Hornets score late TD, hold on for victory
Emmaus’ Fotta throws for a TD, runs for another in QB return
While not committing to either one as his team’s starting quarterback earlier in the week, Emmaus football coach Harold Fairclough vowed that both Jake Fotta and Josiah Williams would play in the Green Hornets’ season opener against Freedom Friday night.
Fairclough didn’t lie. He used both players. Their contributions, along with a sterling defensive effort that included a second-half shutout, paved the way for a 19-13 win at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium in a marquee Week 1 matchup.
Fotta, playing for the first time since 2020 after an ACL injury kept him sidelined for all of last year, got the start and threw to Dylan Darville for a 60-yard touchdown on his team’s first offensive series and had a 1-yard TD run himself late in the first half.
But Williams, a junior who started in Fotta’s place last season and led Emmaus to the district finals, also got to play and came up with the game-winning score, a 1-yard run with 7:58 remaining.
After his run into the end zone gave Emmaus a six-point lead, the Green Hornets were able to get one more big defensive stop and then run down the clock with an effective ground-oriented drive.
It marked the second straight year Emmaus beat Freedom early in the regular season and it gave them a measure of revenge after losing to the Patriots 28-14 in last November’s District 11 6A championship game.
“During the second half we said we’re going to try different things to get the ball moving and it worked out well,” Williams said. “In the first half, it was amazing to see Jake back in action. I really couldn’t be more proud of him. We support each other.”
In the COVID-19 season of 2020 when Emmaus went 5-1, Fotta was one of the area’s best QBs as a sophomore. He passed for 1,068 yards and ran for another 96.
When he went down during the first week of practice last year, Emmaus’ chances of a successful season might have gone down with him. But Williams, then a sophomore, propped up the Green Hornets. He passed for an EPC South-best 1,893 yards and 18 touchdowns.
The conjecture about who would start carried through the offseason with Fairclough not making any proclamations and repeatedly saying both were working hard.
“It felt great,” Fotta said of his return to EPC action. “It was great to start like that with the pass to Dylan. I just knew Dylan was gone. I knew he could beat the safety.”
Fotta finished with 133 yards passing with five of his completions going to Darville for 95 yards. He also mixed in a 32-yard throw to his brother Chase Fotta that set up his short scoring run with 11 seconds left in the first half.
Besides running for 19 yards against a stout, experienced Patriots defense, Fotta also delivered a 55-yard punt that pinned Freedom back at its own 3 in the thid quarter. The field position was pivotal as Emmaus got a stop and set up the short 44-yard, game-winning drive that began with 3 minutes left in a scoreless third quarter.
“It was Week 1 and these games are usually about who can overcome their mistakes the best and we made mistakes and so did Freedom,” Fotta said. “We have a lot to work on yet. We finished the job and we kept our heads on straight and stayed focused.”
Senior Tylik Jarvis ran for 141 yards on 26 carries and had the lion’s share of the carries on a drive that went from the Emmaus 36 to the Freedom 34 in the final minutes. The Green Hornets took over with 5:59 left and picked up two first downs. Freedom didn’t get the ball back until just 50 seconds were left and it was backed up at its 10.
Freedom, trying everything in its playbook, got out to its 38 but ran out of time.
“I felt we were the better-conditioned team, “Jarvis said. “During camp, we prepared for this. I just show up when my name is called no matter what the play is, no matter what my role is or whether I am running or blocking.”
Jarvis isn’t buying that the win was about revenge.
“The team that played in the district championship game was a whole different team,” he said. “Freedom was a whole different team, too. This was just another game for us. We’ll celebrate for 24 hours and then move on to the next game [Friday night against Allentown Central Catholic].”
Coaches corner
Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough on the win: “We just did enough in Week 1 to beat a great opponent. Our kids battled and we did a great of rotating kids in and out to stay as fresh as possible in the fourth quarter. We’re trying to just reload and not be in rebuilding mode.”
Fairclough on the defense: “Aidan Garrett and Ryan DeJohn really played well. Up front, Ben Mercado and Mario Landino really played well. They were flying around and getting after it. We just have to finish some big plays. In the first half, we were in the right place, but we kind of fell off some people and they were able to make some big plays.”
Fairclough on Jake Fotta: “It was great to see him throw a touchdown in the first series. He was a little rusty out there and it looked like he hadn’t played in a year and a half. But he made big plays when we needed him to and he settled in more in the second half and ran the ball harder and made some good reads. He’s only going to get better.
Freedom coach Jason Roeder on the loss: “It’s always tough to lose in Week 1 because you work so hard throughout the offseason and to not get that gratification with a win is disappointing. We’ve got a lot of things to fix and they’re not going to fix themselves. We’ve got to make the commitment to be better on Monday and that was going to be the message whether we won or lost tonight, but it is disappointing.”
Roeder on bouncing back: “We’ve got to continue to evaluate our guys and get them in the right spots. It was unusual for us to get shut out in the second half, and I’m not sure of the reasons for that. We can’t the approach that we started 2-2 last year and it’s going to be OK. It’s not. We’ve got to take the bull by the horns and be specific with how we fix things and go get a win [at Easton] next week.”