PHILADELPHIA- For the La Salle Explorers, winning the PCL was not enough. Thursday night they traveled to Northeast High School to take on the Vikings in the District 12 Championship. Both teams were fighting for a place in the state playoffs and for more silverware.

The Explorers defeated the Vikings, 2-1, in a hard fought match.

Ahead of the game, La Salle head coach Tom McCaffery indicated his team was ready to push beyond the PCL season.

“I think we just approach it like we did the playoffs. When you approach every game like it could be your last one and play that 80 minutes like it is your last one. Whatever result comes out we can accept and we can roll with. I think when you look at the teams that are left everyone is good, everyone is coming either as a district champion or someone who finished high in their district at this point so the goal is to play well, take your chances when they come, try to keep a clean sheet, and wherever you end up at the end of the day there this is just extra time and this is just fun now. The hard work of the PCL prepared us for this and hopefully we can get a deep run into the state tournament now.”

Before they could make a run into the state playoffs however, La Salle first had to defeat the unbeaten Northeast Vikings. The home team came out energized by their fans and was able to put the visitors under pressure. It was the Explorers though that opened the scoring. Eighteen minutes into the half, Senior Mike D’Angelo buried a curling free kick past Northeast’s keeper Sebastien Gimeno. The strike was almost identical to the couple other free kicks he’s scored this season.

The excitement didn’t last long though as the Explorers let their guard down and conceded only two minutes later. La Salle’s Brett Werner parried a shot from outside the box right into the direction of Jose Ferman who slotted in the rebound.

The game appeared to be heading into overtime with only 5 minutes remaining, but D’Angelo had other ideas. Sophomore Chris Metzler served in a fantastic corner to D’Angelo who leapt up and headed the ball into the back post to take the 2-1 lead and win the District 12 title.

Despite their victory, La Salle was not pleased with their performance.

“I think that was the worst we’ve played all season,” co-captain James Hughes admitted following the game. “We started slow and we weren’t working hard on both sides of the ball. Mike really bailed us out tonight because Northeast played really hard and were tough to break down.”

The past two years, La Salle had been knocked out of the PCL semifinals by Roman Catholic, but this year they defeated the Cahillites, 2-1, to win the PCL Title.

This year is entirely different for the Explorers as they continue to push on into the state playoffs. The most important area of focus for them now is on their line of defense.

“When you look and you got 11 guys that are usually very committed to defending the full field it makes it much easier. If you start in the back and work your way out, even when good teams break us down, you have somebody like Brett in goal who makes us better having a good backstop back there. When you have center backs that play well together like Jimmy and Cole have all year with the support of good wingbacks, who did the job, it helps," said McCaffery.

La Salle will begin their run in the PIAA-AAAA playoffs Tuesday against North Penn. The Knights defeated Council Rock North Saturday night 2-1 off goals from Mike Kohler and Luke McMahon. La Salle beat North Penn in a non-league game earlier this season 1-0 off a corner, although North Penn was missing several key players due to injuries. Just as their previous meeting was determined, the outcome of Tuesday’s playoff could certainly be decided by set pieces given that both teams are as even as can be.