For years, the MVP of the Parkland-Whitehall football game received the Joe Gerencser Award, in honor of the legendary coach who led both the Trojans and Zephyrs to championships.
There was no MVP award given out Thursday night, but if there were, there was no question it would have gone to Parkland junior TJ Lawrence.
The 5-foot-10, 205-pound junior, who is also an extraordinary student, is receiving lots of Division I interest from Ivy League and Patriot League schools. He ran for 137 yards on just 11 carries and scored four touchdowns, including two that covered more than 50 yards. He was also a factor in a suffocating defensive effort as the Trojans routed the host Zephyrs 53-7 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference game that ended under the mercy rule.
In fact, the game reached mercy rule status with 8:28 left in the third quarter as the Trojans scored 47 unanswered points after Whitehall took a brief 7-6 lead.
Parkland outgained the Zephyrs, the league’s top scoring team coming into the game, 442-120, including 307-56 on the ground.
Whitehall hurt itself with three turnovers and five penalties for 60 yards, but Parkland’s dominance was evident up front. And excellent line play would have probably pleased Gerenscer, who died in 1995 at the age of 63, the most.
Even with one of its starters, James Tyler, out with an injury, the Trojans didn’t miss a beat on the O-line. Matt Dorsey moved from left guard to left tackle and was as effective as ever.
“That felt like a pretty big change to me, although I played it last week against [Allentown] Central Catholic because James Tyler got injured, so I just tried to fill in there,” Dorsey said.
Dorsey was part of a fastbreak-styled offense that hustled to the line of scrimmage and got off snaps quickly before Whitehall seemed settled.
“We were trying to keep a fast pace and not give them a chance to breathe and just get on the ball and run it down,” Dorsey said. “I feel like this team is awesome. I really feel like we can make a run in states. The energy everybody brings to practice has been amazing.”
Parkland, which beat Whitehall for the third straight time and for the 10th time in the last 11 meetings, was ranked third in the state in Class 6A by Pennlive.com, behind District 3’s Harrisburg and District 12 front-runner La Salle College High School from the Philadelphia Catholic League.
The Trojans, who are still trying to get the top seed in the District 11 6A tournament, have won their last six games by an average of 41.8 points. They have not won a game by less than 11 points, and have outgained foes 2,811 to 1,359. They also have 17 sacks and a plus-12 in turnover ratio.
Besides the four TD runs by Lawrence, they got TDs from Naquan Thomason and Liam Spang and TD passes from Finn Coen and David Scherb. Spang set up his own 1-yard TD run by blocking a punt and taking it to the Whitehall 1.
“It was a great team effort tonight,” Lawrence said. “We did it on all sides of the ball. The defense is the core of our team. If we get it going on defense, we know the offense will start rolling throughout the game. Defense is most important.”
Lawrence, who is up to 778 yards rushing on the season while averaging 7.78 yards per carry, gave credit to the O-line.
“They gave a great effort tonight; the holes were huge,” Lawrence said. “With Tyler out, Dorsey moved to tackle and [Lyan] Dume-Mirabal stepped in at guard,” Lawrence said. “We got into every game thinking the same thing, and that’s that we’re going to dominate. That’s what we did tonight. I still think we haven’t hit our peak. There’s more to come. We know that Emmaus is going to give us a big game next week. They do it every year. We’re excited for that and we’ll see what happens.”
Whitehall was held well below its season averages of 394.7 yards and 44.9 points per game. The point average was tops in the league.
Parkland was able to register six tackles for loss, including two sacks by Dom Martrich. Matrich, Nassry, and Jackson Geroulo all had fumble recoveries.
While the Trojans host Emmaus in their regular-season finale, the Zephyrs will visit Allentown Central Catholic. Both have clinched spots for the upcoming District 11 tournament, and both will have home games the weekend of Oct. 31-Nov. 1.
Scoring summary
Parkland 20 – 13 – 14 – 6 — 53
Whitehall 7 – 0 – 0 – 0 — 7
FIRST QUARTER
P: TJ Lawrence 59 run (kick failed), 10:02
W: Jeziah Gregory 39 run (Cole Richards kick), 6:42
P: Lawrence 15 run (pass failed)
P: Blake Nassry 8 pass from Finn Coen (Nassry pass from Coen), 0:33
SECOND QUARTER
P: Lawrence 57 run (kick failed), 10:53
P: Naquon Thomason 8 run (Evan Sanders kick), 7:20
THIRD QUARTER
P: Lawrence 5 run (Sanders kick), 9:40
P: Liam Spang 1 run (Sanders kick), 8:28
FOURTH QUARTER
P: Justin Barnes 89 pass from David Scherb (kick failed), 2:21
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Parkland (30 for 308): TJ Lawrence 11-137, 4 TDs; Naquon Thomason 6-88, TD; Liam Spang 5-31; Nassim Adams 1-21; Finn Coen 4-28; Caleb Corsa 3-3.
Whitehall (28 for 56): Jeziah Gregory 11-61, TD; Wlfredo Rivera 1-5; Tanner Dogmanits 12-1; Eliam Davila-Rivera 2-(-4); Kevin Herrera 2-(-7).
PASSING
Parkland: Finn Coen 5-6-0, 20 yards, TD; David Scherb 3-4-0, 97 yards, TD.
Whitehall: Tanner Dogmanits 4-15-0, 63 yards; Clifford Murray 0-1-0.
RECEIVING
Parkland: Justin Barnes 1-89, TD; Blake Nassry 2-27, TD; Nassim Adams 2-15; Jayden Santiago 1-5; Shaye Wanamaker 1-3; TJ Lawrence 1-(-5).
Whitehall: Bryce Medina 2-23; Talon Dogmanits 1-29; Henry Shultz 1-11.
