Brett Gordon
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  This story was written in October 1995 when Brett, only a soph, was already turning heads with his impressive play at quarterback.

By Ted Silary
  Brett Gordon had miles to go before he could sleep.
We're not talking miles on foot or in an automobile. We're talking miles of watching.
  Brett Gordon, a sophomore, is already a standout quarterback at La Salle High. His father, Drew, who played quarterback at Bishop McDevitt High (class of 1968) and Villanova, is the Explorers' offensive coordinator.
  After calling the shots to help La Salle best visiting Father Judge, 14-0, in a Catholic North makeup yesterday, Drew Gordon hustled to Levittown to scout Archbishop Wood vs. Conwell-Egan. His son headed home.
  "Gotta get my homework done," he said. "When my dad gets back, I know what we'll be doing."
  Watching the tape, and watching it some more, and watching it some more and . . .
  "I'm sure we'll watch it at least three times," Brett said. "The first time, it's just to see the game again and recall what happened. Then we break it down into rushing and passing to see what plays were successful. Then we look it as a personal thing, to see if I was making the right reads and carrying out the fakes and whether my footwork was good."
  The tape will show that the 5-10, 150-pound Gordon completed 15 of 29 passes for 171 yards. It will show that he tossed two interceptions and had a touchdown pass, an 11-yarder to Mike Durso, wiped out because a lineman was downfield illegally.
  Sadly, the tape won't show his intangibles.
  To get the complete Brett Gordon picture, one must see him in person, preferably up close. One needs to spot the gunfighter's glint in his eyes and hear the authoritative tone of his voice.
  The birth certificate says he recently turned 16. The way he carries himself says he's at least 25.
  While sparking the Explorers to a 4-2 overall record (4-0 league), Gordon has completed 70 of 139 passes for 1,088 yards and 12 touchdowns. He has impressed with his arm strength, his touch, his poise and his ability to read defenses and change plays at the line of scrimmage. And, oh yes, his confidence.
  "When we went into training camp, I went in to play," he said. "I didn't see this as a wait-my-turn season just because I was a sophomore. I don't look at myself as a sophomore. I'm one of 11.
  "The first couple games, I was shaky and nervous. "It didn't show. He threw for 414 yards and six touchdowns. "But then I realized, 'This isn't too much different from other levels I played on. I can do this. I don't know what people expected, but I expected (production) out of myself."
  After Gordon threw three touchdown passes (a fourth was lost to a penalty) to help La Salle stun Archbishop Ryan, 29-19, two weeks ago, Ryan coach Glen Galeone expressed admiration for Gordon's skills but said he
 wanted to see how the Explorers' pass-happy offense would fare in the rain, wind and/ or cold.  Yesterday was sunny, but the turf at Springfield (Montco) was soggy from the weekend rains and the wind was often whipping.
  Did it matter? Slightly. Gordon had only two completions of 20 or more yards. But the offense looked much like it had in perfect weather.
  "The kid doesn't seem to be affected by anything," coach Joe Colistra said, "whether it's wind or rain or us yelling at him."
  ordon hit six receivers. Mike Mattia made four catches for 62 yards and Brian Curci made four for 40. The overland route yielded 52 yards and two touchdowns on 16 carries for Durso.
  That was what we wanted to see, whether we could run it," Colistra said. ''We did OK. "
  Gordon hit six receivers. Mike Mattia made four catches for 62 yards and Brian Curci made four for 40. The
  continued right below . . .  

By Ted Silary
  Nothing good in football comes easily. But there are times when it comes quickly.
  For proof we offer Brett Gordon. Though only a junior at La Salle High, he already owns a career city-league record.
Saturday at Plymouth-Whitemarsh, the 5-11, 160-pound Gordon completed 14 of 19 passes for 138 yards and three touchdowns as the Explorers, the defending Catholic League champions and proud owners of a 21-game winning streak, finished their Northern Division regular season by pasting Conwell-Egan, 41-0.
  Gordon has thrown for 42 career touchdowns in 22 games. Mike Mitros, now starting at West Chester University, finished with 41 TD passes in 35 games at Monsignor Bonner (1992-94).
  Gordon's career totals show 242 completions in 473 attempts (51.2 percent) for 3,416 yards (Mitros holds that career mark at 4,929). Twenty-three of Gordon's touchdown passes came last season.
``I knew I was getting close to the record,'' said Gordon, whose father, Drew, played quarterback at Bishop McDevitt and Villanova and now is the offensive coordinator under La Salle coach Joe Colistra. ``But now that I have it, I'm not sure it's sunk in.
``My main concern - and the team's, I'm sure - was to get our offense moving again. We hadn't been playing that well. Our last good game offensively, really, had been the first division game against Cardinal Dougherty [a 42-10 win].''
  Gordon began this season with 15 scoring tosses in five games. But in Game 6, a 10-0 win over North Catholic, he suffered an injury to his right (throwing) shoulder that caused him to miss a 14-6 win over Bishop McDevitt. His replacement, Jack Hammond, filled in wonderfully.
  `The MRI said there was damaged cartilage in my rotator cuff,'' Gordon said. ``The doctor said the only way I could get back to 100 percent was to sit out eight weeks. But with only six or seven weeks left in the season, no way I was going to do that.
``It's been nothing serious. More nagging than anything else. Maybe more mental, too. For the first two weeks, I really minimized what I did in practice. But last week it started to feel good again. My velocity is back close to 100 percent. All of our coaches have commented on that.''
  Mike Mattia and Jeff Pietrak, Gordon's favorite targets, led the receiving parade with seven catches for 58 yards and two touchdowns and four catches for 47 yards, respectively. Mike McIntyre made the other scoring reception.
While inching toward the record these last few weeks, Gordon has followed with great interest the progress of Eagles quarterback Ty Detmer.
  "I'm not real big, and he's not real big,'' Gordon said. ``What he's doing just goes to show what can happen when a guy is that much ahead of everyone else mentally. He knows that the most important thing is reading defenses.''

  The polls are closed and the numbers are in. What they show is overwhelming.
  Brett Gordon , a 5-10 1/2, 170-pound senior, completed one of the more storied football careers in Catholic League history yesterday. His team, La Salle, lost to St. Joseph's Prep, 20-16, at La Salle University, but Gordon put on an amazing show considering that strong winds were whipping all game long.
  Gordon completed 21 of 38 passes for a career-high 323 yards and two touchdowns, a 7-yarder to Mike Lorusso and a 26-yarder to Eric Seiferth.
  He finished the season 175-for-301 (58 percent) for 2,647 yards and 33 touchdowns. The yardage total broke the city leagues record (2,547) set in 1989 by St. Joe's Frank Costa and the TD total extended Gordon's own city leagues record, broken earlier this season. He threw a record 28 in 1996.
  In three varsity seasons, Gordon passed 482-for-884 for 6,837 yards and 84 TDs. All four numbers represent city leagues records and the 84 TDs are a state mark.
  Not to be overlooked are Gordon's kicking feats. He had a 32-yard field goal and a PAT yesterday, giving him six field goals and 35 PAT for 53 points.
  Careerwise, he had 91 PAT and 15 field goals for 136 points. The PAT and points numbers are four and 13 short of the city leagues records, respectively.
  A month ago, the Explorers were riding high with a 32-game winning streak and expecting to win a third consecutive championship. But they lost to Archbishop Ryan, 14-13, in their next-to-last division game and, after rebounding with a 43-8 destruction of Conwell-Egan, were hammered by Father Judge, 47-14, in a quarterfinal.
  "Honestly, at the time, I didn't think the end of the streak would affect us very much. But maybe it did,'' Gordon said. "We weren't ourselves against Judge. We came to play today, but . . . we didn't make enough plays.
  "We could walk out with our heads high, though. We gave it our best shot.''
  For college, Gordon is looking at Villanova (alma mater of his father, Drew, also a quarterback), Penn, William & Mary and Lehigh.
  "I'm hoping to visit all four,'' he said.
  --
  NOTE: Brett chose Villanova. For the Wildcats, he passed 833-for-1,246 yards (66.8 percent) and 83 TDs.

1995
Quarterfinal
La Salle 21, Judge 0
    Brett Gordon passed 6-for-17 for 124 yards and three TDs, with
two to Mike Mattia (5-117). Keith Lachawiec had eight tackles and a
fumble recovery.
Semifinal
At Northeast
La Salle 23, Bonner 13
    In the game's final 16 minutes, Mike Mattia made all five of his
receptions for 118 yards and the clinching TD from Brett Gordon
(10-for-22, 218, two TDs). Gordon also kicked a 22-yard field goal to
break a 13-13 tie. For Bonner, Jeff Jones passed 15-for-28 for 207 yards
and two TDs to Matt Giello (4-53, 81 rushing yards.
Final
At Northeast
La Salle 14, Ryan 7
    Wearing heavy padding to protect a break at the base of his left
thumb, Mike Durso collected 43 yards and a TD on 10 carries. Kyle
Mallach added 50 yards and a score on eight carries. By going 9-for-18
for 109 yards, soph QB Brett Gordon finished the season with 2,136 yards
and 23 TDs, one short of the city-leagues record. Keith Lachawiec made
four sacks and two other tackles for losses. For Ryan, Chris Cavallaro
produced 78 yards and a TD on 18 rushes.

1996
Quarterfinal
La Salle 40, North 0
    Brett Gordon passed 14-for-23 for 177 yards and two TDs and
kicked field goals of 18 and 32 yards along with three PAT. Drew
Middlemiss returned a fumble 30 yards for a score and Brendan "Bird"
Coyle made three tackles for losses.
Semifinal
At Northeast
La Salle 41, O'Hara 10
    Brett Gordon passed 11-for-18 for 195 yards and four TDs, with
two going to Mike Mattia (5-123). Gordon raised his season's TD total to
25, breaking the city-leagues record of 24 set in 1989 by Frank Costa of
SJ Prep.
Final
At Northeast
La Salle 20, Judge 7
    Mike Durso rushed 22 times for 113 yards and a TD, becoming the
first Explorer all season to reach 100 yards, and Brett Gordon passed
16-for-33 for 162 yards and a TD to Jeff Pietrak. Gordon also kicked
field goals of 23 and 34 yards. La Salle finished the season as the
first 14-0 team in city-leagues history and extended its winning streak
to 25 games. Gordon's two-year varsity passing totals stood at 4,190
yards and 51 TDs. Jim Casey ran for Judge's TD.

1997
Quarterfinal
Judge 47, La Salle 14
    Jim Casey ran for 222 yards and three TDs on 29 carries to pace
an explosion that netted 444 yards total offense and brought an emphatic
halt to La Salle's 32-game winning streak, longest in city-leagues
history. Ed Guzak (19-114) and QB Joe Tyer (11-87, four TDs) aided the
cause. La Salle's Brett Gordon passed 13-for-28 for 199 yards and two
TDs, but was intercepted three times.