Davis, Sidwar help La Salle rally in 2nd half to beat North Penn
TOWAMENCIN >> After piling up both carries and yards, La Salle’s Stevie Davis finally found his way into the end zone in the fourth quarter.
Mekhi Johnson’s interception preserved the Explorers’ 30-28 lead over host North Penn and set La Salle up at its own 20-yard line with 7:45 remaining in Friday night’s season-opening matchup.
Davis proceeded to break away for a 43-yard run then followed that by taking a pitch from quarterback Gavid Sidwar on the next play and, aided by a block from wide receiver Ryan Sorge, sprinted down the right sideline for a 37-yard touchdown.
“That felt great,” Davis said. “Just a little reward at the end of the game. Close it out.”
Davis, a junior running back listed at 5-foot-6 and 175, collected 239 yards on 32 carries while freshman Sidwar was efficient in throwing four touchdown passes as La Salle erased an 11-point deficit early in the second half to knock off the Knights 37-28 at Crawford Stadium.
“He’s a really good football player,” said Explorers coach John Steinmetz of Davis. “And listen, at the end of the day, the offensive line, we return three guys on the o-line so they’re warming up into shape, they’re getting better. So that was beautiful. I thought we were going to have to lean on the defense a little bit tonight and as it turned out we had to lean on the offensive line and the run game which was fabulous, nothing wrong with that, right?”
Jay Ford-King’s 91-yard kickoff return touchdown to open the third quarter gave North Penn a 28-17 advantage. But while the Knights offense moved the ball in the second half, it could not find a way to add to NP’s points total.
La Salle (1-0), meanwhile, scored touchdowns on its first three drives of the second half – Sidwar connecting with James Dolan twice for TDs as the Explorers took their first lead at 30-28 with 11:52 in the fourth. Davis’ touchdown run to cap a two-play, 80-yard drive after Johnson’s pick made it a two-score game.
“Especially in the heat here it’s tough to have a lot of guys going both ways,” North Penn coach Dick Beck said. “We were having guys cramping so as you saw we got our one d-line out, we got some smaller guys they are very good up front offensively very big and they were taking to us.
“We were fighting as hard as we could. Caught a couple of bad breaks but they made a lot of their breaks also.”
Sidwar’s first two passes went for touchdowns as he finished 12-for-16 for 204 yards, hooking up with Nole Henry seven times for 125 yards – 65 coming on a touchdown in the second quarter.
“I sat with him on the bus and he was pretty calm and cool,” said Davis of Sidwar. “So he really collected himself and stepped up huge as a freshman.
North Penn senior QB Ryan Zeltt was 18-of-26 passing for 264 yards with one touchdown and an interception. Yazeed Haynes had six catches for 92 yards and a TD for the Knights (0-1) while Rashad McNeil had four receptions for 64 yards.
“The interception that Zeltt threw I know he wants that one back,” Beck said. “He had the guy open and he kind of floated it a little bit. But I thought Zeltt played one of his best games, gutsiest games, in his career so I’m proud of the kids, I thought we played hard. I just wish, obviously, had a better result for us.”
North Penn looks to avoid its first 0-2 since 2017 when it visits Quakertown Friday. La Salle travels to Ocean City, New Jersey to face Malvern Prep Friday.
“It’s an emotional game,” Steinmetz said of starting the season against North Penn. “We have a lot of kids from this neighborhood. The one kid that caught a touchdown, Jimmy Dolan, lives right down the street. We’ve got a lot of kids that know each other so there’s a lot of kind of emotion going on. Hopefully, by playing Friday night we get a couple days off and we get to regroup.”
Davis spent the night consistently gaining yards in the Explorers’ run-pass option, the junior having just one carry for no gain and one for negative yardage. He racked up 105 yards on 18 carries before halftime – his longest run in the first half going for 28 yards.
“We pretty much knew we were going to run the ball coming out of the game,” Davis said. “But we really started running the ball, which opened up the pass and we really got the pass game going – Gavin Sidwar and the line really stepped up big.”
North Penn took a 7-0 lead on Michai Cuffie’s six-yard touchdown run at 5:31 in the first quarter. On its next drive, La Salle punted on 4th-and-1 from its own 31 but got a break when the ball hit a Knights player and the Explorers recovered at the NP 18.
Sidwar took over under center and on 2-and-5 found Sorge for a 13-yard touchdown at 2:35. A blocked extra point kept North Penn up 7-6.
The Knights proceeded to go up 14-6 with a 12-play, 83-yard drive capped by Amir Major getting to the left corner of the end zone for a six-yard TD run at 9:30 at the second quarter.
La Salle, however, quickly responded, Sidwar hitting Henry over the middle with Henry shedding a defender and racing 65 yards for a TD at 8:58. The Explorers got a two-point conversion on a Sidwar push pass to Henry, knotting things at 14.
“Too many big plays,” Beck said. “We gave up that touchdown on the RPO for about 65 yards, where we’re manned up and our guy gets beat inside. And when you’re in man coverage, we tell our guys don’t get beat inside. So that was a tough one.”
North Penn regained the lead when Zeltt connected with Haynes on a 37-yard touchdown at 6:48 to end an 80-yard, six-play series.
La Salle drove inside the Knights five in the half’s final minute but had to settle for a Andrew Park 20-yard field goal as time expired to pull within 21-17.
Ford-King gave the Knights’ an electric start to the third quarter, bursting through a crowd into open field on the right side before evading three tackle attempts and dashing to the end zone for a 91-yard kickoff return touchdown at 11:43.
But La Salle answered on the ensuing series – a nine-play, 80-yard drive Sidwar finished by finding Dolan over the middle for a nine-yard TD at 8:29 as the Explorers cut the margin to 28-24.
“Coach Stein usually says ‘So what now what,’” Davis said. “And that just means stuff’s going to happen and we just got to bounce and get right back into the game.”
North Penn moved the ball to the La Salle 44 on its next possession but back-to-back dropped passes forced a punt, which resulted in a touchback.
Starting at its own 20, La Salle put together a 12-play go-ahead drive that included Davis gaining two yards to convert a 4th-and-1 from North Penn 40. On 3rd-and-7 from the Knights 25, Sidwar dropped a pass into Dolan in the left corner of the end zone eight seconds into the fourth quarter. A missed extra point kept La Salle’s lead 30-28.
North Penn began the next series from its own 20 and marched the ball to the La Salle 29 but on 2nd-and-10 Johnson came over to intercept a Zeltt pass down the middle. Two plays later, Davis’s 37-yard TD run made it 37-28 at 6:53.
“He was double-covering their number one receiver and he came off of him and tracked that ball down,” said Steinmetz of Johnson’s pick. “So that was a nice play there.”
A Zeltt 30-yard pass to Luke Cody put North Penn at the Explorers 42 but two incompletions sandwiched around a sack for a seven-yard loss had the facing Knights 4th-and-17. Zeltt connected with Haynes only for the play to come up a few chain links short of a first down.
La Salle 37, North Penn 28
La Salle (1-0) 6 11 7 13 – 37
North Penn (0-1) 7 14 7 0 – 28
First Quarter
NP-Michai Cuffie 6 run (Ryan Bocklet kick), 5:31.
LS-Gavin Sidwar 13 pass to Ryan Sorge (kick blocked), 2:35.
Second Quarter
NP-Amir Major 6 run (Bocklet kick), 9:30.
LS-Sidwar 65 pass to Nole Henry (Sidwar pass to Henry), 8:58.
NP-Ryan Zeltt 37 pass to Yazeed Haynes (Bocklet kick), 6:48.
LS-Andew Park 20 field goal, 0:00.
Third Quarter
NP-Jay Ford-King 91 kickoff return (Bocklet kick), 11:43.
LS-Sidwar 9 pass to James Dolan (Park kick), 8:29.
Fourth Quarter
LS-Sidwar 25 pass to Dolan (kick failed), 11:52.
LS-Stevie Davis 37 run (Park kick), 6:53.
LS NP
First Downs 20 16
Rushes-yards 37-249 20-74
Passing 13-17-0 18-26-1
Passing yards 208 264
Totals yards 457 338
Punts 3 1
Penalties-yards 2-15 1-5
Fumbles-lost 0-0 0-0
Rushing
La Salle: Stevie Davie 32-239, TD; John McSorley 3-7; Gavin Damon 2-3
North Penn: Michai Cuffie 8-38, TD; Amir Major 4-29; Dave Dawes 2-8; Ryan Zeltt 6-(-1).
Passing
La Salle: Gavin Sidwar 12-16-0, 204, 4 TD; Gavin Damon 1-1-0, 4.
North Penn: Ryan Zeltt 18-26-1, 264.
Receiving
La Salle: Nole Henry 7-125, TD; James Dolan 2-34, 2 TD; Stevie Davis 1-23; Ryan Sorge 2-17; Mike Martino 1-6.
North Penn: Yazeed Haynes 6-92, TD; Rashad McNeil 4-64; Luke Cody 2-38; James Mangine 2-32; Xavier Bryan 1-14; Bobby Hill 2-14; Amir Major 1-10;
Interceptions
La Salle: Mekhi Johnson.
North Penn: None.
