Emmaus gives its fans plenty of treats
Green Hornets earn top seed in Class 6A subregional
As has become tradition, the winner of the Emmaus-Parkland football game gets the Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard Trophy.
A 40-25 win over the Trojans Friday at East Penn School District Stadium allowed the Green Hornets to get possession of the trophy for the next year after it was at Parkland following the Trojans victory in the 2021 regular-season finale.
But Emmaus has its eyes on a bigger prize, something it has never had before — a District 11 championship trophy.
That potential celebration is three weeks away on Nov. 18.
By beating Parkland, Emmaus made its path to that championship game a bit easier since it clinched the top seed in the District 11-2 subregional set to begin this coming Friday night.
Although District 11 said it will not make any pairings official until all games are played and all the figures are checked and double-checked, the Green Hornets (9-1) are expected to host No. 8 seed WilkesBarre Area, which was 5-4 entering its regular-season finale at noon Saturday against winless Wyoming Valley West.
The other 6A matchups are expected to be No. 7 Stroudsburg (6-4) at No. 2 Northampton (10-0), No. 6 Parkland (6-4) at No. 3 Nazareth (9-1) and No. 5 Hazleton (8-2) at No. 4 Freedom (7-2 entering its Saturday game against Liberty).
One title that eluded Emmaus is the EPC South trophy. Nazareth got that by going 9-1 and beating the Green Hornets in their head-to-head matchup on Oct. 14.
But none of that mattered Friday night as Emmaus used a 23-0 run in the second quarter to build a 30-7 halftime lead and then weathered a Parkland flurry in the third quarter that saw the Trojans get back within 33-25.
Emmaus’ Dylan Darville had a pair of 65-yard scores, one on a pass from teammate Jake Fotta and another on an interception. He had
Parkland’s Luke Spang threw a pair of touchdown passes and for 306 yards and there were long field goals by Parkland’s Gryffin Mitstifer and Emmaus’ Owen Garcia and so much more.
Emmaus scored 23 unanswered points in the second quarter. Parkland dominated the third period and trimmed a 30-7 halftime deficit to eight.
In the end, however, the Green Hornets defense calmed things down and Jake Fotta’s 44-yard run with just over two minutes left put it away, although only the officials on the field knew exactly how much time was left since the scoreboard clock was shut down after it continually flickered late in the first half.
“We got the lead but Parkland made some plays in the second half which we knew they were capable of doing,” Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough said. “They got themselves right back in it, but our guys made some timely plays and moved the ball on the ground late. Dylan and Jake made some great plays and in the end, it was a great high school football game with a little bit of everything.”
Fairclough said the team would enjoy the win for 24 hours and then go to work once he finds out for sure who his team will play next weekend.
“We’re going to enjoy this, then wake up tomorrow and everybody’s going to be back at 0-0 entering the tournament,” Fairclough said. “But we’re in the postseason and it’s great.”
Parkland coach Tim Moncman wasn’t overly upset at night’s end because of how his team fought back.
“We had too many mistakes in the first half ... a pick-six, a bad snap on a punt for a safety ... but I wanted to see what we were made up and we did a pretty nice job in the second half,” he said. “We still made a few mistakes and still could have had them in the end. But I’m excited about how we responded to that kind of deficit.”
One of those mistakes came on the opening kickoff of the second half when an 85-yard kickoff return by Marquez Wimberly for an apparent touchdown was negated by off-setting unsportsmanlike conduct when a fight broke out between players well away from the play.
Parkland would score three plays later anyway on a 61-yard TD pass from Spang to Nakhi Bullock. After Owen Garcia hit a 38-yard field goal to make it 33-14, Parkland moved quickly again and got a 15-yard TD pass from Spang to Trey Tremba. The Trojans also recovered an onside kick to set up a 42-yard field goal by Gryffin Mitstifer that cut the gap to 33-25 with 2:21 left in the third quarter.
The Trojans, who lost senior center Kaleb Beers to a leg injury in the first half after losing starting lineman Nick Kleckner in the previous game, had three more possessions in the fourth quarter but couldn’t score.
Their best chance was a drive into Emmaus with about three minutes left. But on fourth down at the Green Hornets 41. However, the drive stalled there with a bad snap leading to a scramble and a sack on fourth down.
“For all the time I’ve been here, the defense has been our foundation,” said senior co-captain and safety Ryan DeJohn. “Obviously, they have a good offense, but to keep them to 25 points and do whatever we needed to do to win was awesome. Our MO is not to bend, but not break They can chunk us down the field, but we’re not going to let them finish drives.”
DeJohn said that while winning Cedar Crest Cup was great, there’s a bigger one to get.
“We’re looking for a three-week grind,” he said. “We know what it takes. We know what we need to do again. We’ve just got to get back to work.”
The Western Lehigh Exchange Club sponsors awards for the game and Spang and Trey Tremba were honored as the offensive and defensive players for Parkland and Fotta and Darville were the Emmaus honorees.
The series
Emmaus trimmed Parkland’s lead in the all-time series to 41-20-2. Parkland had won seven of the last 11, but the Green Hornets have now won two in a row. Emmaus won the first six games in the series, which began in 1959. Parkland won 13 out of 14 games in a stretch from 1994-2009.
3-D Darville
Someone on the Emmaus sideline called Darville “3-D”. “His initials are DD and he’s Division I, too,” said the player.
Darville is getting FCS-level looks, including some from the Patriot League, and figures to be a good fit for any program.
The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior set the school’s single-game receiving record last week vs. Easton when he had nine receptions for 236 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Salvaterra held the old record with 224 yards receiving on eight catches vs. Dieruff in 1997.
Against Parkland, he had six catches for more than 120 yards, a receiving touchdown, an interception return for a TD and two pickoffs and also threw a pass for a 28-yard gain.
He entered the game with 45 catches for 844 yards and 10 TDs this season and according to District 11 statistician Duke Helm is the eighth Green Hornet player to have 40 or more catches in a season.
It is believed he has set the school record for receptions in a season which was 48 by Dave Treat in 1989. Of special note, Kevin White, currently of the New Orleans Saints, caught 46 passes in 2009.
His 844 yards entering Friday’s action was fifthbest in school history, but with 120 yards or more it is believed he set another school single-season mark for yards receiving. Matt. Salvaterra, who played at Lehigh, had the record with 890 yards in 1998 after collecting 889 yards the year before.