High school football: St. Joe’s Prep-La Salle meet again; Pennridge holds top seed in District 1 6A playoffs

La Salle and St. Joseph’s Prep will be fighting finality on Saturday when the two Pennsylvania powerhouses play for the Catholic League Class 6A championship at Villanova Stadium at 1 p.m.

Someone’s season will end.

La Salle enters the game 8-1, which includes a 31-20 regular-season victory over St. Joe’s Prep on Oct. 4 at Franklin Field. The Prep enters the game 5-4, the most losses by a Hawks team since 2011.

La Salle has not been to the state playoffs in a decade. The Explorers lost in the state quarterfinals to eventual Class 4A finalist Parkland in 2015.

» READ MORE: How St. Joe’s Prep vs. La Salle became Philadelphia’s ultimate football rivalry

In contrast, the Hawks have played in all nine of the Class 6A championship games since the PIAA established that designation before the 2016 season, winning the last three titles and seven overall. No school other than St. Joe’s has represented the eastern part of the state.

In seven years as St. Joe Prep’s head coach, Tim Roken is 2-5 in season openers against a national schedule. Here is what the Hawks have on their side: Roken is a remarkable 46-1 in season-elimination games, with the Hawks’ last postseason loss coming in 2019 in the 6A state championship to Mount Lebanon, 35-17.

This has not been a typical Prep year. The Hawks were besieged by pre-snap penalties early in the season and suffered special team breakdowns. They lost a 28-0 lead in their season opener to American Heritage (Fla.) and were never in the first game against La Salle, trailing 17-0 by halftime.

Still, the Prep may be playing its best football, riding a three-game winning streak that includes a 40-39 double-overtime victory over Roman Catholic, the team that handed La Salle its only defeat this season.

“I feel like we have gotten better in all three phases, taking steps to reduce the penalties, improving on special teams, and getting better tackling, and being more consistent on offense,” Roken said. “Time of possession, third-down efficiency will need to be looked at and are game-changing areas.

“That improvement comes with communicating our game plan to our players. We need to make sure we execute our game plan. Going back, we took steps in cleaning things up. Every year is a new team and a new group of seniors, and these guys have done a good job.

“We have been a little up and down this year with a national schedule. But we have taken strides in the last couple of weeks and plan on putting it together with a great week of practice.”

» READ MORE: Grieving Roman Catholic coach and his family find solace in their football community

The last time the teams met, La Salle’s Gavin Sidwar, who is Missouri-bound, completed 20 of 35 passes for 325 yards and four touchdowns. The Hawks’ Charlie Foulke completed 23 of 41 for 306 yards, including three touchdowns to Jett Harrison, who caught a game-high 14 passes for 190 yards.

Two key moments defined that game.

La Salle tight end JP Oates, who is heading to Temple, caught a 29-yard reception down the middle of the field in the fourth quarter between two Hawks defenders on a third-and-9 play at the La Salle 25. On the next play, Sidwar hit star two-way player Joey O’Brien (Notre Dame pledge) for his second touchdown, giving La Salle a 31-13 lead with 10 minutes, 17 seconds to play.

The other Explorers dagger came when Owen Johnson made an adjustment on an underthrown pass for a 46-yard reception on third-and-13 from the La Salle 7 with six minutes left.

Pennridge has accomplished a few things that the program has not achieved in over a decade. The Rams (9-1) hold the No. 1 seed entering this weekend’s PIAA District 1 Class 6A playoffs, hosting No. 16 Plymouth-Whitemarsh (7-3) at 7 p.m. Friday.

Pennridge has not won a district playoff game during a full season since 2017, though the Rams did reach the District 1 championship during the COVID-shortened 2020 season, when the 16-team playoff bracket was reduced to four teams. This season, Pennridge beat North Penn, the No. 2 seed, for the first time since 2012, when the Rams went 12-2, reaching the District 1 Class 4A semifinals, where they lost to Spring-Ford, 35-24.

The Rams beat Neshaminy for the first time since 2021 and more than doubled their victory total from a year ago, when they went 4-7 and were ranked No. 17 in the district.

In fact, Pennridge has won as many games this season as its previous three years combined (2-8 in 2022, 3-7 in 2023, and 4-7 in 2024).

Much of that has to do with the Rams’ 6-foot-3, 215-pound four-year starting senior quarterback, Noah Keating, and his pals up front: tackles Shane Rowand and Henry Phelan, guards Nolan Worman and Wyatt Moyer, center Ian Gallagher, lineman Kevin Tyburski, and tight ends Blake Landherr and Jackson Gregoire.

They have provided time for Keating and space for senior running backs Ryan Rowe, a Princeton pledge, and William Dougherty.

“We are 9-1 and we still feel that we have a lot of doubters out there, because of the past,” said Keating, whose grandfather Jeff Hollenbach, Pennridge’s Hall of Fame former head coach, is the team’s offensive coordinator. “We’re playing a 7-3 No. 16 seed, and that’s crazy. This team wants to prove that we really are legitimate, and we will show that in the playoffs. …

“We are not content. We are not just happy to be in the playoffs, especially this senior class, because we went through a lot of losing. We have never played meaningful games in late October or November. But there are no teams in this bracket that are completely dominant.”

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If Pennridge were to win, the Rams would play the winner between Downingtown East and Spring-Ford.

Other games that bear watching in the Class 6A are No. 4 Coatesville hosting No. 13 Perkiomen Valley, No. 7 Souderton hosting No. 10 Ridley, and No. 6 Central Bucks West hosting No. 11 Neshaminy.

“Our offensive line has played the right way, and helped us get this far,” said Rams coach Kyle Beller, who is in his third season. “We’re beat up, but we are like every other Suburban One National team right now.

“We need to keep the same attitude, and this team has really bought into the weekly process. We do not get too high or too low. It’s all I ask this team to do. That starts with Noah and the seniors.”

The No. 1 and No. 2 seeds in District 1 Class 5A are geographically separated by eight miles and 21 minutes. Springfield (Delco), the No. 1 seed, and Chester, at No. 2, are the only two undefeated teams of the 71 playing football in District 1. Both teams are 10-0.

Neither team has ever won a district title. Springfield has been to the district final four times, losing to Great Valley in 2014 (21-0 in the Class 3A championship under the Class 4A system); losing to Academy Park in 2016 (24-18 in the Class 5A championship under the PIAA’s new 6A classification system); losing to Unionville in 2017 (35-25 at 5A, and losing to West Chester Rustin last year (34-2 at 5A).

Chester, a traditional basketball power that has evolved into a highly respected football program, are at 10-0 for the first time in program history. The Clippers did not win their first district playoff game until 2022, when they beat Marple Newtown, which is the team Chester will open up with on Saturday at 11 a.m. at the Chester Athletic Complex.

» READ MORE: Chester’s Shemaj Henry has played football for only three years. Now he’s bound for Syracuse.

Springfield will open with No. 16 Upper Dublin (4-6) on Friday at 7 p.m. If the seedings hold up, Chester will face No. 3 Rustin (8-2) in the semifinals, and Springfield will have Central League rival No. 4 Strath Haven (8-2). Rustin beat Chester, 45-17, in last year’s district quarterfinals, and smoked Springfield, 34-2, in the district championship.

“We’re focusing on what is ahead of us,” said Chester coach Dennis Shaw. “Our guys are ridiculously focused this time around.”

Chester faced some adversity for the first time this season, giving up two first half touchdowns for the first time in a 32-19 win at Quakertown, which extended the game invitation to Chester after its game against Cheltenham was hindered because of a hazing investigation.

“Our confidence is very high,” Chester senior running back and kicker Shadrach George said. “We are extremely focused for this. We know the history. Last year’s district loss was like a bad dream you don’t wake up from. None of us want to go through that again.”