DREXEL HILL — When January meetings started to install the new La Salle defense, one of Dylan Clair’s first impressions of his new defensive coordinator Dave Sowers was “this guy is crazy,” crazy in a good way. Sowers, the long time Upper Dublin assistant coach, is in his first year at La Salle. Clair is in his third year as one of the Explorers starting linebackers.
Sowers wanted his players to be film rats, willing to devour everything he threw at them. He has brought the energy and vitality of a player to the La Salle sidelines this season—and something else, too, an attacking, unpredictable defense that shows various fronts, attacks from all angles, and can be terribly confusing for any opposing quarterback to decipher.
La Salle’s defense is one of the main reasons Brett Gordon’s La Salle Explorers are the No. 1 team in the state and in the area.
After stubbornly holding down powerful St. Joe’s Prep last week, the Explorers’ defense, led by senior linebackers Clair and Jack Leuthe held down potent Bonner-Prendie to a mercy-rule 35-13 Catholic League Red Division victory Friday night at Bonner-Prendie.
La Salle (8-0) remains the only undefeated team in the Catholic League after the victory, handing Bonner-Prendie (5-1) its first loss of the season.
Clair and Leuthe were the first to admit it was more than them that blocked one punt and recovered two first-quarter fumbles that opened the early flood gates.
The Explorers received a considerable push up front from Gavin Muller, Jemal Williams, Hayden McDonald and Joseph Morrisey, while Justin Hawkins, Joey O’Brien, Trey Hopkins, and James Dolan patrolled the back end, and Christian Peterman teamed with Leuthe and Clair on the second tier.
“When Brett Gordon calls you, it is a no-brainer, you go,” said Sowers, who was at Upper Dublin for 12 years, and coached last year at Hatboro-Horsham before joining Gordon and his staff at La Salle this season. “I am having a lot of fun with this program and these players. It is a tribute to these kids that in January, we came in with a new system and they bought into it.
“I have Clair and Leuthe, two senior linebackers, that see everything. The biggest thing is maintaining discipline. These guys have the discipline to get it done and they reason why we have the defense we have is these guys have bought in. We know we are undersized, and you deal with what you are dealt with. These guys bought in and it has been fun. We intend to keep this thing rolling.”
Rolling over everyone.
The Explorers sometimes showed a six-man front. They sometimes had Clair and Leuthe, a two-year starter who is getting attention from St. Francis and Merrimack, up on the center in a blitz look, then they peeled off into coverage. Sometimes, Clair and Leuthe did not peel off, instead attacking and causing chaos up the middle. Sometimes, Peterman came into from an edge, sometimes it was Clair.
The Explorers never work out of a set front, the defensive linemen are that interchangeable.
“This is completely new,” said Leuthe, a transfer the second semester of his sophomore year from Pennridge. “It is fun. We are all having a blast, attacking from all over the place. We all bought in. One of coach Sowers’ main quotes is that it is not the size of the dog, it is the heart of them.”
Clair, a standout wrestler, has seen the metamorphosis of the Explorers’ defense the last three years. He has been on the other side of more than a few St. Joe’s Prep pastings. But this year, the Explorers had a core group back that had vengeance in their eyes, and it was accomplished last week in the Explorers’ classic quadruple overtime win over the Hawks.
Clair and Leuthe wanted to throw some light on linebacker coaches Dan O’Sullivan and Joe Leitner, too. O’Sullivan, Leitner and Sowers have collaborated like mad scientists in a defense lab to concoct these wild blitz packages.
“I really thought coach Sowers was crazy, I mean good crazy, because he has so much passion for us, and I would say this new defense breaks down every scenario,” Clair said. “We know what an offense is going to do, before they do it. We win the game during the week before the game is even played.”
The Explorers had Bonner-Prendie beat after the first quarter. A blocked punt created a Joey O’Brien 7-yard TD pass from Gavin Sidwar with 9:52 left in the first quarter, and a lost Friars’ fumble resulted in Joshua Simmons’ 22-yard TD pass from Sidwar with 3:46 left in the first.
The Explorers ended the opening stanza on a John-Patrick Oates’ 7-yard TD reception from Sidwar with 33 seconds left in the quarter. Desmond Ortiz scored on a 3-yard run with 4:01 left in the half, and mercy-rule score came when Simmons scored his second TD on a 29-yard run with 9:33 left in the third.
Bonner-Prendie got on the board when West Virginia-bound Jalil Hill hauled in a 27-yard TD pass from Noel Campbell with 3:25 left in the third, and Campbell added a cosmetic score with a one-yard TD plunge with 13 seconds to play.
“You cannot make mistakes the way we did tonight, because we got away with it against Roman Catholic,” Bonner-Prendie coach Jack Muldoon said. “We had a blocked punt and the two lost fumbles, and you can’t do that against the No. 1 team in the state. There were to effort issues. This team is not like that. We kept fighting until the end.
“I told my team this will mark our season how we react to this. We have (Cardinal) O’Hara next. Let’s see how we react a week from now.”
Scoring Summary
La Salle (8-0) – 21 7 7 0-35
Bonner-Prendie (5-1) – 0 0 7 6-13
1st Quarter
L – Joey O’Brien 7 pass from Gavin Sidwar (Chris Heck kick), 9:52
L – Joshua Simmons 22 pass from Sidwar (Heck kick), 3:46
L – John-Patrick Oates 7 pass from Sidwar (Heck kick), :33
2nd Quarter
L – Desmond Ortiz 3 run (Heck kick), 4:01
3rd Quarter
L – Simmons 29 run (Heck kick), 9:33
BP – Jalil Hill 27 pass from Noel Campbell (Isaih Smith kick), 3:25
4th Quarter
BP – Campbell 1 run (no attempt), :13
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.
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