Vikings hold off Trojans
In 2002, Rob Melosky was the head coach of a Parkland team featuring one of the greatest running backs in Lehigh Valley and Pennsylvania history.
Melosky and that special back, Austin Scott, were together again on the field last night at Parkland School District Stadium during a preseason ceremony honoring the Trojans’ 2002 state champions.
While Scott is now 37 years old and out of eligibility, Melosky is part of a team at Allentown Central Catholic that has a few quality running backs of its own.
Melosky, who was a head coach at Nazareth and Pocono Mountain East since his time at Parkland, now works with the offensive line for the Vikings and that unit created lots of holes against Parkland on Friday.
Caiden Shaffer scored twice, Nathan Schultz added another score and ACCHS was able to get three turnovers, including a fumble in the end zone in the final seconds as the Vikings beat Parkland 21-14 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division classic.
It was the second year in a row Central Catholic, now 3-1, beat Parkland (2-2) and both games were one-score contests decided
late.
Nakhi Bullock, normally a wide receiver, played quarterback for Parkland most of the night in place of injured starter Luke Spang. After engineering an early TD drive, he ran for one fourth-quarter TD and nearly scored again in the final minutes.
But just as he was about to break the plane of the end zone on a first-and-goal from the 2, he lost the ball — at least in the eyes of the officials — and his fumble into the end zone was recovered by Central’s Nasir McLean with 2:12 remaining.
McLean earlier had a 40-yard punt return to set up an ACCHS score. This time, he prevented a potential score by the Trojans.
“I just saw him running and then I saw the ball on the ground,” McLean said. “I just jumped on it and get the ball to our offense. I think Griffin Patridge stripped it. I just had to be a team player and not let the moment be too big. We just had to play our game and have fun.”
While everyone rushed to see a TV replay of when the ball came loose, ACCHS was able to take a couple of kneeldowns to run out the clock.
Shaffer finished with 131 yards on 24 carries and Schultz added 45 yards on 17 carries as the Vikings wore down Parkland on the ground for three quarters. ACCHS ran 60 plays from scrimmage to Parkland’s 39.
Central’s offense had 222 yards offense through three periods but had negative yards and no first downs on its last four possessions as Parkland’s defense tightened up after Schultz’s 7-yard TD run made it 21-7 with 6:35 left in the third quarter.
But while the offense sputtered, the defense was able to hold on thanks to the late fumble after earlier interceptions by Raheem Battles and Ethan Hosak. Battles’ pick set up a 20-yard scoring drive for the Vikes.
“Turnovers were certainly the difference in the game,” Central coach Tim McGorry said. “We’ve got to do a better job in those last eight minutes. It was kind of the same thing we saw last week in the second half of our win over Easton. We had penalties, made some mental mistakes, and didn’t really execute well. We have to do a better job as a staff of coming out and doing the job for 48 minutes. We put our defense in a horrible spot at the end.”
Earlier, McGorry was more pleased with the ground attack.
“That’s who we are and who we want to be,” McGorry said. “Certainly that was the plan coming in and we felt we were able to have success because we have a physical group up front. [But] there’s still room to get better.”
The line features Battles, Mitchell Miller, Nick Balisage, Ricardo Lopez, and Fynn McDonald with assists from Harrison Stewart-Smith and Hosak at tight end.
Shaffer, who also made a big stop on defense, said Parkland was one of the toughest teams he’s ever played against.
The Trojans scored on their first possession and then were held scoreless until just 5:52 was left on a short drive set up by a Trey Tremba punt return. Tremba didn’t play in the second half last week against Freedom and was used sparingly.
Without its regular quarterback, the Trojans tried to keep it on the ground and had some success, but not enough to sustain drives.
“They’re a downhill team and it was just a tough game overall,” Shaffer said. “We felt we could run the ball tonight. 100 percent. Their linebackers were flowing too fast and I thought I could cut it back against them. But we were making too many mistakes and had too many penalties at the end.”
Shaffer said it was big to beat a good team on the road.
For Melosky, it was a chance to celebrate twice, once with his former team and then again with his current team.
“We’re not big on titles around here, but RobworkswithPaulHagadusandtheoffensive line and they have jelled and done an unbelievable job with those guys and he’s a great guy to have around and talk through somethingswith,”McGorrysaidofMelosky. “He’s on the offensive side, and he certainly has a very large part of the offense. Having him in the box is very helpful.”
McGorry also had praise for Shaffer. “He’s just a tough guy,” McGorry said. “You don’t have to say too much to Caiden because he comes to practice and does exactly what you ask for and it’s the same in the weight room. He’s our guy and does an unbelievable job of leading by example. He’s just a tough, tough kid.”
The schedule remains tough for both teams with Parkland traveling to Whitehall Friday night and ACCHS hosting Freedom on Saturday at J. Birney Crum Stadium.