Adams, defense lift Trojans
Fast start paves way to winning EPC South championship
About 40 minutes before kickoff Friday night, the power went out briefly at Parkland School District Stadium.
With a few minutes, the power went back on and after a much longer delay, the lights returned as well.
But in terms of what happened on the field, the Parkland football team made sure the Emmaus offense suffered through a power outage most of the night.
The Trojans defense combined with a driving rainstorm and a gusting wind coming out of the east to take control of the Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard immediately and never let go in a 25-14 win to claim both the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division title and the No. 1 seed in the upcoming District 11 Class 6A tournament.
Parkland will be home next week when the tournament begins, taking on the No. 8 seed, either Pocono Mountain West or Pleasant Valley. The seeds will be finalized on Saturday after the Allen-Dieruff and Freedom-Liberty games complete the EPC season.
While there was a bit of a surprise as senior quarterback Ty Tremba returned to action for the first time since the team’s second game on Sept. 10, there was no surprise who was the focal point of the Parkland offense.
Senior Dahlir Adams ran for 98 yards on 26 carries and scored on two early touchdown runs.
Parkland (8-1, 7-1) claimed its first division title since 2017. The Trojans scored three touchdowns on its first 12 plays from scrimmage.
The defense set an immediate tone when Jesse Ruisch snuffed out an Emmaus flea-flicker and sacked Green Hornets quarterback Josiah Williams for a 12-yard loss.
Emmaus had to punt into the wind and a no-yard punt set up Parkland at the Green Hornets 12. Three plays later and
Adams had his first touchdown run of the night.
“We run the football, that’s what we do,” Trojans coach Tim Moncman said. “We wanted to have the wind at our backs in the first quarter and we threw some things at them, got some big plays, especially by Jesse Ruisch, and that set up the offense. They have a very good team and a good defense, but we can play defense, too.”
As for the weather conditions, Moncman didn’t mind.
“This is the way it’s supposed to be,” he said. “You have to be ready for all kinds of weather when you play high school football.”
An Emmaus fumble on the second play of its next possession set up the Trojans on the 25. On fourth-and-8 from the 23, the Tremba-to-[Trey] Tremba connection went for 23 yards and a touchdown.
Both teams had fumbles on their next possessions resulting in another short drive for Parkland which wisely kept giving the ball to Adams who added a 6-yard TD run to his earlier 4-yard score.
“The offensive line did a great job and we could run the ball even though the field was tough to run on,” said Adams, who was his team’s offensive MVP and went over 1,000 yards rushing on the season in the first half. “I had to use short, choppy steps to keep my feet.”
The only issue for the Trojans was on extra-point tries. A kick, a pass and run all failed, leaving it at 18-0 with 3:21 still left in the first quarter.
Parkland chewed up a good chunk of the second quarter with an 11-play drive that went from the Trojans 8 to the Green Hornets 19 before it ended on a fumble.
It didn’t matter, however as the Parkland defense led by Ruisch, Noah Rode, Nico Medlar and others maintained control.
Medlar’s 30-yard run on a punt return made it 25-0 with 10:37 left.
“We were looking forward to this game for a long time,” Medlar said after being named his team’s defensive MVP. “We play groundand-pound football and we wanted to take it to them. This was our kind of game.”
Emmaus had negative yardage on offense overall until Sam Moratori broke loose for a 53-yard TD run against the third-team Parkland defense with 5:15 left. The Green Hornets also got a pass for the two-point conversion and a 77-yard TD run by Jasiyah Banks in the final minute, but it was a matter of too little, too late for Emmaus, which lost its second straight game after a 7-1 start.
The Green Hornets, who had Aidan Garrett and Moratori honored as defensive and offensive MVPs respectively, are still in the District 11 6A tournament and may even still get a home game after all the seeds are settled sometime Saturday.
Parkland, looking for its first district title since the last of six in a row in 2017, will be happy to get to play possibly two more games in Orefield, although it may take at least a week for the field to recover from Mother Nature’s beating on Friday.
“We’re happy to be the No. 1 seed, and get home games,” Moncman said. “We’re also happy to be division champs. But now it’s on to the second season.”
History lesson
Parkland entered the game leading the all-time series, which began in 1959, 41-19-1. Emmaus won the first six meetings, but the Trojans have dominated in recent times and had won 12 of the previous 16 meetings before last year’s loss.
Parkland also has clinched its 11th straight winning season and has only had two losing seasons since former superintendent, principal, and athletic director Rich Sniscak took over the program in 1994.
In that time frame, Parkland has won 11 league/division titles and 10 district golds along with the 2002 state championship.
Tim Moncman had a 51-15 record at Parkland entering Friday night’s game and 131-51 in 16 seasons overall. His predecessor, Jim Morgans, was 112-33 in 11 seasons and is the all-time wins leader with the Trojans. Rob Melosky was 33-14 in four seasons and Sniscak went 65-19 in seven seasons. Joe Gerencser had the all-time win mark for a few decades after going 95-35-9 in 14 seasons from 1962-75.
At Emmaus, Luke Lobb is the all-time wins leader with a record of 89-64-6 between 1947-62. Harold Fairclough entered the game 44-17 in his sixth season at Emmaus and 93-45 in 12 seasons overall counting his time at Central Catholic.