There are two unbeaten teams left in Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football. Northampton coach John Toman has played both and has a strong opinion on which one is the best.
“That’s the best team we’ve played all year,” Toman said after his Northampton team lost to Easton, 48-28, Friday night at Al Erdosy Stadium.
Early in the season, Parkland, the other unbeaten, topped Northampton 38-27.
“I mean against Parkland, there were two minutes to go and we stopped them and then still had a chance, but fumbled a punt,” Toman said of the Sept. 5. “Obviously, we kept that one close. But [Cole] Ordway makes [Easton] different.”
And Ordway, the Easton quarterback, may be different from anyone in local football.
He delivered another performance that had Easton officials scurrying for the record book.
One week after tying a school record for TD passes with five against Stroudsburg, Ordway ran for a school-tying mark six touchdowns. It was part of a 332-yard rushing effort that put him at 1,070 on the ground this season.
Shane Simpson still has the school record for TDs in a game with seven. That came when Easton beat Whitehall and Saquon Barkley 63-49 in 2014. But one of Simpson’s scores came on a pass reception. This was a ground assault by Ordway, the 6-foot, 180-pound senior who carried 24 times.
Chris Martinez handled Easton’s other 25 carries for 144 yards, and the Red Rovers totaled 474 on the ground and 504 in total offense.
The win put Easton, ranked No. 10 in the state in Class 6A, at 7-0 this season and 4-0 in the league, while Northampton fell to 3-4 and 1-3.
“We came out of here 1-0 with a win, and that’s what we needed to do tonight,” Easton coach Matt Senneca said. “Cole is geting close to 1,000 yards rushing and 1,000 yards passing, and the last kid I coached that did that was Danny Persa at Liberty, and he was the first one to do that. Cole is on his way to doing that. When you have a three-year starter and someone so comfortable in making his reads and running the offense, this is what he can do.”
Ordway said simply: “It feels great to do with the all the kids I grew up and have known my entire life,
Did you know?
Easton’s Ordway threw for 232 yards and 5 TDs in the Red Rovers’ win over Stroudsburg. According to District 11 statistician Duke Helm, the five TDs tied a school record that three QBs before him have thrown in a game. Jonathon Baltz was the first to do it in a 2006 game. Brad Wilkins did it in 2012, and Scott Poulson in 2017. Ordway also broke the school’s career passing yardage record and TD pass record. Ordway entered the game with 3,929 career yards, which breaks the old mark of 3,815 yards set by Justin Pacchioli, who was the quarterback from 2008-10 and then transferred as a senior to Nazareth, where he played baseball. Ordway began Friday with 38 career TD passes, breaking Pacchioli’s old mark of 37.
Ordway began the night fifth in District 11 in rushing with 738 yards, and Northampton’s Chase Kessler was 11th with 688. Ordway was fourth in D11 in rushing TDs with 13 and fifth in TD passes with 11.
What’s next
Easton, which entered the night No. 1 in the power rankings in 6A, is home for the next two Fridays, playing Liberty and Freedom, respectively, before closing the regular season at Nazareth. Northampton, which began the night sixth in the 6A power rankings, is at Freedom and home against Nazareth before finishing its EPC schedule at Bethlehem Catholic.
The series
Easton entered the game with a 40-5-1 lead in the all-time series with Northampton and had a 13-game win streak over the Konkrete Kids. Northampton’s last win was a 6-0 victory in the Eastern Conference playoffs in 2008. Northampton beat Easton twice that year, also winning 17-0 in the regular season.
Scoring summary
Easton 14 – 7 – 7 – 20 — 48
Northampton 7 – 0 – 13 – 8 — 28
FIRST QUARTER
E: Chris Martinez 16 run (Noah Borluca kick) 9:19
E: Cole Ordway 55 run (Borluca kick), 8:03
N: Jeremiah Strowder 18 pass from Gavin Taff (Jackson Sandt kick), 5:12
SECOND QUARTER
E: Ordway 23 run (Borluca kick) 7:01
THIRD QUARTER
N: Chase Kessler 45 run (Sandt kick), 10:32
E: Cole Ordway 53 run (Borluca kick), 9:10
N: Zander Rickert 5 run (kick failed) 1:15
FOURTH QUARTER
E: Ordway 6 run (kick failed), 8:38
E: Ordway 35 run (Borluca kick), 6:45
N: Rocco Amato 20 pass from Taff (Sincere Wadlington pass from Taff), 5:27
E: Ordway 17 run (Borluca kick), 2:32
