by Jonathan Vander Lugt

The last time La Salle met St. Joe's Prep, a regular-season tilt in mid-October, the game got away from the Explorers in a hurry.

What was a competitive game—28-24 in the third quarter—turned ugly fast and ended in a 49-27 blowout.

“That was a game we were in late, and we just let it get away from us,” receiver Nick Rinella said. “We knew that we could play with them. We definitely came in with a chip on our shoulder.”

But on late Saturday afternoon at Plymouth Whitemarsh, Rinella made sure history didn't repeat itself. Instead, he and the Explorers made their own: they came back from a pair of double-digit deficits before Rinella hauled in the game-winning catch on a seemingly impossible play, bringing in tow the team's first Philadelphia Catholic League AAAA title since 2012 with a riveting 29-28 victory.

“We cleaned up a lot of our mistakes,” Rinella said, in comparison to the first game against the Prep. “We played four quarters of football here, for sure.”

“That's what coach has been preaching to us,” he said, “and that's what we did.”

Perhaps no one more so than him. On a second-and-20 play, with less than a minute left in the fourth and down 28-23, Rinella reached up, double covered, and one-handed a pass that Chris Ferguson zipped over the middle of the field.

“He's been my go-to,” Ferguson said. “I knew that if I threw it up to him, he was going to come down with it.”

Was Ferguson worried about the two defenders in the vicinity? Nope.

“I threw it, I saw one hand go on the ball,” he said, “and I saw it land. I was all smiles.”

As Ferguson said, Rinella, amazingly, hauled it in by forcing the ball and the game into his chest as he fell into the end zone. The Explorers missed the two-point conversion attempt, but it didn't matter. The defense held the Hawks in check for the game's remaining 45 seconds to seal the victory and conference championship.

“Nick Rinella just makes big plays,” La Salle back Syaire Madden said. “And he couldn't have made a bigger one than that.”

“It bobbled, and he just focused on the ball,” Madden said. “I wonder what was going through his head on that play. It was ridiculous.”

“I juggled it, and was like 'this is for the Catholic League championship,'” Rinella said. “There was no way I was letting this drop. I held on for dear life.”

With the catch, he managed to earn more life in the 2015 slate for La Salle, as the win brings with it a contest next week for the city championship against Simon Gratz. Should they advance, they'll earn a quarterfinal berth in the state AAAA dance. Getting this far took quite a bit of work, though.

They went down 14-0 in a flash, on a one-yard run by D'Andre Swift, followed by a 49-yard jog by Benny Walls. But the Explorers battled back, knotting it at 14 on a 25-yard touchdown connection from Ferguson to Charles Headen and then a 51-yard interception return by Jared Walls for six.

They had a chance to extend a lead as time wound down in the second quarter, but Ferguson squandered it in the red zone when he tossed what turned out to be a 96-yard pick-six by Richard Carr.

For those counting at home, that's a 21-14 deficit for the Explorers at halftime.

“That was a great play by their defense,” said La Salle coach John Steinmetz. “I just told the kids that it's in the past.”

The Explorers struck first in the second half, narrowing the Prep lead to four on Matthew Savage's 21-yard field goal. But again, just like that, the Hawks made a move to bury La Salle. Walls danced down the sidelines again, this time for 55 yards on the very next play to give SJP a double-digit lead.

Luckily for La Salle, the fat lady wasn't singing quite yet. Syaire Madden bullied his way to a three-yard touchdown two drives later before Rinella won the game with his catch on La Salle's last possession.

“That was the craziest game I've ever played in my life,” Madden said. “All we do is preach 'poise, discipline, and La Salle football,' and that's what we did. We fought through it.”

The win “defines who we are as a team and as brothers,” Madden said. “It doesn't matter how good they were.”