Palisades junior Lincoln Cook’s previous career-high for receiving yards in a game was a respectable 109 yards in a loss to Northern Lehigh last season.
The junior soared past that threshold by his team’s 12th play on Friday night as he paced the Palisades attack with 269 receiving yards, including 261 in the first half alone, in a dominant 42-14 win over Catasauqua on Friday night at Catasauqua Middle School.
With one-play scoring drives of 87 and 73 yards and a number of acrobatic catches spread out throughout the night, Cook took the critique of his coaches to heart after a disappointing 13-yard performance against Saucon Valley last week.
“Last week at Saucon, he just wasn’t clicking,” Palisades coach Bobby Smith said. “He came to us and said, ‘Hey, what do I need to do?’ The coaches just said, ‘Be you and just go for it.’ And tonight he did.”
His team needed him early as Catasauqua stunned everybody when Manny Bolmer took the opening kickoff 95 yards for a touchdown just 14 seconds into the highly anticipated contest.
“To be honest, that was a kick in the teeth right on the first play,” Smith said. “This group, from last year to this year, has matured. And now it’s paying off, and I think they’re seeing how it’s paying off. Last year, we only had two seniors. Now, we have eight seniors, so that helps a lot too.”
Cook took on the challenge for the Pirates and looked unstoppable from the opening drive. The junior track star secured a slant for 13 yards on the team’s second play, brought in a deep post for 26 more yards and finished off the drive with an acrobatic 17-yard catch in the back corner of the end zone for the game-tying touchdown.
He wasted no time on either of his next two scores.
A booming, 52-yard punt backed the Pirates up to their own 13 in what was still a 7-7 game, but senior quarterback Jack Trickel had time in the pocket to deliver a dot down the left sideline that Cook secured first before shaking a tackle and racing 87 yards for the go-ahead score.
“It starts up front with the line. They gave me time back there, and then when I put the ball up there, I know he’s going to go make the play.
“We’ve been working together all year, all offseason. We were hungry after last season – three wins, [we] were certainly upset about that. We play basketball together too, and we’ve known each other forever, so chemistry has just been building.”
A year of living together during COVID-19 and throwing the ball around every day when there was nothing better to do certainly helped the star tandem build a connection that is building into the best in the area.
“We’ve got the best chemistry in the league, I think,” Cook said. “We played basketball together. We lived together for a year during COVID. And, you know, it’s up to the offensive line to block, and then he got me the ball. I pray for big time moments and they happened today.”
The biggest, and Cook’s favorite, of the night came right after Catasauqua sophomore Joziah Martinez flipped the momentum with two consecutive sacks and a blocked punt to set up the Rough Riders in excellent field position. Senior running back Tray Dunn capitalized on it with a 25-yard touchdown on the next play to cut Catasauqua’s deficit to just 21-14 late in the first half.
That was, until, Cook took a simple screen pass on the outside, burst through a lane going across the field and cut it back to the side where he started for a 73-yard touchdown to deflate all the momentum Martinez and Dunn accumulated on their game-changing plays.
It disappeared as fast as the 6’2, 170-pound junior galloped down the field for an unbelievable touchdown.
“I think it was the screen pass where I took it, and then I reversed back,” Cook said on his favorite of many great plays on the night. “That’s got to be my favorite.”
The junior battled cramps for a majority of the final half, which may have slowed down his historic night, but not his quarterback’s. Trickel unsurprisingly set a new career-high in passing yards as well, throwing for 357 yards and four touchdowns for the Pirates while adding another score on the ground.
The senior found Mason Schultz for a 59-yard catch-and-run on the opening drive of the third quarter while Cook was battling his fatigue, and he found Schultz again on a wheel route down the right side for a 13-yard touchdown to cap the drive that took the remaining wind out of Catasauqua’s sails.
An outstanding Palisades defense finished the job from there as it limited the Rough Riders to just 37 yards through the air and only 108 total yards of offense and five first downs on 35 plays.
A year removed from winning just three games, Smith’s team has already reached that mark and appears headed for many more after a statement victory over their division rival.
“Well, yes, it does,” Smith said on if a win like this can propel the team to bigger things the season. “But, listen, we start over. Next week, we’re 0-0. I know it’s cliche, but they’re taking it to heart. Every game is a brand new week, and the kids are actually believing that. When we come in on Sundays and Mondays, you can see it, and I love seeing the maturity level of them.”
Nobody echoed that sentiment better than his senior leader, captain and quarterback in Jack Trickel.
“Obviously, 3-0 is nice, but we’re not satisfied,” Trickel said. “We’re trying to go 1-0 every week. That’s our idea. We’re not really looking too far into the future, but now our eyes are on Northern Lehigh.”
Up next
Catasauqua (2-1) will look to get back on track when the Rough Riders travel to Salisbury on Friday night at 7 p.m.
The Pirates (3-0) jumped to the top of the Colonial/Schuylkill White Division standings with their second win within the division ahead of another big game against Northern Lehigh next week at home at 7 p.m. also on Friday night.
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast. He can be reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.
PALISADES 42, CATASAUQUA 14
Palisades: 14; 14; 7; 7 — 42
Catasauqua: 7; 7; 0; 0 — 14
ORDER OF SCORING
First quarter
C: Manny Bolmer 95 kickoff return (Jayden Olivencia kick); 11:46
P: Lincoln Cook 17 pass from Jack Trickel (Blake Oglialoro kick); 7:45
P: Cook 87 pass from Trickel (Oglialoro kick); 1:54
Second quarter
P: Max Woerner 3 run (Oglialoro kick); 7:41
C: Tray Dunn 25 run (Olivencia kick); 3:44
P: Cook 73 pass from Trickel (Oglialoro kick); 3:21
Third quarter
P: Mason Schultz 13 pass from Trickel (Oglialoro kick blocked); 8:48
Fourth quarter
P: Trickel 2 run (Cook pass from Trickel); 11:53
TEAM STATISTICSP; CFirst downs; 20; 5Rushes-yards; 34-134; 21-71
Passing yards; 357; 37Comp-Att-INTs; 14-20-0; 4-14-1
Punts; 0-0; 5-41.8Fumbles-lost; 0-0; 1-1Penalties-yards; 5-35; 7-55
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: (P) Max Woerner 13-55, 1 TD; Jack Trickel 12-48, 1 TD; Oliver Mutterperl 5-20; Solomon Riddle 4-11; (C) Tray Dunn 9-60, 1 TD; Ruben Concepcion 5-11; Manny Bolmer 2-3; Aiden Reilly 5-(-3).
Passing: (P) Trickel 14-20-0, 357 yards, 4 TDs; (C) Reilly 4-14-1, 37 yards.
Receiving: (P) Lincoln Cook 9-269, 3 TDs; Mason Schultz 3-78, 1 TD; Riddle 2-10; (C) Cadeo Estronza 2-23; Omar Pacheco Jr. 1-13; Tyler Limandri 1-1.
Palisades interceptions: Woerner.
