Joey O’Brien’s amazing game lifts La Salle to the state football title

MECHANICSBURG, Pa. — As he sat in the corner of a packed La Salle College High School gym in June, minutes after making national news with his commitment to Notre Dame, Joey O’Brien said his focus took a sudden shift.

His college recruiting whirlwind was over. The real work, he said, began — and he put the onus on himself.

“It will be my fault,” O’Brien said at the time, wearing his Notre Dame hat and hoodie. “I’m saying it right here, right now, if we don’t win the state championship this year, it will mean I didn’t do my job. I want to leave here a winner.”

On Saturday night, O’Brien lived up to his promise with a spectacular game as La Salle won its first PIAA Class 6A state championship and first state title since 2009 with a 34-20 victory over District 7 champion Pittsburgh Central Catholic at Cumberland Valley High School.

The 6-foot-4, 193-pound, two-way star intercepted three passes in the last 3 minutes, 55 seconds of the championship, setting up the clinching score. He sealed the victory with a 95-yard pick-six with 1:17 to play, also passed for a touchdown, and made a one-handed, 41-yard reception while falling backward in the first quarter.

“This was all of us, it was our whole team that won this, but it bothered me all year that I dropped some picks that I should have had, like in the Roman [Catholic loss],” O’Brien said. “I said back in the summer it would be my fault if we didn’t win a state championship, and we won, so I’ll take the blame for that. I dropped so many picks this year, and we worked extra hard after practice on that. This is a great feeling. It’s something we worked for and we wanted. I get to celebrate with my guys and leave a winner.”

With the Explorers winning the state title, La Salle coach Brett Gordon grabbed a piece of history as part of the only father-son tandem to win PIAA state football crowns since the PIAA began the state playoffs in 1988.

In 2009, under the Class 4A classification system, La Salle won the championship under the late Hall of Fame coach Drew Gordon, Brett’s father, to become the first Philadelphia Catholic League team to win a PIAA state football title since the PCL joined the PIAA in the 2008-09 school year.

“My father would have enjoyed being around this team, the way they work, the way they handle their business,” Gordon said. “We took a lot of pride being a balanced team, offense, defense, special teams, and that was on display tonight. It was a total, overall complete win and I know my dad played a part in that tonight.

“I’ve been trying not to really think about [being the first father and son to win two state titles] until the time came, but it is starting to sink in now. I had a really good meeting with the team on Friday. I told them what I thought about them, and that we had a 12th man looking down on us here today. I know he’s up there looking down smiling. It certainly brings a lot of joy to my heart right now.”

La Salle finished quite possibly the best season in program history. The Explorers’ lone drawback came in a 39-36 loss to eventual Class 5A state champion Roman Catholic, arguably the best team in the state, in the PCL opener for both teams. La Salle (13-1) has beaten two of the state’s traditional powerhouses — Pittsburgh Central Catholic and St. Joseph’s Prep — twice in one season.

» READ MORE: Roman Catholic makes football history with first state crown

The championship game was a rematch of the season opener between the two teams, won by La Salle, 23-6. Central Catholic (13-2) proceeded to go on a 13-game winning streak before it bookended its season with losses to La Salle.

The Explorers dominated that game from start to finish, but this one got a little tricky.

Sophomore receiver Owen Johnson scored three touchdowns, perhaps none more important than the third, when the Explorers took the second-half kickoff 80 yards over 17 plays, pounding the Central Catholic defense with a punishing ground game.

“I thought the way the game played out, our goal was to try to slow down their run game and make them one-dimensional,” Gordon said. “That was going to come whether stopping the run, or by getting up a few scores. The momentum really swung in our favor with that opening drive in the second half. It came for us to do it in a way that was untraditional from how we typically move the ball.

“At halftime, our offensive line said, ‘Hey, Coach, we got it,’ and then for Joey in the second half to be Joey, to end a game like that, I can’t think of a better way for our season to end, and for his La Salle career to end the way it did.”

The winning difference was O’Brien’s first of three picks. La Salle was clinging to a 21-14 lead with 3:55 left when Central Catholic sophomore quarterback Owen Herrick threw down the middle of the field on a first-and-10 at the Vikings’ 43.

O’Brien snared the ball and almost scored before being stopped at the Central Catholic 2. On the following play, Ahzir Nelson scored to make it 27-14. On the next possession, O’Brien grabbed his second interception off a deflection. That set the stage for his 95-yard pick-six in the closing minutes to shut down any hopes that Central Catholic might have had.

“Joey O’Brien is not going where he is going by some fluke accident,” Central Catholic coach Ryan Lehmeier said. “He has unbelievable ball skills, his agility to move, and make him special. You can tell when he is out there, he is very cerebral. I don’t think anyone will be forgetting about what that kid did tonight any time soon.”