La Salle’s singular 6-foot-4, 185-pound junior defensive back/wide receiver was the hero of little kid’s world—after making what was an indelible backyard little kid’s play.
La Salle beat St. Joseph’s Prep, 35-34, before a throng of 15,000 Saturday night at Upper Dublin High School in quadruple overtime.
The Explorers are now 6-0 and served notice to the rest of the state that St. Joe’s Prep may not be the team coming out of the east to threepeat as PIAA Class 6A state champions.
The winning play came when O’Brien took an end-around on a play that mimicked the “Philly Special.” The problem was, the Hawks picked it up, leaving O’Brien to improvise and swerve his way through an enclosing nest of St. Joe’s Prep defenders.
Just when it seemed La Salle coach Brett Gordon’s gutsy two-point conversion try looked lost, O’Brien at the last second flicked the ball to Desmond Ortiz in the end zone for the winning score.
It was as improbable an ending as the game itself.
A total of 69 points were scored after both teams played to a shutout in the first half. A combined 41 points were scored in overtime, which were more than the 28 points combined during regulation.
The victory was La Salle’s first over St. Joe’s Prep in three years, since the Explorers’ 28-21 win at Penn’s Franklin Field on October 2, 2021. Entering the game, Prep’s dominance over its nearest rival was profound. Since the Nov. 21, 2015, Catholic League Red championship (won by La Salle, 29-28), the Hawks were 14-1 vs. La Salle having outscored the Explorers 543-197, winning by an average of 36.2 to 13.1 in that span. La Salle had beaten The Prep twice in the last nine years, Nov. 21, 2015, and on Oct. 2, 2021. Since their last victory over the Hawks, the Explorers were 0-5 entering Saturday night’s game against The Prep, outscored 173-44 in that span, losing by an average of 34.6 to 8.8.
The Explorers felt that they were much closer to Prep than they had ever been in the last decade.
It showed.
It was Gavin Sidwar’s 10-yard touchdown toss to O’Brien, who tip-toed in the corner of the end zone, in the fourth overtime that made the victory possible. From there, Gordon opted to go for the win on a two-point conversion that did not exactly go the way it was designed.
“It was going to come down to who was going to make the last play, and I decided there that if we scored (in the fourth overtime), I would try to go for two and just end it, considering we were in the fourth overtime,” Gordon said. “Fortunately, we were able to make one more play. That was exactly how we drew it up (laughs). I’m really, really happy for the kids. We challenged them, we worked hard to get to this point. We are getting to the point where we feel we can compete with the best teams in the state.”
O’Brien finished with a game-high 9 receptions for 83 yards, but no bigger play than the playground conversion.
“To be honest, I thought it would go into one overtime, and from there, it would be over,” O’Brien said. “I never threw a pass in high school until now. It goes back to playing quarterback in my Roxborough Eagles days. That’s where it came from. But I have never been in a game like that. I will never forget this game.”
On the play, run just like the “Philly Special,” O’Brien said he had a feeling Prep would pick up what would unfold. So as a precaution, he told Ortiz to watch out as the Explorers broke the huddle. He may be going to him if the Hawks were able to break the code. They did, and O’Brien’s contingency plan worked better than he himself expected.
When he quickly spotted two Prep linebackers converging on him, he flicked the ball to Ortiz, who was joined by La Salle teammate John-Patrick Oates at the goal line.
Ortiz and Oates rolled into the end zone together and were instantly mobbed by the crowd that encircled the field.
It was bedlam in Fort Washington.
“Joey is a great player, and he improvised and made it happen, and we won,” said the Rutgers-bound Sidwar, a junior. “It doesn’t matter how it happened, it happened. Last year, Prep beat us by a combined 77-13 in two games. We felt that pain.”
Pain the Explorers wanted to remember by jotting “77-13” down on the whiteboard in the La Salle school weight room.
“We’re not taking it down, either, not even after this,” Sidwar said. “We had that score written down all year. We wanted this game. This is what we prepared for. That score will stay there. We need to remember we went through the pain of that.”
Prep (3-2) was devastated by the loss. Sophomore Charlie Foulke threw three interceptions, one very costly pick in the waning seconds of regulation. Still, Foulke put the Hawks in position to win in overtime when he connected with Jamir Rowe in the fourth overtime for a 34-27 Prep lead.
St. Joe Prep’s angst will stem from the fact that it could have won the game in regulation. The Hawks were sitting at the La Salle 3-yard line, set up by a Brandon Lockley interception with less than three minutes to play at the Explorers’ 38.
The Hawks drove to the La Salle 4, and instead of kicking a field as the final seconds were winding down, the Hawks decided to go for it. Foulke rolled right, La Salle defensive back Christian Peterman came up to deflect Foulke’s pass and intercepted in an incredible athletic move by La Salle’s mammoth 6-foot-8, 225-pound defensive tackle Grayson McKeough, who dove for the deflected pass and intercepted it at the La Salle 5.
The Explorers ran out the final seconds, creating the tense four overtimes.
“I just told my team this one is on me, it starts with me, I have to learn from this, we as a team will learn from this, and we can all be better for it,” Hawks’ coach Tim Roken said. “Our guys showed the strength and belief in one another. There are players who are seniors that were part of those state championships. We will continue to love and trust one another and believe in one another. That won’t change.”
And you know these two giants will be back at it again in a month in the Catholic League Red Division playoffs.
Scoring Summary
St. Joe’s Prep (3-2) 0 0 7 7 7 3 3 7-34
La Salle (6-0) – 0 0 7 7 7 3 3 8-35
3rd Quarter
L – Nick Swanson 9 pass from Gavin Sidwar (Chris Heck kick), 6:30
SJP – Jamir Rowe 16 pass from Charlie Foulke (Leo Ricci kick), 1:42
4th Quarter
L – Joshua Simmons 10 pass from Sidwar (Heck kick), 10:55
SJP –Alijah Turner 24 pass from Foulke (Ricci kick), 4:41
1OT
L – James Dolan 15 pass from Sidwar (Heck kick)
SJP – Rowe 10 run (Ricci kick)
2OT
SJP – Ricci 27 FG
L – Heck 25 FG
3OT
L – Heck 27 FG
SJP – Ricci 23 FG
4OT
SJP – Rowe 10 pass from Foulke (Ricci kick)
L – Joey O’Brien 10 pass from Sidwar (Desmond Ortiz pass from O’Brien)
Joseph Santoliquito is an award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball.
Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball
