La Salle wins in OT over Roman Catholic in PCL semifinals
PHILADELPHIA >> Six minutes and eight seconds into overtime Wednesday night, Timmy Madden headed home the game-winning goal for La Salle, ensuring a trip to the Philadelphia Catholic League Final.
“I’m not the one to score many clutch goals,” Madden said afterwards. “So I gotta say it feels pretty good. I think it’s an experience that everybody should get in their life.”
The Explorers’ 2-1 semifinal victory over Roman Catholic saw La Salle rally back from a 1-0 deficit to tie things up in the second half. In overtime, the Explorers’ moment came, and they were prepared.
“Restarts, we work on a lot,” said coach Thomas McCaffery. “It’s something that, this time of year, when the weather gets colder, you gotta win head balls, you gotta be dangerous to be able to go deep into any playoff run. We worked on it and it paid off a lot. Timmy made a great run, it was a great service, and you see where the hard work by these young men came into play.”
La Salle now gets ready to take on Father Judge, a 1-0 winner over Lansdale Catholic earlier in the evening. The PCL Final will be back at Ramp Playground Saturday at 7 p.m.
“It feels amazing to score in overtime, especially with the season on the line,” Madden said. “We were pushing really hard as a team, and sometimes it’s the grit and determination that wins it, not the pretty plays.”
The Explorers also overcame the loss of goalie Ryan Kalup, who was injured in the first half. Sean Martin came off the bench and played well in his place.
La Salle called on the efforts of many to get by Roman.
“Any time you can beat a quality opponent like Roman, with the pedigree that they have, the run that they’re on of showing up in the PCL Finals, to be able to beat a team like that with the effort that they gave, because they were unbelievable all night, it says a lot,” McCaffery said. “I think at times, they outworked us, but we found a way. And I think that’s the key. When you face a good opponent, you know you’re gonna get chances and you have to keep grinding on it, trying to find a way to get it done. And I think the guys did that tonight.”
Jake Yuskevich scored the tying goal for the Explorers in the second half, ensuring extra life.
“The tying goal was everything,” said Madden, a senior midfielder. “We knew Roman was a dangerous team and they could score at any moment. And I think everybody knew that one goal wasn’t enough. We would have liked to get the second goal before overtime but that’s not the way it panned out.
“We’re ready (for the final). We’ve been ready since August. We’re gonna train hard this week, go at it, and on Saturday, we’ll show up.”
Roman, which saw a fine season come to a close, had taken a 1-0 lead early off a goal by Timothy Kane.
“Five minutes in, we slipped it over to me and I just put it in,” Kane said. “It was intense. We ran to our fans. We kept up the intensity the rest of the first half and we tried to keep that intensity in the second half but La Salle got one off a free kick, a set-piece play. We tried to keep the intensity going into OT.
“I told all my seniors that we wanted it, that it was ours. But we just fell short.”
