Lansdale Catholic aims for another win over Conwell-Egan in PCL AA semifinals

For the second time in four weeks, Lansdale Catholic takes on rival Conwell-Egan, this time for the right to go to the Philadelphia Catholic League Class AA Final.
Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Saturday, at Cardinal O’Hara High School.

“We’ve been waiting for this all year,” Crusaders quarterback Michael Basilii said of the postseason. “We know what we have to do and we’re really excited for it.
“Egan’s a tough team but it should be a good game again. We just have to come out here, do what we know how to do — we gotta block and we gotta run.”

The Crusaders, who earned a 34-21 win over Egan in Week Seven, come into this one 7-2 overall, including a 3-1 mark in the PCL AA. LC, riding a four-game win streak, put on a dominant performance in the regular-season finale, winning 42-6 over Neumann-Goretti.

Egan, meanwhile, enters the postseason at 5-4 overall, including a 2-2 mark in the PCL AA, and is coming off a 31-20 win over Bishop McDevitt.

The Crusaders’ running game rolled in the last meeting between the two, with Ryan Quigley racking up 140 yards and a pair of scores, including an 87-yard touchdown run to put the game away in the fourth quarter.

“We can’t wait to get it going. We have to have a great week of practice,” Quigley said after last week’s win over Goretti. “It’s the most important week of the season so far.”

The Crusaders’ defense did a good job in the first meeting of limiting the production of quarterback Kendall Jones, and held running back Kyree Bronson — a dangerous runner and return man — to under 100 yards rushing.

“This is a pretty mature team, so they understand that now it doesn’t matter what we’ve done,” LC coach Tom Kirk said. “We’ve had a nice regular season, and you wanna be proud of that. Now, it doesn’t matter. If you win, you’re moving on, and if you lose, your season’s over.

“Our last game against Egan — lots of big plays in that game, and there were lots of turnovers. You cut out those turnovers, it could have been a different game either way. You just have to go out and play your best game. You can’t worry so much about your opponent as worrying about yourself. We just have to make sure we are prepared to play our best game on Saturday.”