Good news/ bad news after Executive Education wins first home game
Raptors are on a 3-game win streak, but need to find opponents
There was plenty of good news on Saturday night for the first-year Executive Education football program.
The Raptors finally got to play a home game at Muhlenberg College’s Scotty Wood Stadium and the crowd, consisting primarily of the school’s students and their parents enjoyed watching a 26-0 win over Line Mountain behind the aerial show created by junior quarterback Darmel Lopez and a talented receiving corps featuring Dontae Oquendo, Damaurian Jones, and Emery Plummer.
Lopez completed 20 of 31 passes for 370 yards and four touchdowns with the TDs covering 3, 14, 22 and 27 yards coming after a scoreless first half.
Qquendo, one of the team’s five seniors, caught two TD passes and had 137 yards receiving on six receptions. Jones, another senior, also had six grabs for 93 yards and a touchdown and Plummer snared eight passes for 118 yards.
The Executive defense led by hardcharging junior nose tackle Matt “Tank” Martinez, recorded its second straight shutout, limiting winless Line Mountain, a District 4 Class 2A program, to 192 yards on offense.
“He’s our defensive captain and our best player on the field, hands down,” Executive coach Larry Ford said of Martinez. “He’s absolutely unstoppable, and one of the best players in this area to be honest with you.”
The Raptors got six of their stops on takeaways, including four interceptions. Freshman Cazhiere Richardson had two picks and Zamir Perklins, who had a TD reception among his two catches on offense, had a fumble recovery and an interception.
There was plenty of good vibes all around as Executive won its third straight game and at 4-3, is above .500 for the first time in school history.
But the bad news is that after having to scramble to find an opponent and have that team come to Allentown in a matter of a day or two, the Executive administration is going to have to do it all over because of the team’s three remaining playing dates, just one is secure.
The Raptors were supposed to play Belmont Charter from Philadelphia this weekend and have a trip to Capital Prep in Harlem on Oct. 23. Both games are no longer scheduled due to COVID-19 concerns.
The only game on the original schedule that is still set is the Oct. 29 regular-season finale against Renaissance Academy Charter in Phoenixville.
The quest for games is nothing new for Executive or football teams throughout the area. The Line Mountain game marked the third time this season the Raptors had to find an opponent just days before a scheduled playdate.
Two Eastern Pennsylvania Conference games scheduled for this weekend — Easton at Bethlehem Catholic and Dieruff at Pocono Mountain East — were wiped out by COVID concerns and the two teams not affected, Easton and Dieruff, couldn’t arrange replacement games. It was the second time this season that Easton had a game canceled by coronavirus-related issues.
While cancellations just days or hours before kickoff have become common in the COVID-19 era, it’s more difficult for a team not affiliated with a league such as Executive to find games quickly.
The Raptors were able to pull off a game Saturday by getting the word out through various channels and with the cooperation of Line Mountain. Ford appreciated the Eagles making the trip to Allentown.
“I’m very appreciative of them coming here because I believe it was about a two-hour drive for them,” he said. “We’ve been in that situation before, having to go to Shikellamy, and Shikellamy took very good care of us with food and amazing hospitality and we pretty much did the same thing. We fed Line Mountain over at the school, they dressed at our school and I think they were going back to our school to shower before going back home.”
That’s why while Executive was throwing the ball in the final minutes Saturday night with a four-TD lead, Ford said he was not trying to embarrass the opponent.
“There was some speculation we were trying to run it up on them, but that had nothing to do with it,” Ford said. “Our main focus is on fighting to get into districts. A referee said something to us about running up the score, but we clearly were not. We’re trying to get into districts and need as many points as we can. With the win streak and hot streak we’re on, I don’t want something to happen where we didn’t get in [the district playoffs] because we didn’t score enough points.”
Ford, a former Lehigh Valley Steelhawks professional player, is new to high school football and the District 11 power rankings which do not include points scored or point differential in its formula of which teams are ranked where and get into the postseason tournament.
The power rankings are based primarily on wins and the classification and records of your opponents.
Executive is battling for one of four spots in District 11 Class 2A which also features Colonial-Schuylkill League members Northern Lehigh, Palmerton, Catasauqua, and Minersville with winning records.
Whether they get into the playoffs or not, the Raptors have already exceeded expectations by winning four games.
The program also had to endure the drama of being put on probation by District 11 before ever playing a game. That situation came from a hearing after Allen High School brought to the district’s attention a text message sent by Ford to an Allen athlete.
All things considered, Executive has come a long way.
“These kids want to play football,” Ford said. They don’t care who it is. We’re playing good football right now, hitting our stride. We’re going to be one of those teams to look out for. We have a lot to work on still, but watch out.”
“It feels great to be 4-3 because everybody doubted us at the beginning of the season,” Ford added. “I heard 0-10 and things like that. Then after we won our first game people were saying we weren’t going to win anymore. So we’ve heard it all. And we just block it out and go play football. Now, we’re on a three-game winning streak and hopefully, it continues.”