No doubt Notre DameGP, North Schuylkill meet again
Palmerton wins 5 in a row for the 1st time in 13 years
Notre Dame-Green Pond’s Phil Stambaugh and North Schuylkill counterpart Wally Hall were smart enough before and after last Friday’s showdown to not provide any bulletin board material for the respective rivals.
They had the same thoughts regarding a second meeting between the District 11 Class 3A powers after the Spartans’ 42-21 victory.
“We certainly expect to see this team again in four, five weeks,” Stambaugh said. “It’s just a matter of where the second game is going to be, really. I don’t want to be disrespectful to the other teams, but we feel it’s going to be between us and them.”
There is no elephant in the room here, just two elephant programs in the Crusaders and Spartans.
“I’m sure we’ll see these guys again,” Hall said.
North Schuylkill has won 15 consecutive games, 20 in a row in the regular season.
Notre Dame-GP has won 12 of its last 14 contests. Both losses were to North Schuylkill.
The Spartans and Crusaders remain 1-2 in the District 11 Class 3A playoff standings. None of the five other eligible teams has a winning record.
Jim Thorpe and District 1’s New Hope-Solebury would be the other postseason participants if the playoffs started this weekend.
North Schuylkill has games left against Salisbury (2-5), Tamaqua (2-4) and Pottsville (6-1).
Notre Dame-GP plays Palisades (2-5), Pen Argyl (0-7) and Wilson (5-2) to close its regular season.
Quotable
“I can’t give them the ball in our territory,” Stambaugh said of a second-quarter decision to punt on fourth-and-inches from the Crusaders’ 42-yard line. “It’s a one-score game at that point. We have to punt the ball and we have to get a stop. And, unfortunately, we didn’t. We gave up a touchdown with 54 seconds to go.
“There were a lot of different factors that go into that decision, too,” he said. “It’s not just our defense. It’s our offense, too. They could have gotten the first down [on third down]. We could have punted the ball better. There were a lot of things we could have done in that situation. But that was the right move to make.”
North Schuylkill’ last-minute score in the second period gave it a 21-7 halftime lead. It then scored on its first possession to start the second half to build a three-score lead and never looked back.
Grinder
Northwestern (7-0), coming off a dominant Week 6 showdown of unbeatens at Wilson, hosted a 3-3 Blue Mountain team Friday in a tough grinder to bridge the gap before its Week 8 meeting with visiting Pottsville (6-1).
The Tigers beat the Eagles, but not because Justin Holmes racked up video game offensive stats or Cade Christopher scored on a few big-yardage plays.
Coach Josh Snyder’s club won 22-0 with a little bit of offense and a defense led by Dalton Clymer’s career-best 19 tackles, including one for loss, and a forced fumble. His 15 solo stops tied David Tirpak’s school record. His 19 total are one shy of his brother Caleb’s program mark in 2017.
Holmes added 11 tackles. Andrew Sabo and Blaine Snyder combined for another 17. The Tigers allowed just 3.5 yards per play and nine first downs.
It was Northwestern’s first shutout since an Oct. 25, 2019, blanking of Catasauqua.
Streaking
Palmerton won its fifth consecutive game with a 51-7 rout at Pine Grove to improve to 6-1.
It is the Blue Bombers’ first five-game winning streak since capturing six in a row in 2008.
Sophomore quarterback Matt Machalik ran for four touchdowns, threw for a fifth and returned an interception 100 yards for a score right before halftime.
Coach Chris Walkowiak’s club has scored at least 41 points in all six victories this season.
Palmerton hosts Mahanoy Area (2-5) on Friday night ahead of games against Minersville (5-2) and Northern Lehigh (4-3) to close the regular season.
The Bulldogs are first in the District 11 Class 2A playoff race, with the Blue Bombers second and the Battlin’ Miners third.
Colonial vs. Schuylkill, Year 1
For those wondering, the Colonial League has an 18-14 advantage in head-to-head meetings with the Schuylkill League after seven weeks of the first year of the cooperative agreement between the two leagues.
There are 12 regular-season meetings remaining, six each of the next two weeks. The Week 10 slate is full of rivalry games.