right by the kids. In this situation, I knew what Kelly meant: a Pub squad had just done what no one thought was possible, capturing the (AAAA) crown in the first City Title game played since 1979 and dealing a stunning blow to what's perceived as the high and mighty Catholic League. By the way, the Pub has now won two of the last three CT meetings, counting Frankford's mud-covered win over Wood and its wishbone in 1978 at long-gone Kennedy Stadium. That hasn't happened since the Pub won three times in a row from 1944-46! (The series began in 1938.) So, how did this happen? As La Salle coach Drew Gordon put it afterward, "They were better and tougher. All credit to Washington." With the benefit of hindsight, which is always easy, of course, you could say La Salle's "problems" began at the very beginning when the Explorers elected to receive the ball and Washington, obviously, chose to kick with a strong, west-to-east wind at Northeast's Charlie Martin Memorial Stadium. Gordon said the Explorers, upon winning tosses, always elect to take the ball first. The offense usually has no trouble moving at least a little, if not a lot, but this time disaster struck pretty much right away. On a right-side pass, sr. S Jamal Williams jumped the route and posted an interception and even ripped off a 20-yard return to the 25. Jr. RB Kessan Christopher (he finally spoke up about one of the many misspellings on Washington's roster, where he's listed as "Kesson"), carried for three yards, then sr. RB Kyle Glenn, with help from a quality block from sr. RB Omar Hunter, steamed 22 yards to the end zone. Oh, baby! We'll see what happens from here, but this is certainly an interesting development. La Salle's next series produced one first down, but a 4-yard TFL for star jr. DL Sharrif Floyd provided momentum and sr. FB-LB-P Mike Donohoe could launch a punt for only 22 yards into the stiff wind. On second down, jr. QB Aaron Wilmer hit Hunter for a 48-yard TD. Oh, double baby! Already, the Eagles had begun yelping every so often, "Shock the world!!" or the longer version, "We're gonna shock the world!!" Now the yells were coming much more frequently and at much higher volume. La Salle made a spectacular counter-punch, taking only 78 seconds to get on the board. Jr. QB Drew Loughery made what was probably his best throw of the day -- remember, into the wind -- as he went long to jr. WR Connor Hoffman for a 48-yard gain to the 3. A TD toss to Donohoe followed immediately. A lot happened in the first quarter, folks, and we're not finished yet. Soph DB Kevin Forster broke up a fourth-down pass and La Salle took over at its 37. Loughery tried a short, right-side flip and . . . another pick! This one was by frosh OLB Nate Smith and he also managed a significant return -- 19 yards to the 20. TD No. 3 coming right up. On the second play of the second quarter, on a third-and-10 reverse, Hunter picked up 11 yards to the 9. Glenn then barreled ahead over the left side and rolled all the way into the end zone. Oh, triple baby! Not only was Washington proving it belonged on the field with the favored Explorers, it was damn near frolicking. The game wasn't over, of course, and there would be nervousness the rest of the way for anyone affiliated with Washington and the Pub in general, but the Eagles really did own this one. They handily won the line-of-scrimmage battle, on both sides, and the front-back guys on defense worked in perfect harmony. There was non-stop pressure and solid, break-to-the-ball coverage. Though Loughery finished with 248 yards, that was a misleading number. He threw three picks (sr. CB Lorenzo Adams had the last one in the waning moments) and went just 12-for-33 total. Also, he was dumped six times for 36 yards in losses and incurred teeth-rattling hits on many other occasions. I haven't seen all of La Salle's games, obviously, but I can't imagine he was harassed to such a degree all fall. Floyd also notched two sacks in addition to his aforementioned TFL and he made THE play of the game with 3:16 left. Back to punt, Donohoe double-clutched (I can only assume he sensed there'd be no rush -- often there hadn't been -- and wanted to make extra sure he'd get off a good one) and the 6-4, 300-pound Floyd came roaring up the middle. He smacked the ball from three yards away, at the 17, and it rocketed/bounced backward over the goal line for a safety. On face value alone, the play was huge. But it was especially gigantic because it created a two-score lead, at 23-14. Jr. Mike Bennett tried an onside kick toward the visiting sideline, where La Salle was located. He hit the ball quite hard and the Eagles avoided it, allowing it to leave the field of play. Washington's fruitless possession was capped with a funny moment as sr. Will McFillin's punt hit sr. L James Luckey directly on the top of his helmet. A Luckey strike, of course (smile). With Loughery, anything was still possible. He moved his squad to GW's 29, but jr. DE Martin Haynes dropped Loughery for a 7-yard loss and, following a procedure penalty, Adams made his leaping pick to clinch the win. In all, La Salle suffered losses 11 times. Haynes' two losses totaled 16 yards. Jr. LB James Fowler also recorded two losses. La Salle's other score came with 1:22 left in the third quarter on an 81-yard pass from Loughery to jr. WR Sam Feleccia. Hunter got a little discombobulated on that play, but otherwise did an excellent job against the Explorers' most dangerous receiver. When you think about it, it was probably inevitable that La Salle would enter the game a shade (very?) overconfident, considering that Bok and Dobbins had been crushed in AA and AAA City Title games. Comparative scores should have softened that stance. Northeast had beaten Judge. Judge had split with La Salle. Washington had swept two meetings with Northeast. On assorted message boards, there had been, ahem, spirited discussion all fall about whether the CL would make a huge AAAA statewide impact in its first chance in the PIAA playoffs. Some thought yes. Some thought no. Now, here we are on Nov. 22 and the Pub representative is the one going forward (to play Liberty Saturday, noon, at Northeast). Shock the world? Wouldn't go that far. Shock Philly? Without a doubt. Only in the Pub (smile).