LANSDALE, PA- The PCL Soccer regular season wrapped up Friday evening as the Explorers traveled to take on the Lansdale Catholic Crusaders.

From the start, it was clear this wouldn’t be an easy game for La Salle.

“It’s the end of the season, we had some tired legs, and maybe we were looking ahead to the playoffs too much,” La Salle co-captain James Hughes admitted. “It was kind of a trap game.”

In recent years, Lansdale Catholic has certainly been problematic for the Explorers. Within the past three seasons, La Salle has suffered a first round playoff loss, an away loss, and a scoreless draw last year at home to the Crusaders. Lansdale Catholic always put in a solid defensive performance against La Salle and this year was no exception.

“They have an outstanding goalkeeper, they play hard defensively, and we weren’t able to break them down today,” La Salle forward Zach Hogan explained. “We definitely had the better of the chances, but couldn’t get the job done.”

La Salle’s chances included a header off the crossbar from Sophomore David Steinbach, a Gio Randazzo shot that was cleared off the line, and a strike from inside the box from Mike D’Angelo that skimmed the crossbar. Lansdale Catholic, meanwhile, rarely threatened.

Despite the draw, La Salle kept the top spot in the standings and will enter the playoffs undefeated in league play- a terrific achievement for Tom McCaffery in only his second season as head coach.

“I’d attribute it to hard work on the training ground and getting fit enough that we can last all 80 minutes at a high level,” Hogan said.

“Coach has kept us locked in and has instilled a "can’t lose attitude",” Hughes added.

Both teams will begin their playoff run on October 21st. Sixth seed Lansdale Catholic will travel to No. 3 Roman Catholic while first seed La Salle will host the winner of the first round match-up between St. Joseph’s Prep and Bonner-Prendergast.