HERSHEY, PA.—Hershey, Pennsylvania becomes a living Christmas card when it snows. The expansive rolling white hills give way to the farm houses and grain silos that jut up from behind them to make a heartwarming holiday tableau for anyone who travels through here in December.
Playing football, however, during snowy conditions in Hershey is another story. The Christmas card is torn up in favor of men pushing shovels and little plow carts scooting back and forth across the field. It takes away from any team that has a passing attack, and any team that might have a quicksilver tailback that relies on making fast cuts.
In other words, it takes away from anything a team like La Salle does well. At least that’s what you’d think. The Explorers force you to think again.
La Salle always has. Even in what was arguably the worst weather conditions the PIAA Class AAAA state championship game was ever played in.
The Explorers resorted to some wildcat, mixed in with a few passes down field, a stubborn, hyped defense, and determination that said nothing was going to stop them from what they thought was destiny Saturday afternoon in the PIAA Class AAAA (large school) state championship against State College at Hersheypark Stadium.
There was never a doubt, as La Salle made history in becoming the first Philadelphia Catholic League team to ever win a state football championship with a resounding 24-7 thumping of State College (though it has to be noted that this is only the second year the Philadelphia Catholic League is involved in the PIAA).
“This is great, this is great, the best feeling I ever had in my life,” kept repeating La Salle’s Sam Feleccia, who had a career game rushing for 156 yards on 20 carries, including a touchdown after battling a nagging left ankle injury all season long. “This whole team has been talking about winning the state championship for a while, I think probably longer than a year. We saw this coming from what the talent we had on this team. It’s the greatest feeling in the world.”
The Explorers, who finished 14-1 overall, had control of the game by the end of the first half, holding a 17-0 lead. State College thought it could muscle its way down the field, but La Salle made it think otherwise, scoring on three of its four first-half possessions.
La Salle had outgained the Little Lions 213-to-60 in total offense over the first two quarters (and 351-to-120 for the game). The Little Lions tried using their superior size to no avail. They tried passing a heavy ball with scant success. The Explorers, meanwhile, didn’t seem to be affected by the nasty conditions at all, conditions that were perfectly conducive to what State College does—using a power game.
State College was a team that had its star tailback, Alex Kenney, going to Penn State, and starting left offensive tackle, Jack Deboef, committed to Purdue. La Salle had no Division-I signees. Its top tailback, junior Jamal Abdur-Rahman, a runner who relies on fast cuts, missed the entire second half with an ankle injury.
What the Explorers did have was a Grand Canyon-wide collective chip on their shoulders carried over from the La Salle team that last year was upset in the District 12 championship (Philadelphia city title) by George Washington.
“That played a factor,” Feleccia said. “We thought we should have been here last year. It was important we got back and finished what we thought we could do.”
The Little Lions’ only score came on a 96-yard kickoff return by Kenney with 3:48 left in the third quarter. Kenney’s return was the longest kickoff return in a Class AAAA championship game, and second-longest in PIAA state playoff history, behind General McClain’s Drew Astorino 97-yard return. By then, La Salle was leading 24-0, on Feleccia’s third-quarter, 55-yard TD run.
La Salle closed the game on a 13-play, 8-minute, 19-second drive that brought the ball from the Explorers’ 7 to the State College 19 and squeezed any little hope of the Little Lions. The Explorers reeled off 13 straight running plays, plowing through and being more physical than the team that was supposed be more physically intimidating.
“They did out-physical us and they did beat us at our own game,” Kenney said. “But I am thankful for this season and all the things we did this year.”
After the game, it didn’t take long for the snow to completely cover the field—and made for a great card again—a victory card of La Salle players sliding in the snow, leaping into snow banks that had formed on the sides of the field, and taking victory laps with the state championship trophy.
“We all kind of knew we could do this,” Explorers’ quarterback Drew Loughery said. “This is the closest group of guys I’ve ever played with, and it is something you’ll remember forever. We all knew if we were ever in trouble, someone would always pick us up. But this last month, the way we played, we were never in any trouble at all. It’s always the way we thought this would end.”
Then Loughery shrugged off the snowflakes on his shoulder pads and looked again to touch the state championship trophy—a tangible piece of history as the Philadelphia Catholic League’s first state football champion.
Joseph Santoliquito covers high school sports for the Philadelphia Daily News and is a contributor to MaxPreps.com. He can be contacted at JSantoliquito@yahoo.com.
