Nottingham edges Allentown
HAMILTON >> It was a shining example of why you should never count out Jon Adams’ Nottingham High School football team.
One week after getting blasted off the field by Notre Dame, Nottingham rebounded in brilliant style Friday afternoon to beat Allentown, 26-24, in a matchup of two teams headed to the Group III playoffs.
It was the first win for the Northstars over Allentown since 2015 and it wasn’t difficult to spot one of the biggest reasons Nottingham was able to pull off what most would consider to be at least a minor upset.
Namely, Nottingham was able to strike with some big plays while Allentown was not against a defense that unleashed a ferocious pass rush and a secondary that negated the Redbird passing game to the tune of 79 yards on just six completions in 15 attempts.
“Oh, my God,” said Adams when it was pointed out what a difference a week can make. “For us to play like that after we we have lost so many of our key players because of injuries is a real credit to our kids. It shows how they resilient they are.”
It was a back-and-forth affair all day with Nottingham striking first on a 72-yard, first-quarter drive capped off by a 1-yard run by Marc Kauffman.Early in the second quarter it was tied up at 7-all when Allentown got on the board on a 3-yard run by Rahsaan Emory to complete a 90-yard drive.
It was here where Kauffman continued to make a big impact on the game. First he intercepted a tipped Dan Merkel pass and then he put the Northstars back ahead with an 11-yard touchdown bolt up the middle. When Allentown got a 31-yard field goal by Chris McCrea on the last play of the second quarter, it left Nottingham up 13-10 at the half.
It appeared Allentown was on the verge of taking control of the game when it opened the second half with a 14-play, 65-yard drive featuring more hard running by Emory and a 1-yard TD plunge by Jha’Que Brown to put the Redbirds ahead for the first time at 17-13.
It appeared that way even more so when Nottingham then fumbled the ball away on its own 25. Instead, the Northstar defense rose up with one of its seven sacks on the day and turned the ball over on downs.
The defensive stand seemed to ignite the offense, which moved down the field behind some key keepers by sophomore quarterback Bryan Smolka and reached the end zone on a 42-yard sweep around right end by Diontae Nicholson.
It was one of only three carries on the day by Nicholson, who last year piled up massive yardage as the feature back. This season his carries have been limited because he is so valuable on defense and the way he has accepted his new role is a real testament to his team-first attitude.
The biggest Nottingham play of all, however, was still to come. Namely, a beautiful end-around reverse on which Judeson Mirac raced 69 yards down the left side line to establish a 26-17 lead with 7:19 remaining.
“That was a great call by our coaches,” said Adams. “We wanted to run some kind of counter play and mix things up.”
Allentown was able to stay in the game with a long drive that reached the end zone with 3:55 remaining, but Nottingham then picked up two first downs to more or less kill the clock. Although Allentown did get the ball back on its own 12 with 55 seconds remaining, all this led to was a couple of more sacks.
“We stunted some, but it was basically our front four getting to the quarterback,” said Adams of all the sacks and completely bottling up Merkel. “And (cornerback) Robert Bennett did a great job (covering Allentown star wideout McCrae). Kauffman did a great job in the secondary, too. It was a team effort.”
Which, after all, has always been Nottingham’s way. The Northstars may be deficient in certain areas at times, but they play together and they play hard.
Allentown (4-4) 0 10 7 7 — 24 Nottingham (6-2) 7 6 7 6 — 26 N-Kaufman 1 run (Oge kick)
A-Emory 3 run (McCrea kick) N-Kauffman 1 run (snap fumbled, no kick) A-McCrea 31 field goal
A-Brown 1 run (McCrea kick) N-Nicholson 42 run (Oge kick)
N-Mirac 69 run (kick failed)
A-Emory 6 run (McCrea kick)