The Parkland football team had won the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s Lehigh Division title even before the Trojans took the field for Friday night’s regular-season finale against Emmaus.
But since the Green Hornets were last year’s division champs and clinched the title with a 27-0 win over Parkland, there was an extra sense of satisfaction for the Trojans to hoist the trophy in front of Emmaus.
Parkland put the finishing touches on a perfect, 10-0 regular season with a 34-13 victory over the visiting Green Hornets, who played much better than a team coming in with a 4-5 record would suggest.
TJ Lawrence won the Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard offensive player of the game honors for Parkland with 141 yards rushing and three touchdowns. Finn Coen added a pair of TD tosses and Liam Spang sparked a defensive effort that only allowed 33 yards rushing. Spang was named Parkland’s defensive player of the game.
Emmaus scored the first six points but Parkland, ranked third in the state in Class 6A, took command with the next 27 points.
“We knew Emmaus would come out to play because it’s a rivalry game and their backs are against the wall with the playoffs and they scored first, but I am happy with the way our team responded,” said Parkland coach Tim Moncman, who improved his record with the Trojans to 95-25 in 10 seasons. “It was a little sloppy of a game, but that’s understood. As we said, you go 10-0 and it’s a great accomplishment and now it’s on to the second season.”
The Trojans left their stadium at Orefield Middle School knowing they were going to be home for their District 11 6A quarterfinal next Friday, and would be no lower than than the second seed. But they had no idea who the opponent would be.
Emmaus, which entered the night with a slim lead as the No. 8, left not even knowing whether it was the tournament or not.
The Green Hornets would have punched their ticket with a win, but knew that if they didn’t, they would need help. They believed they got some from Pocono Mountain East’s win over Pocono Mountain West, but knew that a lot of numbers had to be crunched before they could start preparing for a postseason game.
No matter what, Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough was pleased with his team’s effort.
“We knew we were going to need to play perfect in order to get this one because they’re a great football team,” Fairclough said. “We know that. I also know that we fight when it comes to this game. There’s no backing down. The kids didn’t back down. They showed up tonight. We just didn’t make enough plays, but the effort was there, the fight was there.”
Emmaus got a pair of touchdown runs from Jay Santos, who was selected the Green Hornets’ offensive player of the game. Robert Edwards was Emmaus’ defensive player of the game.
Quarterback Jerek Cooper had his best night of the season throwing the ball, getting 127 yards in the air. Kai Jefferson-Rushing, playing just his second game after suffering a broken collarbone just before the season started, made an impact with a 32-yard catch to help set up Emmaus’ first touchdown.
“Kai takes the top off the defense with his speed, and he does a great job at corner,” Fairclough said. “So when he went down, we lost a big piece. We’re just happy to get him back and get him out here. It’s good to see him running around and making some plays.”
But Parkland made more in outgaining Emmaus 317-160.
“It was a tough loss to them last year, but coming into this year we had a big game in our minds and we wanted a little revenge,” Lawrence said. “We’re happy about it. Obviously, you have to fight back through adversity and we’re going to have some in the playoffs. I thought we fought back well tonight after the getting down. Like Coach Moncman told us, we’ve got 24 hours to celebrate this and then the next season starts. We’ll be ready.”
The series
Parkland is entering the game with a 44-21-2 all-time lead in the series, which began in 1959. Emmaus won the first six games in the series, but Parkland had at least three different winning streaks of six games or more. Since 2016, the Green Hornets and Trojans had split 12 meetings.
Around the EPC
When sophomore Chase Kessler ran for 317 yards in a win over Nazareth, it set a school record. Kessler is the first sophomore at Northampton to go over 1,000 yards in a season and entered Friday night’s game against Bethlehem Catholic with 1,233 yards. Kevin Kowalishen held the old single-game rushing record when he ran for 264 yards vs Liberty in 2006.
Marquez Wimberly of Nazareth entered Friday’s game against Easton with 60 career TDs and is tied with Mike Tracy of Marian Catholic (1978-80) for 39th place all-time in District 11. Wimberly, who began his career at Parkland, led the EPC with his 1,342 yards this season.
Liberty’s Antonio Fontanez reached the 60-touchdown total in his career last week, tying him with Dan Kendra III of Bethlehem Catholic (1991-94) and Travis Stefanik of Nazareth (2014-16) for 26th place all-time in District 11.
Talon Dogmanits of Whitehall cracked the top 30 all-time in District 11 for career reception yardage. He entered Friday’s game against Allentown Central Catholic in 29th place with 2,106 yards. His 123 catches had him in a three-way tie for 35th place in District 11 history with David Horton of ACCHS (2003-04), and Xzavier Pusateri of ES South (2022-24).
Scoring summary
Emmaus 6 – 0 – 7 – 0 — 13
Parkland 0 – 21 – 6 – 7 — 34
FIRST QUARTER
E: Jay Santos 27 run (kick failed), 6:39
SECOND QUARTER
P: TJ Lawrence 1 run (Andrea Giroudon kick), 8:45
P: Jaren Sanchez 4 pass from Finn Coen (Giroudon kick), 5:56
P: Lawrence 13 run (Giroudon kick), 2:49
THIRD QUARTER
P: Lawrence 10 run (PAT failed), 10:45
E: Santos 1 run (Gavin Yartymyk kick) 0:30
FOURTH QUARTER
P: Blake Nassry 14 pass from Coen (Groudon kick), 4:59
