Fans or no fans, teams are playing

Whitehall High coach Matt Senneca has been involved with football since the 1990s. He knows that any game’s atmosphere is enhanced by fans, particularly at the high school level.

Hewelcomed the news that a limited number of family and students will be allowed at Zephyr Stadium Friday night when his team plays Bethlehem Catholic.

“It is going to be more back to normal with some people there, which will be nice,” Senneca said. “But once the ball is kicked off, everything else goes into the background and you don’t hear anything anyway. The focus is on the game itself.”

That’s the approach teams are taking as the amount of games featuring Eastern Pennsylvania Conference teams doubles on Friday night, from one to two.

In addition to Whitehall hosting Becahi, Allentown Central Catholic visits Nazareth. Both Becahi and Nazareth are making their debuts after CCHS topped the Zephyrs 34-13 last week.

While the battle has raged on between Gov. Tom Wolf, U.S. District Judge William S. Stickman IV and the stage Legislature over Wolf’s restrictions on the number of people allowed at indoor and outdoor gatherings, the teams playing Friday are just happy for the opportunity.

The EPC teams are well aware of what’s going on around them and know that Southern Lehigh, Pen Argyl, Saucon Valley and Northwestern Lehigh have had coronavirus cases that have canceled or postponed games.

They know the plug could be pulled on their games for the same reason at any time.

So, even as the countdown to kickoff continued this week, participating teams remained wary.

“The reality is you have to be honest with your kids and tell them that we don’t know what we’re going to get,” Golden Hawks coach Joe Henrich said. “All we can do is continue to plug away. We’re cautiously optimistic we’re going to get to play on Friday. I haven’t heard anything, but then again wewere supposed to scrimmage Saucon Valley and I didn’t know that was going to get canceled either. It’s literally a day-byday situation.”

Barring unforeseen circumstances, Becahi and Nazareth will have their long waits end for the start of a new season. Originally, both perennial District 11 tournament qualifiers were supposed to start their seasons on Aug. 28.

The other 14 members of the EPC will begin next weekend with rare Thursday night games between Allen and Emmaus, and Dieruff and Whitehall, kicking things off.

Henrich said it’s an unusual and difficult situation for programs normally vying for league titles and district tournament berths at the end of September. Now, every kickoff is considered a victory.

“So much of it is out of our hands, and we’ve got to understand that nothing is guaranteed to us,” Henrich said.

Henrich and the rest of the coaches are happy that several school districts are willing to allow a limited number of fans at the games.

Whitehall and Nazareth are both giving a limited number of tickets to the families of participants (coaches, athletes, band members). Whitehall is allowing for a limited number of students to attend and an allotment of tickets will be given to Becahi.

The policies will be evaluated on a weekly basis.

As for the games, both involving EPC members are expected to be competitive. Three of the four teams reached district semifinals a year ago, and Nazareth won the 6A championship.

Becahi has new players at several key positions, but it’s not necessarily a bad thing.

“For us, it’s an exciting situation to see the young kids out on the field because they bring energy and a dynamic that is awesome,” Henrich said.

The same level of anticipation and excitement is at Nazareth, where Anthony Harris, Nate Stefanik and many of the standouts from last year’s 12-2 champions have moved on.

“Year in, year out, we have kids with great character at Nazareth,” Blue Eagles coach Tom Falzone said. “They work hard. Sometimes, success breeds success and we’re coming off the best offseason we’ve ever had since I’ve been here. Before COVID-19 hit, wehad a full weight room with kids who know this is their turn. Even when COVID struck and wewere quarantined, wehad Zoom workouts and the attendance was great with our coaches and strength staff. They’re great kids.”

That’s why Falzone is just looking forward to seeing the players on the field and playing a game.

“Look at the roller coaster ride these kids have been on, not just our kids, but all the kids across the Valley have been on, and everybody just wants to play,” Falzone said. “In June and July, the kids did the Zoomstuff and everything asked of them while not knowing what’s going to happen. We still don’t know what’s going to happen from week to week, but we’re just going to enjoy every game we get to play.”

ALLENTOWN CENTRAL CATHOLIC (1-0) AT NAZARETH (0-0)

When/where: 7 p.m. Friday at Nazareth’s Andy Leh Stadium.

TV/Internet: Service Electric TV2, PennSportsRadio. com.

Last meeting: Nazareth 49-7 at Leh Stadium on Sept. 6, 2019.

Series: CCHS 11-5 all-time.

Who to watch: Central Catholic got 207 yards on 23 carries and two touchdowns from Jayden Williams in its win over Whitehall. Leroy Johnson added 49 yards rushing and two scores, and quarterback Matt Rauscher threw for 97 yards and a TD. As of early in the week, Nazareth didn’t know who would start at quarterback. Matt Bugbee, Mike McCarty and Sonny Sasso were the top candidates and all possess different strengths. No matter who is at QB, he’ll likely be throwing to Jaiden Cabrera (54 catches, 585 yards, 5 TDs last year), Tyler O’Hagan (20 catches, 326 yards) and Joe Capobianco

(16 catches, 236 yards).

The skinny: The Vikings got what they wanted at Whitehall — a win and a lot of areas to work on. Coach Tim McGorry was particularly unhappy with the number of mental mistakes. Getting cornerback Tyler Schifko, who missed the opener with an injury, back at cornerback should strengthen the CCHS secondary that will be tested by Nazareth’s receiving corps. CCHS will hope to run the ball as well as it did at Whitehall. . The Blue Eagles return five starters on offense and four on defense. Nazareth also will play with the extra emotion that comes with playing for Falzone, who lost his father Sept. 18.

Keith Groller’s pick: Nazareth 31-28.

BETHLEHEM CATHOLIC (0-0) AT WHITEHALL (0-1) When/where: 7 p.m. at Whitehall’s Zephyr Stadium.

Last meeting: Becahi 42-17 at BASD Stadium on Sept.

28, 2019.

Series (in EPC/LVC era beginning in 1976): Becahi 22-13. Who to watch: Whitehall got 72 yards rushing and 173 yards passing from junior QB Quinn Wentling in the loss to CCHS. He threw for one score and ran for another. Zack Hartman caught four passes for 42 yards on the team’s first possession before getting injured. His status is uncertain. Becahi returns QB Jared Richardson, who passed for 1,543 yards and 11 TDs last year.

Ian Kish, Rahmel Terry and Eric Wert, who combined for 30 catches worth 343 yards last season, will likely be Richardson’s top targets. Anthony Barczynski, who kicked six field goals last season, is another weapon. The skinny: Because Becahi didn’t even have a scrimmage, it is largely an unknown. But even after the graduation of Tavion Banks, who ran for 1,393 yards last season and set a school record with 68 career TDs, Senneca said you can expect the same type of team the Golden Hawks have had for years. “They’re gonna fly around on defense and make plays on offense and we’ve just got to be able to match that. We match up well skill-wise, but it’s a matter of whether or not we can do better up front and eliminate the mental mistakes we made in our opener.” Whitehall hasn’t won since beating Northampton 36-34 on Oct. 26, 2018 and Senneca hasn’t won as the Zephyrs head coach. Is this the night?

Whitehall 28-24.