La Salle rallies past Monsignor Pace to reach first regional final

It took nearly a half century to for the Immaculata-La Salle football team to get their first postseason win. Then it took all of just seven days to get their second.

And to say the Royal Lions did it in dramatic fashion Friday night would be understating the issue.

Trailing Monsignor Pace 14-6 and buried deep in their own territory facing a third-and-17 with less than four minutes left, the Royal Lions were just about done.

That’s when quarterback Dorian Mallary, the centerpiece of their offense who had been more-or-less held in check all night by the Pace defense, pulled out a miracle from the heavens.

He led his team to a pair of touchdowns in the final three minutes to pull out a dramatic 20-14 win in a Region 4-2A semifinal before a packed, noisy and celebratory crowd at LaSalle High School.

After defeating Gulliver Prep in the first round last week to record their first postseason victory since 1975, Friday night’s win advanced the Royal Lions to a place no La Salle team has ever gone – the regional finals.

Their task will be a big one as No. 2 seeded La Salle (11-1) will take on top-seeded Booker T. Washington, a Tornadoes team that is peaking at the right time following a 47-0 blowout of Cardinal Gibbons in the opposite semifinal Thursday night. But nobody was too concerned about any of that in the immediate aftermath of a thrilling, historic win.

The game-winner came with just 27 seconds left when Mallary found little-used wide receiver Alan Schael wide open in the corner of the end zone for a 24-yard touchdown, snapping a 14-14 tie.

“It’s a corner route, a play we work on almost everyday and it works all the time,” said Schael, who did not touch the ball until the winning touchdown. “I was not surprised that I wasn’t covered and I knew Dorrian would be looking for me.”

Mallary added: “We have a name for that play. We call it our money play and it was time to cash in.”

But it’s how LaSalle actually got to that point which was really remarkable and borderline miraculous.

Facing that third-and-17 at his own 28, Mallary, who does more damage with his feet than his arm with his quick feet, took off scrambling to the right and was about to be sacked by two Pace defenders his own 15-yard-line. Somehow, he managed to slip away and reverse field scrambling back to his left. He got one block and then found open field weaving his way through Pace defenders for a 23-yard gain to the Pace 49 and a fresh set of downs.

“The pocket collapsed and I just tried to take off around the right side, I did what I could to try and get away from them,” Mallary said. “Once I got away and took off to the left, I saw a whole bunch of green grass and took off running. It was a big play for sure.”

Two plays after his amazing scramble, Mallary dropped back and found a streaking Brandon Kinsey down the right sideline for a 49-yard touchdown with 3:01 left. Even a false start on the ensuing two-point conversion (which pushed LaSalle back to the 8 yard line) couldn’t slow Mallary down as he found Terrance Smith Jr. open on a quick slant over the middle for the tying two-pointer.

When Pace’s ensuing drive went nowhere, La Salle coach Helder Valle wisely used his two remaining timeouts to force a Spartan punt with 51 seconds left. Mallary got the ball at his own 43 with 42 seconds left and no timeouts. When he hit Smith Jr. in the right flat, the slippery wide receiver broke two tackles and took off down the sideline for a 33-yard gain to the 24.

With La Salle’s placekicker hurt, a field goal was not an option so Mallary dropped back and fired a perfect strike in the corner to Schael as the La Salle sideline erupted.

After the teams traded touchdowns in the first quarter, the game turned into a defensive battle with plenty of punts and battling for field position.

Still locked in a 6-6 tie with under two minutes left in the third, Pace got its big break of the night when Mallary, with a third down at his own 30, was looking away when the ball was snapped. He tried to chase the loose ball down but Pace’s Solomon Campbell beat him there, recovering it at the La Salle 11.

Two plays later, Cleveland Gary III went over from four yards out to break the tie. With a shaky kicking game, Pace head coach Anthony Walker Sr., after the Royal Lions jumped offsides, decided to go for two and got it when Jayden Gummer plunged over from a yard out to make it 14-6 with 1:28 left in the third.

“Tonight was a special night for this program and it’s all credit to these kids with their guts and determination to not quit and find a way to get it done,” Valle said. “I think we’re here to stay now. We have invested in this program, from the support of our athletic director and administrators that believe in us, to pouring a lot of money into our new facilities, it’s just a testament that we’re here for years to come.”

Mallary, a senior who up until last week had gotten very little interest from FBS schools until Appalachian State offensive coordinator Frank Ponce contacted him, then walked off into a crowd of noisy well-wishers.

“This is really something here,” he said walking way. “To do something no LaSalle team has ever done, to go out and make some history tonight – it just means a lot to be a part of this.”