West Catholic holds on against Lasalle, 24-14

Note: (Article has now been updated with official yardage and stats).

Springfield Township High School, Erdenheim, PA - The Catholic League Red and Catholic League Blue are all about pride, and there was plenty of it on the field Friday night as the defending Blue Division Champ West Catholic hung on to defeat the defending Red Division champ Lasalle, 24-14.

Jr. QB Curtis Drake, Jr. RB Rob Holloman and fellow Jr. RB Raymond Maples were all key players for the Burrs, as their ground game carried the way. Curtis Drake, the athletic and elusive quarterback that he is, was a problem for the Explorer defense the entire game due to his speed. He ran in what turned out to be the game deciding 3-yard touchdown at the 2:28 mark of the 4th quarter, but he also contributed with his arm for two of the other West Catholic touchdowns. One passing TD was a 26-yard beautiful snare of a pass to Sr. TE Pre'Andre Watson at the 6:24 mark of the second quarter on a crossing route that for a second looked like it would be intercepted. His other TD, which came at the 4:12 mark of the third quarter, was a long pass from near-midfield to Rob Holloman, who not only made the catch, but impressively brushed off interference, escaped tackles and scampered another 20 yards to finish the touchdown play (altogether 56 yards).

Speaking of Holloman, he had another great all-around night, as he could be seen everywhere from returning kicks, to making clutch runs, dragging defenders along, to that great TD catch. The other member of the key trio, Maples, was the one who got the ball rolling for West Catholic by scoring the first TD of the game at the 3:24 mark of the first quarter with a run from 3 yards out.

Lasalle had trouble in the first half getting a flow going; Sophomore RB Sam Feleccia, who has been having a good year, fumbled on Lasalle's first drive and then fumbled again later that half. SR QB John Harrison was throwing with a good sense of steadiness, but a few of his passes were dropped early in what would be a recuring trend throughout the game.

This slow start allowed West Catholic to jump to a 12-0 lead (from Maple's touchdown and then Watson's) and hold on to that going in to halftime. But Lasalle, as all well-coached teams do, came out of the gate in the second half inspired, and got on the board when Sr. TE Ryan Warrender caught a beautifully thrown 13 yard pass from Harrison for a TD at the 6:54 mark in the third quarter, making it 12-7. After West Catholic answered with Holloman's spectacular touchdown to make it 18-7, Lasalle sruck back at the 2:08 mark of the third with a 50 yard TD pass from Harrison to Sr. WR Joe Migliarese to make it 18-14. But the comeback dreams were cut short by a great ball control drive by West Catholic in the fourth quarer that led to Drake's game clinching touchdown. A final attempt at a comeback by Lasalle ended with an interception by Jr. WR/DB Haleem Hayward at the 1:32 mark of the 4th quarter.

So West not only got to win this battle of champion vs. champion, but also avenged their 42-34 loss to Lasalle last year. West moves on to face Bishop McDevitt next week, and Lasalle, in a game in which many people refer to as their biggest game of the year, face St. Joe's Prep.

*Error correction: We had originally credited Rob Holloman for the game ending interception, but it was actually Haleem Hayward who got the pick*

The Burrs of West Catholic hung in a gritty matchup between champion vs. champion and avenged last years 42-34 loss to Lasalle