La Salle blanks Wood, wraps up PCL Red Title
AMBLER — Following a complete team effort, everybody gathered around the Philadelphia Catholic League Championship trophy, something that La Salle hopes is just a nice, shiny appetizer for a long postseason ahead.
“It’s awesome. Everybody believed we could do it and I never had a doubt that we could get it done,” said the versatile Ryan Moore. “So it just feels good all the hard work paid off in the end. We always knew this was a special group – the senior class is really close. Now we gotta get to states.”
La Salle closed out the regular season in impressive fashion on Saturday afternoon at Wissahickon, shutting out rival Archbishop Wood 20-0 to improve to 8-1 (3-1 in the PCL Red).
Moore, an excellent threat as a receiver and a runner, scored twice on direct snaps, from five and 16 yards out.
“The holes opened up, I just made a cut, and I just did what I had to do,” said Moore.
With the win, La Salle will face Roman Catholic Saturday at 1 p.m. at Springfield Montco in the PCL Playoffs. Wood (5-4, 2-2 PCL Red) will get St. Joe’s next weekend.
Wood had a long, sustained drive to start the game, but it was thwarted at the La Salle 12-yard line on an interception by Del Jackson.
After a scoreless first quarter, on this crisp afternoon on the turf at Wiss, La Salle took advantage of a short punt by Wood and went 32 yards for a score, capped off by Moore’s five-yard burst.
Another interception by the defense, this one by Kelby Hampton, finished off the first half.
After the intermission, the Explorers immediately doubled their lead when Sam Brown broke it out to the left, racing down the sideline for a 65-yard touchdown run and a 14-0 La Salle lead.
“We started the second half strong when Sam ran that back. And we knew we just had to finish blocks and finish throughout the whole game,” Moore said.
The La Salle defense continued to keep the Vikings scoreless, spurred on by Kieran Campbell, who had a sack and a fumble recovery. The Explorers put the game away when Moore scored on a 16-yard run, cutting back twice and avoiding tacklers while racing to the corner.
“Everybody’s looking forward to (the postseason), looking forward to playing Roman, who beat us,” Moore said. “We’re looking for redemption now.”
Brown finished with 105 yards rushing for the Explorers and Moore had 30 yards on his three carries. Ricardo Delgado had 65 yards rushing for the Vikings.
Wood nearly got on the board late in the fourth, but another interception by the La Salle defense (Sean McFadden) closed things out.
“We came out confident and ready to play,” said the Vikings’ Andrew McHugh. “The offense was driving at first but then, I don’t know what exactly happened.
“We got Prep next week, and hopefully we get past them and get to meet the Explorers again.”
La Salle 20, Archbishop Wood 0
Wood 0 0 0 0 – 0
La Salle 0 7 7 6 – 20
Second Quarter
L-Ryan Moore 5 run (Santiago Sturla kick), 7:42.
Third Quarter
L-Sam Brown 65 run (Sturla kick), 11:39.
Fourth Quarter
L-Moore 16 run (Sturla kick), 5:16.
W L
First Downs 10 13
Rushes-yards 38-52 29-131
Passing (c-a-i) 7-15-3 9-13-1
Passing yards 87 76
Total yards 139 207
Punts 6 4
Penalties-yards 6-50 2-15
Fumbles-lost 2-1 2-1
Turnovers 4 2
Rushing
Wood: Ricardo Delgado 17-65; Ryan Wilson 3-7; Erik Meakim 2-10; James Bermudez 7-11; Mekhi Wharton 5-(-22); Trey Holsman 4-(-19).
La Salle: Brown 16-105, TD; Alan Paturzo 3-(-20); Moore 3-30, 2 TD; Stevie Davis 2-11; Dominic Martin 3-3; E.J. Wentz 2-2.
Passing
Wood: Holsman 3-7-24-0-2; Wharton 4-8-63-0-1.
La Salle: Paturzo 9-13-76-0-1.
Receiving
Wood: Markus Dixon 3-17; Meakim 2-43; Andrew McHugh 2-27.
La Salle: Wentz 3-40; Brown 2-5; Ryan Sorge 1-4; Nole Henry 1-17; Moore 2-10.
Interceptions
Wood: Holsman.
La Salle: Sean McFadden, Del Jackson, Kelby Hampton.
