Whitehall doesn’t allow history to repeat
Zephyrs hold 14-0 lead early, never look back
The scores were similar.
In the 2021 District 11 5A championship game, Whitehall led East Stroudsburg South 27-14 at halftime. Saturday night in the 2022 finals, the Zephyrs led Southern Lehigh 29-17 at intermission.
A year earlier, Whitehall couldn’t stop its opponent in the second half and suffered a crushing 47-41 overtime defeat. On Saturday night, the Zephyrs made sure history didn’t repeat.
Whitehall tacked on two touchdowns and didn’t allow any second-half points in a convincing 43-17 victory that gave the program its second district 5A title in three years, fourth in seven seasons, and seventh district championship overall.
Junior quarterback Trey Dogmanits completed 11 of 14 passes for 275 yards and five touchdowns.
Senior running back Nigel Linton caught two passes for 110 yards and two scores and also ran for 90 yards and a touchdown, and Braden Bashore caught four passes for 105 yards and two TDs.
Whitehall improved to 7-5 and earned another home game Friday night, against District 2 champ Delaware Valley (7-5).
“This one feels good after what we went through last year with the heartbreak in that game,” Zephyrs coach Matt Senneca said. “These seniors and these kids had a lot of people count them out. But they said it wasn’t going to happen to us. It wasn’t going to go the same way. These kids put the work in for 12 months to get us back to this game tonight. They put in the effort and did it.”
Whitehall scored on its first play from scrimmage, an 80-yard shovel pass from Dogmanits to Linton. A turnover gave the ball back to the Zephyrs and Dogmanits hit Linton for a 30-yard score to make it 14-0 90 seconds into the game.
But Southern Lehigh regrouped and came back with its own scoring drive, and answered twice more after Whitehall scores.
“Give them credit because they came out with a lot of stuff they didn’t show on film,” Senneca said. “They got us on some different things, but again give our kids credit for reacting and playing football.”
Senneca admitted that things seemed similar to the 2021 game at halftime.
“The kids made a decision at halftime it wasn’t going to be the same situation as last year,” Senneca said. “They came out and took care of business.”
Dogmanits hit Bashore and Jack Kocher for second-half scores, finishing up one of the biggest nights for a quarterback in District 11 history.
A year earlier, Dogmanits threw for 239 yards and three touchdowns but was topped by South’s Bobby McClosky, who threw for 286 yards and four TDs and also ran for two TDs.
This time, there was no topping Dogmanits.
“We got the ball out to the receivers and they made plays,” Dogmanits said. “They broke a bunch of tackles, and honestly, they boosted my stats. We were up at half last year, too, and we knew we couldn’t let it slip away again. The defense came out and pitched a shutout and we were able to score when we had to.”
Dogmanits had to play as a sophomore in 2021 due to injury. This time, it was his job from the start and his development has taken Whitehall from four wins to seven with at least one more game to go.
“I couldn’t be more proud of this team,” Dogmanits said. “We started out rough with a loss to Bethlehem Catholic. We kept building every week and everyone came a long way to get us where we are today. It feels great to be 7-5 when you are picked to finish last in your league. Now we’d like to get one more win at home since we lost our last game there.”
Southern Lehigh, which had its season end at 9-3, lost for the fifth time in seven years to Whitehall in the playoffs. This was the Spartans’ third loss to the Zephyrs in the district finals.
Even without injured quarterback Avery Koser, Southern Lehigh gave Whitehall problems and battled to the end.
“There are always what ifs out there, but Whitehall’s a great team and this was a great win for them,” Spartans coach Phil Sams said. “We missed our quarterback and who knows how it would have changed the game, but they get an 80-yard touchdown on the first play of the game and then we fumble on the kickoff return and they score and it’s 14-0 right away. That’s tough. At the same time, we’ve got to score more than 17 points to win a game like this.”
Sams was pleased with a ninewin season but is more proud of what the seniors accomplished after going through some ups and downs. Through four years, the seniors posted a combined record of 30-14 with four district appearances, two shots in the finals, and the 2019 district gold.
“We have nine of them and they went through a lot,” Sams said. “We had some kids transfer, some kids quit and some other stuff too, but to get back here to the district finals was awesome and I couldn’t be more proud of them.”