How do you celebrate a season-ending win over your rival?
In the case of Dieruff football coach Dave Lutte, it was catching an early-morning flight to Hawaii to be reunited with his son, Hunter, who is a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy and whom he hadn’t seen since last Christmas.
Lutte said it was going to be a long flight, but a happy one after his Huskies ended the 2025 season Saturday afternoon with a 17-2 win over Allen at J. Birney Crum Stadium in the 69th meeting between Allentown’s public schools.
The victory helped to take some of the sting out of another frustrating season for the Huskies, who finished at 2-8, 2-5 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. The win returned the all-time series lead back to Dieruff at 35-34. It also avenged a disappointing season-ending loss to Allen last year when the Canaries prevailed 20-14 in overtime and emotions spilled over into some postgame ugliness.
Elijah Dalrymple was selected as the game’s MVP while Juan Manzano was chosen defensive MVP, and Alphy Deris was selected offensive MVP, as Dieruff was able to snap a five-game losing streak.
Sophomore quarterback Bruce Billger completed seven of 10 passes for 54 yards and two touchdowns, one to Deries and the other to Dalrymple. Riyell Wann ran for 61 yards and Derwyn Deries added 58 on the ground.
Only a bad snap on a punt that went out of the end zone produced a safety and the lone Allen points. The Canaries were held to 149 yards on offense.
“I’d have to go back and look and see when the last time Dieruff had a defensive shutout,” Lutte said. “I’m proud of our kids because after the way last year ended, we really focused on having a better attitude and developing character. We did a lot of sports psychology, and the lessons that were learned really paid off.”
Lutte admitted that “2-8 is not what anybody wanted, but the improvements that we saw in attitude and composure kind of offset the losses to a degree. If you go back and look at our games, we were competitive in several of them. We were tied with Whitehall with about five or six minutes left in the third quarter, and if you look at our game with [Allentown] Central Catholic, our defense held them in check and we moved the ball on offense. We gave them four easy touchdowns because of special teams mistakes. But we actually did progress as the season went on.”
Lutte was most pleased with the development of Billger at quarterback.
“He really grew up today,” Lutte said. “He played very well and didn’t make a lot of mistakes for this being his first Allen-Dieruff game.”
While things progressed on the game field this fall, Lutte continues to be frustrated by the program’s ongoing practice field issues. Dieruff has been fighting to get its own practice field for several years and not be dependent on bus transportation to get them where they need to be after school.
It has led to Luttle, who just completed his sixth season, to contemplate his future.
“I have a lot to think about,” he said. “There’s a lot of things I need to discuss with the Dieruff administration. I asked for a little bit of time and they granted that to me. I am not going to leave them hanging out to dry. I am just looking forward to my trip to Hawaii and hope to use some of that time to think about things. There are concerns I have about things other than the field situation and I am sure they have some concerns about that I’ve done with the program. But I am going to enjoy this win and my family and we’ll take some time and make the correct decision.”
Despte the loss, Allen coach Joel Rupp was feeling good about the progress of his program. The Canaries finished 3-7, 0-7 after starting 3-0, including a forfeit win over Dobbins Tech.
“We have to do better with cutting down on penalties and getting the ball in the end zone, which we were unable to do against Dieruff,” he said. “I thought our defense played stellar and I am real proud of them. We got backed up a few times, and our kids made some big stops. We saw some bad things in the game, but there were some good things, and there were more positives than negatives. I know that doesn’t show up on the scoreboard, but we see it as coaches.”
Allen won the Eastern Pennsylvania Football Officials Association (EPFOA) sportsmanship award, and Rupp said he has heard from many outside the team who have noted the progress in areas not measured by the standings.
“You know the city, the community, their fans … a lot of people are proud of them,” Rupp said. “We’ve had more fans at each game, and we usually do something exciting during the game. The sportsmanship award is something very special for us and proof that we’re doing things the right way. The Allen-Dieruff game can get pretty feisty sometimes, but for the most part, we kept our heads. And we are continuing to learn, and when you win, sometimes you don’t learn too many lessons, but when you lose, there’s an opportunity to learn, and we strive to stay positive and look to grow from it.”
Allen quarterback Julian Pagan had 88 yards passing, but threw three interceptions. Michael Taylor led the ground game with 43 yards, and TeShon Gaynair had 50 yards. Pagan, Taylor and Gaynair all return next season.
“We ended the season with about 35 kids, and some key kids are coming back,” Rupp said. “We have some standout guys coming back, but even our scout team had kids that started to push the starters. There are seven or eight guys who didn’t get a lot of playing, but they kept rocking with us, and they’re going to get into the weight room and we’ll see what they can do going forward.”
