Title comes from different path
La Salle improved dramatically over course of season
WEST GOSHEN >> This one was different.
La Salle had won state titles before, two in the old EPSLA and twice as a PIAA sanctioned sport, but none of those teams were quite like the one that hoisted the state championship Saturday at West Chester East after beating Conestoga 7-5. It was the same roster from start to finish, but the group of Explorers that ended the season as state champions was very different than the one that started preseason practices.
While it was different than the others, it didn’t make this state title any less gratifying for La Salle.
“We had a lot of guys who hadn’t played in a state championship so I knew they were going to need months,” Explorers coach Bill Leahy said. “We had to move the pieces around. We thought we had it; turns out we didn’t have it so we had to tweak it and adjust it and eventually we got there. We’re awfully proud of them. They came a very long way.”
When the Explorers lost to an extremely good Manheim Twp team 7-5 in last year’s state final, they also said farewell to a pretty large and experienced senior class. There was still plenty of talent on the roster but it wasn’t very tested.
Naturally, it was far from a smooth ride as a tough nonleague slate provided some early losses and eye-opening moments. Althougth this wasn’t a team with one or two truly dominant players, La Salle’s senior class was extremely close and that would prove to be the foundation of their turnaround.
Outside the program, some of those losses brought questions about the team’s ceiling or potential but internally, a sense of belief was starting to swell.
“We knew it all along to be honest, us seniors had it in the back of our minds that this was the year to be different,” senior attacker Zac Coar, who had the game-winning goal Saturday, said. “There wasn’t as much talent rolling through the squad as in previous years, so we knew we had to earn everything. We took that to heart in practice and went out there and did it.”
Senior defenseman Ben Rivera was in the stands the last time La Salle won a state title, watching his older brother win one as a freshman in 2013. He was on the team by the time La Salle got back to the state final, but watched his brother lose his final high school game.
Having been through that loss and the setback last season, Rivera had a true appreciation for what his class was able to accomplish this year.
“I think after the Hill Academy game, it showed we could stick with any other team,” Rivera said. “When the going gets tough, the tough get going and we just had to revert back to our basics.”
The Explorers knew they would only be as good as the sum of their parts, so if guys had to give up part of their game for the better of the team, they did. Senior Grant Pinto didn’t score a ton of goals in the postseason, but he was an integral part of the offense either setting the pace, directing traffic or setting a pick to free up a teammate.
Having seen two teams lose in the state final during his career, Pinto wanted a different outcome and if it meant lowering his stats, it was going to be worth it.
“All year our mantra was it’s not a one-man show,” Pinto said. “We really had to work as a team and get the best looks. We’re not out there playing our own games, we’re playing team ball. It’s everything, all those hours at practice, all the time in the weight room or running through the school, it was all for this.”
Senior captain Shane Osborne listed off every coach
on staff postgame, saying they were the ones who helped instill a sense of belief in the players during the season. Leahy made a deal with the players that he would hold off telling them his thoughts on their potential until May. At times, the veteran coach felt this group may have been able to win a PCL title, which would have been fine.
But the Explorers showed him something down the stretch and when that time came in May, he was honest and told them they could be a state champion.
“You have to believe in yourself and your brothers before anyone else can believe in you and that’s where I think the foundation came from,” Osborne said. “La Salle has a ton of really talented players and myself included, there were times the last few years I wasn’t getting the time I wanted to. But senior year, you get that chance and for us, it’s cool to see it pay off and for us to have a special year.”
This one was different, but all that mattered to the Explorers was they got to board the bus home with another state title to add to the wellstocked display case at their school.
“It’s the best feeling you could ever imagine,” Coar said. “It’s truly unbelievable to have so many close games leading to a state championship and for the coaches, we knew we had to get them one. That’s what we wanted to do, get it for them and for our brothers and we were able to do it.”