"I beat the guard blocking down on me and finished him off on the corner," Daly said. "Then I took on the fullback, on his outside shoulder. The tailback was coming at me.
"Cameron Cappo, our opposite side D-end, was coming around chasing the tailback and he jumped toward him. He missed the tailback and fell into the fullback, who fell into my leg . . . "
Daly's left knee, in effect, was smithereened. Almost every possible working part was shredded.
"Everything but my PCL," he said, referring to the posterior cruciate ligament.
He added, "I actually thought I broke my leg. When they took me to the sideline and put me on the trainer's table, that was when everything started to kick in. That it was my knee, and how severe it was. Worst pain in my life."
There are those who believe the Lord never gives folks more than they can handle. Imagine what He thought of Connor Daly's inner strength. Just under 2 months earlier, Daly's father, Tim, a sales rep and fullback starter for Archbishop Ryan in 1980, had suddenly passed.
La Salle, the defending PIAA Class AAAA champion, tonight will open its season with a road clash at a traditional toughie, North Penn.
The emotions will be stirring in major fashion for Daly, now a 6-foot, 195-pound senior and again a starting middle linebacker. Even under normal circumstances, merely having battled his way all the way back would make for an emotional night.
But there's another variable: Daly's teammates were so impressed with his grit, in football and in life, over the last year-plus, last week they voted him a tri-captain.
"It really means a lot to me," Daly said. "I know my dad would be proud of this. I've been working out with these guys since January. I'm happy they feel this way about me. A lot of my buddies were saying they were going to vote for me. When it did happen . . . Very exciting."
