La Salle College High School Football: Chronicle 2005 Game 1, September 2, 2005: La Salle 42 – Plymouth-Whitemarsh 21 Synopsis from game stats… La Salle’s Harrison debuts in win over P-W, 42-21 Sophomore John Harrison made his Varsity debut a successful one as he passed for three touchdowns in the 42-21 romp over the Colonials. Harrison completed 15 of 21 passes, and found 8 different receivers in the opening game for the Explorers. Chris Ashley rushed for 98 yards on 10 carries. Ashley, Chris Agnew, and Eric Schoeffling each found the end zone twice as La Salle avenges the last three season opening losses to the Colonials. Game 2, September 9, 2005: La Salle 35 – George Washington 6 by Amauro Austin, Ted Silary’s website What a difference a year makes. The Eagles received pay back from the Explorers in the same fashion after the thrashing they dished out this time last season. The young Eagles have nothing to hang their heads about as they just ran into a much more experienced ball club who is flat out better at this point in the season and for the most part they did fight. The Explorers are a tough bunch and should cause some problems in the CL Red which just may be the top division in the state of PA! They run a spread offense with many quick outs, underneath passes and curls. They also have 7 or more sure-handed guys to go to and they are like a machine in that they just keep going lock clockwork. Their game breaker is jr. RB Chris Ashley (13 carries, 65 yards). He's one of those guys that lives in the end zone. He beats people because he's faster than you may think, he's tougher than he appears and he's very shifty. He scored in three different ways here: a 1-yard run, a 65-yard punt return & a 17-yard reception in between two defenders. He's very fun to watch as it’s hard not to like his approach. Eight different receivers caught passes from the arm of soph. QB John Harrison (14-of-16, 130 yards, 3 TDs). Sr. LB George Hudson (6- 1 210) was the defensive leader with 8 total stops including a TFL. Jr. DE Scott Waters had 7 total stops including a TFL worth 10 yards & jr. LB Greg Frantz had 6 total stops and 2 broken-up passes. The Eagles were led by the hard-running of jr. RB Fateen Brown (20-88). He did dance a bit too much, but he ran hard for the most part. He also caught 3 passes out of the backfield. Sr. LB Joe Devlin made 2 TFLs to key the defense. AA's NOTES: The Eagles suffered a big blow when their top player jr. FB-FS Cecil Wise suffered a hamstring injury on their first offensive series. He had just made 4 tackles on defense. I really felt for him as you could see that he really wanted to play. He's their heart and soul so I knew it would be a struggle without him... The Explorers made an impressive showing and that's the 2nd one in a row as they out- gunned PW last week. As I said earlier, they are a definite threat in the CL-Red... Game 3, September 16, 2005: La Salle 47 – Germantown Academy 7 Synopsis from game stats… La Salle Goes 3-0 With Drubbing of Patriots 1 La Salle College High School Football: Chronicle 2005 La Salle manhandled the Patriots of Germantown Academy, 47-7, to run their early season record to 3-0. John Harrison threw for two TD’s, and Chris Ashley rushed for 123 yards on 14 carries. Matt Ihlein was the leading receiver with 58 yards on 5 catches. Game 4, September 23, 2005: La Salle 35 – North Catholic 0 From the Northeast Times Daryl Robinson moved from wideout to running back and amassed 51 yards on the ground for the Falcons, who were welcomed back to the Red Division by the Explorers in the lopsided loss. Things don’t get much easier for the Falcons, who will travel to Widener University on Friday night at 7:30 to meet up with the defending champs, O’Hara. Game 5, October 1, 2005: La Salle 24 – Father Judge 0 by Ted Silary Where were the surgical masks when we needed them? My throat feels like I smoked two packs of cigarettes -- no, two cartons -- and I don't even smoke. The field at Springfield Montco is Sahara kind of dry and there was dust everywhere! After a while, clouds of dust were just hovering over the field. It was bad enough on the sideline. I can't imagine what it was like on the field. Hey, Springfield caretakers. There's this new invention called water. There are even things called hoses and sprinkler systems to get it from one place to another. The game itself? The Jack Forster Show, primarily. The jr. WR-DB scored all three TDs for the Explorers, two on receptions and one on a punt return. His pass-catching TDs capped his squad's first two drives -- first was a 12-yard fade to the left corner; second was a 33-yarder to the left side. He made the leaping snag at about the 10 and followed with a spin move before scampering down the sideline the rest of the way. His punt-return score came in the third quarter and covered 66 yards. If I remember correctly (forgot to write it down, sorry), he made the catch in Willie Mays, over-the-shoulder fashion in roughly the middle of the field and then (I'm sure of this part) veered to the right, made a couple of nifty moves and raced down the right sideline. An impressive play during a night to remember for No. 1 in your program. Forster also made a leaping reception for 19 yards in the drive just beforehand, which yielded a 25-yard FG for jr. Ryan "Kicker" Cain. This was my first look season at the Explorers' rejuvenated offense under coordinator Drew Gordon and his QB coach, son Brett. They were star QBs at McDevitt and La Salle, respectively, and Brett racked up off-the-chart, by- far city-record passing numbers before doing what his dad did -- play at Villanova. The QB under their wing is soph John Harrison, who's listed at 5-9, 150, and looks like he should be your paperboy. He has the knack, though, and all he did was finish 19-for-25 for 171 yards while hitting 10 different receivers. (Admittedly, he did throw two picks, meaning 21 of his 25 tosses were caught by somebody.) Rushing support was scant as only one carry produced as many as 10 yards and it was late/meaningless. The defense was WAY stingy as Judge was held to 41 yards on the same number of plays. The line kicked major butt as jr. DT John McBurnie (spoken about in glowing terms beforehand by an assistant coach) had a sack and a tackle right at the line and helped to pressure sr. QB Justin DeCristofaro into a 4-for- 15, 24-yard night. The lefty is a nice prospect, too, but just could not find a rhythm. Soph DE Andrew Wood had two sacks. For Judge, baseball-hockey star Matt Compton launched three punts in the mid- 30s; jr. DBs Tim Gontz and Joe Thompson had interceptions; jr. DL Ryan Kreider registered a 9-yard 2 La Salle College High School Football: Chronicle 2005 sack sr. LB Anthony Montico made a pair of TFLs; and sr. LB Jeff McMahon exploded across the line of scrimmage to record a 3-yard TFL on a pass play. Former La Salle student reporter Jack "In the Box" Crouse, now a frosh at La Salle, came down to the sideline to say hello. The indication is, he'll again be filing reports during hoops season. Gotta love it! Congrats to La Salle coach Joe Colistra, whose 149 career wins tie him with his own coach, John "Tex" Flannery, for No. 1 in school history. Flannery's grandson, jr. Dan Connors, is one of the starting offensive linemen. Game 6, October 7, 2005: Cardinal O’Hara 14 – La Salle 0 by Rob Parent, Inquirer O'Hara defense shuts down La Salle for a 14-0 victory For those expecting offensive fireworks between two high-powered Catholic League offenses last night, all those wishes went wet. But even if the conditions had been perfect at Springfield-Montco's formerly dusty field, Cardinal O'Hara's defense would have left previously unbeaten La Salle high and dry. The Lions dominated time of possession and every other facet of a game that showcased some good punting, primarily because the Lions' defense held the Explorers to 40 total yards en route to a 14-0 victory. La Salle (5-1, 2-1 Red Division) went into the game averaging 36 points per game. Trying to get coach Joe Colistra a school record 150th victory, La Salle instead was never able to cross the 50-yard line with the ball. "We played great defensively," said O'Hara coach Dan Algeo. "We knew we had to do that coming in, because [La Salle] really is a great team. Great offensively and defensively." But as the Explorers would find out, they are still young in key areas. That includes quarterback, where sophomore John Harrison, who went into the game with a bevy of touchdown passes on his seasonal resume, was hounded all night.