Sunday Six-Pack: Pure heartbreak
In one of saddest days in local football history, 3 area teams see successful seasons come to an end
Matt Walters said he would have preferred to lose 50-0 than have the District 11 title hopes for his East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers end the way they did Friday.
“It was a quite a gut punch,” Walters said after learning his team would have to forfeit its District 11 5A semifinal against Pocono Mountain East and likely have its season end due to a two-week shutdown at his school that will extend until Nov. 19.
It was one of the saddest days in local football history with three quality teams that had combined to lose just one game — Nazareth, Parkland and East Stroudsburg South — have its season suddenly cut short.
South had one of the best teams in school history, a squad featuring 25 seniors that was looking forward to district competition after breezing past four Eastern Pennsylvania Conference opponents by a combined total of 248-7.
Walters said at a team meeting Thursday in its home stadium he wanted his Cavaliers to take time to savor the moment. Then, the next day, a dreaded moment came that essentially canceled the rest of the day.
“This was a special group and we had a really good talk Thursday about them really enjoying their last home game,” Walters said. “I wanted them to appreciate all the hard work they had put in to get to that moment. Then not to have that moment is pure heartbreak.”
Walters , a Cavaliers grad, said: “We’ve had some really good football teams here, but this one definitely has to rank in the top five. The way this group played football, their talent, their effort, they made myjob easy . . . I mean to have Christian Arrington run the ball, to have Will Fish throw it to Evan Roche and Christian Sapp . . . they stamped their legacy forever.”
South, Walters said, will end up with a banner that will have a 4-0 record with an asterisk.
“But that asterisk will have one great story to tell,” he said.
2. Blue Eagles grounded: Much like Walters, Nazareth coach Tom Falzone woke up Saturday morning hoping what he experienced Friday was just a bad dream.
Like South, he had an undefeated team that didn’t lose on the field, but to COVID19 instead. The phone call he received Friday afternoon while en route to the stadium was devastating.
Ranked No. 1 by local media and stateranked all season, the 6-0 Blue Eagles were expected to beat Pleasant Valley and advance to the 6A semifinals.
Instead, it will be Pleasant Valley at Stroudsburg and Easton at Freedom in Friday night’s District 11 6A semifinals. The fact that the Blue Eagles convincingly beat both Easton and Freedom this season didn’t make them feel any better about having their season shut down prematurely.
“It’s going to be hard sitting and watching the playoffs continue,” Falzone said. “The hardest thing about this whole thing is the way it went down. There is no closure for these kids. They have exceeded everybody’s expectations this year. No one thought they’d do what they did and they did everything right going back to the offseason in finding ways to get workouts in, wearing the masks, not touching the football at first. We followed everything exactly to the extreme.”
Falzone said he never had a more difficult conversation with a team.
“They’re heartbroken, but the one thing we said all season is that you never know what game is going to be your last and they lived that way,” Falzone said. “Yet, it’s still so hard to be two hours from playing a game and be told you’re not. It hit everybody hard and it really is heartbreaking, especially for the seniors.”
3.Warriors’heart makes for happy Tigers:
Cayden Stem threw three touchdown passes, including the game-winning 51-yarder to Zach Gillen with 4:31 left in the third quarter of an 18-14 Wilson win over Pottsville on Friday night in a District 11 Class 4A quarterfinal at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
It was redemption for coach Chris Labatch’s Warriors, whose 2019 season ended on the same field against the same foe in the same playoff round.
Coach Tom McGeoy’s Crimson Tide, who graduated most of their starters from last year’s district title team, took a 14-12 lead on Travontai Davis’ 1-yard TD run to cap the first series of the third quarter.
But Wilson responded 20 seconds later on the next series then held on.
Damon Simpson caught TD passes from Stem in the first and second quarter as the Warriors led 12-7 at halftime.
Pottsville had 110 more yards from scrimmage but lost three fumbles and seven penalties to see its six-game winning streak end.
Wilson (3-5) ended a two-game losing streak and gets a shot at avenging an Oct. 2 loss at Northwestern (42-16).
The two Colonial League rivals play Friday at Tiger Stadium in the district semifinals.
“We were following pretty closely once we felt we had the game in hand,” Northwestern coach Josh Snyder said of the Wilson game. “Our kids really got elated, not necessarily because we got Wilson but they realized we get another home game.
“Playing in this stadium for these seniors is something special, meaningful. We love playing in New Tripoli.”
4.Vikings play waiting game: Allentown Central Catholic was originally supposed to play Wilson Friday night in a 4A quarterfinal. Then it was supposed to be Bangor. Then it was no one.
So the Vikings had Friday off and spent Saturday afternoon finding out who they would play in the semifinals, either Blue Mountain or rival Bethlehem Catholic.
CCHS Tim McGorry said the kids were disappointed they lost another game off the schedule, but understood.
“We’ve been through it ourselves going back to the week of the Parkland game,” he said. “You get to a point where you’re kind of numb to it. Things like this are happening everywhere. There’s a lot of rumors out there and a lot of bad information about this game being off and this team shutting down. You just can’t worry about what people are saying. You have to ignore everything you hear and hope for the best.”
5. Hornets stung: The game and season had ended for Emmaus about a half-hour earlier, yet Green Hornets football coach Harold Fairclough was still on the field late Friday night at East Penn School District Stadium trying to find the right words.
Emmaus joined Nazareth and East Stroudsburg South as one of three undefeated EPC teams to have their seasons end on one of the craziest days in local football history, but Fairclough’s team was the only one to have things decided on the field.
The Green Hornets fell to Easton 28-23 in a game that went down to the final seconds.
But in a season in which every kickoff was considered a victory, Emmaus got one more Friday night and even though his team was heartbroken by the loss, the Green Hornets at least got to experience all that’s special about Lehigh Valley football one more time.
“I’m proud of these kids because they handled everything so well,” Fairclough said. “Going back to June 25, they have been here every day and have done every single thing we’ve asked. With everything else
going on in the world, these guys created an opportunity to play six games by doing the right things. If you told me at the beginning of this we’d get to play six games, I’d have taken it.”
Fair clo ugh said he heard reports throughout Friday about games being canceled and he tried to avoid distractions and focus on his game.
“We tried to lock in and continue our season; that’s all we could control,” he said. “Wehad a game and were trying to win it. It’s football in the Lehigh Valley and you love it.”
Fairclough lamented his team’s problems on special teams that included two missed field goals and two long kickoff returns for touchdowns by Easton’s Marcus Williams.
“We had been lights out on special teams all season and we gave up two scores, two scores, missed field goals which we haven’t done all season, we couldn’t get anything going on the ground and we turned the ball over,” he said.
Sophomore Jake Fotta threw for 339 yards and is one of several reasons why the Green Hornets are looking forward to 2021.
“It’s tough to lose this one, but the good thing is we’ve got a lot of guys coming back,” Fairclough said. “But I just wanted two more weeks with these guys.”
6.Thankyou for hosting: At the conclusion of Saturday’s District 11 4A quarterfinal win for Bethlehem Catholic over
Blue Mountain, Golden Hawks coach Joe Henrich told his players that if they see Northwestern Lehigh athletic director Jason Zimmerman, they should thank him for being such a great host.
Zimmerman volunteered his school to host the game after Becahi balked at paying the rental fee for its usual home, Bethlehem Area School District Stadium. Henrich said his team didn’t mind the drive to Heidelberg Township.
“It’s actually not that far,” Henrich said. “Jason Zimmerman is a class act. He’s one of the best around. I respect the heck out of him. He’s as solid as they come. I’ve known him a long time since I used to work with his wife at Emmaus. We appreciate them hosting us because they have beautiful facilities and this is a great football town. It was awesome to be able to play here.”