La Salle football remains unbeaten, tops Ransom to return to regional finals
The Immaculata-La Salle football team continues to experience historic success for its program.
But it hasn’t come without its challenges.
The Royal Lions lost multiple standouts from the team that advanced to the regional finals last season.
It turns out the foundation the school built didn’t hinge on just a few players.
Led by one of its younger players, sophomore running back Adrian Cox, who ran for 244 yards and three touchdowns on 30 carries, La Salle achieved another milestone on its home field Friday night following a 42-16 victory over Miami Ransom Everglades.
Before a packed house at the Grosso/Parsons Sports Complex on their campus, the Royal Lions won the first playoff chapter of their “Battle of the Bay” rivalry against their Coconut Grove-area rivals in a Region 4-2A semifinal.
La Salle (12-0) continued its unbeaten season, has won 23 of its past 25 games, and will next host a regional final for the first time in school history next Friday at 7 when it hosts Fort Lauderdale Cardinal Gibbons.
“It speaks about the resilience of our guys here and our coaching staff,” La Salle coach Helder Valle said. “We’re in the same position as we were last year even after losing kids and it speaks volumes about the support we have here at our school and the ones that stayed wanted to be champions.”
In addition to the players they graduated, the Royal Lions also had standouts such as three-star wide receiver Brandon Kinsey transfer out of the school.
It didn’t deter a team, which is on a school-record winning streak after pulling away from Ransom (7-5) with 28 second-half points.
“This is our standard and now we’ve done this back-to-back (years),” Valle said. “All it takes is one game. We have to protect our home field.”
The Raiders reached Friday’s matchup, riding their own remarkable turnaround for their program after winning their first regional playoff game since 1996 in last week’s quarterfinals.
But La Salle’s ground attack and defense halted Ransom’s advance after a competitive second quarter when the Raiders cut the Royal Lions’ lead to 14-8 on a a 20-yard touchdown pass from Matthew Guevara to Juan Velazco that was followed by a two-point conversion catch by Velazco.
Ransom appeared ready to take advantage of La Salle special teams miscue when a snap on a field goal attempt sailed over the reach of the holder, giving the Raiders the ball at their own 40. But after a 3-and-out, Ransom made an even more costly mistake when a low long snap was caught by punter Alec Martinez-Bolivar, but his knee was down, ending the play at Ransom’s 31-yard line. Four plays later, Cox found the end zone for his third touchdown from 3 yards out.
La Salle senior Jayden Noel recovered a fumble on Ransom’s next possession. It led to a 10-yard touchdown pass from sophomore Nate Merrell Jr. to junior Tyrone Williams.
On the ensuing possession, Guevara was pressured and hit as he threw, allowing Royal Lions senior Ian Destinobles to pluck the ball out of the air and return the interception 23 yards for a touchdown, putting La Salle in total control with a 35-8 lead.
“We play a physical brand of football and it showed tonight,” Valle said. “This was the vision we had when we got here seven years ago so it’s great to have all our fans here and be here to continue this wave no matter what happens next week.”
Cox opened the game with a pair of touchdown runs from 15 and 54 yards away to give La Salle a 14-0 lead. Cox had 114 of his yards before the end of the first quarter and didn’t let up as the game went on.
“We know it takes four quarters to win and we knew we’d wear them down. We condition for it,” Valle said. “It’s amazing when you give a kid an opportunity and coach him up and he blossoms like that. He told me, ‘Coach, minimum, give me like 25 carries.’ He knew it and everyone in this stadium knew we were gonna run the ball.”
