AMBLER — A little over a month ago, Charlie Foulke was a mess. The St. Joe’s Prep sophomore quarterback had to be helped to his feet by his teammates, sobbing uncontrollably after the Hawks lost to archrival La Salle in a quadruple overtime classic.
On Saturday, as the shadows grew long on the turf and the fading sun was still striking a glint on the colliding helmets before around 10,000 at Wissahickon High School, Foulke and his St. Joe’s Prep teammates took out their revenge on La Salle, 21-14, in the Philadelphia Catholic League 6A championship.
The Hawks (7-2) will now play Imhotep Charter, the Philadelphia Public League Class 6A champion, on Saturday at 12-noon at Northeast High School for the District 12 Class 6A city championship.
Foulke completed 13 of 20 for 156 yards and a touchdown, while fellow sophomore, defensive back Masiia Acrey, did a good job on La Salle’s very dangerous Joey O’Brien, coming up with a crucial interception in the end zone near the end of the third quarter.
For the whole St. Joe’s Prep team, they had been lugging the 35-34 quadruple overtime loss to La Salle on Oct. 5 for some time. On the Sunday after the game, the first thing out of Hawks’ coach Tim Roken’s mouth was, “That was my fault.” The problem was, none of his players were willing to accept that, because they blamed themselves.
Foulke was devastated by the loss. He reacted like he lost a close relative.
“I did blame myself for the first La Salle loss and I needed to clean it up,” Foulke said. “I feel a lot more confident and I see the field much better than I did a month ago. I trust my line and my teammates. I threw three interceptions in that game. That was my fault.
“I needed to change.”
Then he turned to look at the 21-14 final score.
“That,” he said, “is unbelievable.”
As was the job Acrey and junior cornerback Simaj Hill did on the threatening O’Brien, who at best can only be contained.
The La Salle 6-foot-4, 190-pound junior receiver still had himself a game, catching six passes for 126 yards, including two TDs passes of 30 and 66 yards.
“I blame himself, too, for that first loss,” Acrey said. “Joey is a great player, he is a great receiver, but we knew what we had to do to stop him. I was there that Sunday morning after the loss. I think we all took that La Salle loss personally. What bothered us all is that we could have played better.
“I cramped up and in overtime. I should have hydrated better. That was my fault. Joey would not have caught that fade ball in overtime if I was defending him. It’s over four weeks ago and it had been bugging us.”
To the point that Roken challenged his team before they took the field on Saturday: “Remember the feeling you had walking off that field last month. Do you want to feel that again?”
It explains why Acrey took the opening kickoff 70 yards to set up the first of Khyan Billups’ two rushing touchdowns.
“As a leader, you have to look inward first, and Charlie has done a hell of a job getting himself better, because he is going to be the engine that keeps our offense rolling,” Roken said. “The players have embraced him. The coaches have embraced him. This is a young team, with even upperclassmen playing without much experience.
“Over this last month, I’m happy for Charlie and how this team has come back with such poise. As a leader, I took the blame, because I will always fall on my sword. I wanted these guys to come in with the utmost confidence in themselves and they did.”
It looked like the Hawks had the game secured when Billups scored his second TD with 6:45 to play. But La Salle’s Gavin Sidwar and O’Brien were not about to accept that. They responded midway through the fourth quarter with a quick-strike, 84-yard drive, capped by O’Brien’s second TD. The problem: There was 4:47 to play.
St. Joe’s Prep could not sustain anything, and gave the Explorers another chance to tie or possibly win the game with 1:46 left, though with no timeouts. Three-straight Sidwar incompletions ended it and the Hawks ran out the last 1:07.
The Prep loss ended La Salle’s excellent season, but this team made a surge in a rivalry that had been lopsided for close to a decade. In head coach Brett Gordon’s first year, the Explorers had made considerable strides.
“A lot of times, in games like this, it comes down to a handful of plays, and we didn’t execute in those moments and they did,” said Gordon, the La Salle legend. “We got some momentum running the ball early in the second half, and we had a chance to make plays in the third and fourth quarters.”
La Salle will return Sidwar, O’Brien and four of its five offensive linemen.
“This stings for the seniors, who I am really proud of turning this thing around,” Gordon said, “I think it is good locally that we have a healthy competition here between us and Prep. This is Year One. We are just getting started and we gave Prep two hard-fought games. It felt different this year, but we still know there is still more room to grow.”
Scoring Summary
St. Joe’s Prep (7-2) 7 7 0 7-21
La Salle (10-1) – 0 7 0 7-14
1st Quarter
SJP – Khyan Billups 1 run (Leo Ricci kick), 8:27
2nd Quarter
L – Joey O’Brien 30 pass from Gavin Sidwar (Chris Heck kick), 11:35
SJP – Rameir Hardy 59 pass from Charlie Foulke (Ricci kick), 11:24
4th Quarter
SJP – Billups 10 run (Leo Ricci kick), 6:45
L – O’Brien 66 pass from Sidwar (kick), 4:47
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.
