Another ‘Nazareth Special’
Two weeks after they thought season was over, Nazareth celebrates 37-29 win and more 6A gold
Two Friday nights earlier, Nazareth’s football team sat on the giant blue “N” in the middle of Andy Leh Stadium and consoled each other. Tears flowed, heartfelt hugs were given and the Blue Eagles walked away with their heads bowed, thinking their season was over.
But 14 days later, on another Friday night in another football stadium, that same Nazareth team gathered again, and this time they posed for pictures as District 11 6A champions.
Howdoyouexplain the turnaround in fortunes? Perhaps it’s best to just chalk it up to 2020.
Nazareth athletic director Ray Ramella and other school officials fought hard through contact-tracing to have the team cleared of any COVID-19 issues. By the end of that weekend, the Blue Eagles season was back on, and a first-round playoff game against Pleasant Valley rescheduled.
Given a second chance, the team made sure it didn’t waste it.
Nazareth’s heart-racing 37-29 win over Freedom at Whitehall High’s Zephyr Stadium for its second straight 6A crown was a fitting end to a wild ride of a season that may have only stretched for eight games, but was packed with enough emotion and memorable moments to last eight lifetimes.
It ended with the proud Patriots driving to the Blue Eagles 15 in the final, frantic seconds. On fourth down, Nazareth’s defensive front applied pressure on Freedom sophomore Ethan Neidig,
who was able to get the ball off before being hit.
But his desperation heave to the back corner of the end zone was intercepted by Dominic Feliciano.
The celebration that ensued lasted at least a half-hour before the team boarded its buses.
Feliciano, a senior whose 90-yard kickoff return began a thrill-per-minute second half that featured 50 points, remembered the sadness he felt two weeks earlier.
“That Friday when that game got canceled, we sat on the field for awhile,” Feliciano said. “I mean there were kids there for an hour or so and we sat there crying as a team. We were all heartbroken. When we got the news that we could play again, weknewwehad to turn up our level grind. That’s whatwedid; weturnedit up. This feeling is way better.”
Matt Bugbee, the quarterback who was as big of a surprise as anyone on a Nazareth team that stunned everyone but itself, said it has been a roller coaster ride of emotions.
“When we got that call that Friday saying we were done and
wewereout,itwascrazyforsure,” Bugbee said after completing 12 of 16 passes for 144 yards, running for another 31, scoring two touchdowns and kicking four extra points and a field goal.
“We were sitting out on that [Leh Stadium] turf in a circle and coach [Tom Falzone] was talking aboutwhenhewasgoingtocollect uniforms and things like that,” Bugbee said. “The theme after we learned we were back in was ‘We’reonborrowedtime.’Wehave to make the most of every second we have left because you never know when it’s going to be your
last.”
The clock did run out on the Nazareth season, but the ending was joyous.
“Thiswasaveryfittingending,” Falzone said. “This game was a roller coaster ride like the entire offseason was, wondering whether we were going to get to play, and like the entire season when we were always wondering what was going to happen next. I am so proud of these kids and so grateful for the coaches I have. Everybody hung in there through it all.”
Defensive coordinator Jim
Schaffer has been associated with Falzone since he coached him at Catasauqua in the 1990s and they consider each other family.
Falzone and offensive coordinator Rob Petrosky are considered offensive wizards who come up with things few other teams employ.
But it was Schaffer’s defense that was put on its heels by an aggressive Freedom game plan that featured a few trick plays.
“Theirquarterback[Neidig]did a great job,” Schaffer said. “Heput the ball on the money a few times and challenged us. He showed a lot of poise. He’s going to be good. ButIthoughtourkidskeptbouncingback.Wehadanumberofpass interference calls go against that hurt, but we couldn’t worry about it.Ourkidshadtojustkeepafterit.”
Joe Capobianco was nearly unstoppable. A Kutztown-bound wrestler,Capobiancowasinvolved on several quarterback pressures and sacks.
“He was playing with a dinged-upshoulderandIwasworried abouthim,”Schaffersaid.“Hewas just ripping through blocks and was a beast.”
In 2019, the 6A championship ended with a play called the “Nazareth Special,” since it had a lot of the same elements of the play that helped the Eagles win the Super Bowl in February 2018. Jaiden Cabrera caught the pass from Nathan Stefanik for the deciding two-point conversion in a 22-21 overtime win.
“But if you think about it, that was a defensive game,” Schaffer said. “It was 14-14 going to the overtime. This one was much more of an offensive track meet, especially in the second half, but the defense still had to come up with the big play at the end. And wedid.”
Rather than being known for the “Nazareth Special,” this game — this entire season — was very special for Nazareth, which lost several marquee players from its 12-2 squad in 2019.
It was also special for Falzone. He said he didn’t cry the Friday night he told the team that its seasonwasover,butheshedafew tears amid the celebration on this Friday night.
He pulled out a funeral card honoringthememoryofhisfather, theRev.JosephFalzone,whodied Sept. 18 just as the season was getting started.
Falzone’s father was his son’s biggest fan. He had become ingrainedintheNazarethcommunity just as he did when his son was a player at Catasauqua, and Falzone made sure to remember his dad during the celebration.
Nazareth’s captains said before the season opener against Allentown Central Catholic on Sept. 25 that they wanted to win this season for Falzone’s father.
“I’ve been carrying around this card in my jacket all season,” he said.“There’snodoubthehasbeen looking down on us. I know he’s happy for us and I get emotional just thinking about it. Here I ama grown adult and I’m crying. But it has all been so amazing.”