Solid as Konkrete
Kids beat Catty for 8th straight time, finish 12-1 for 2nd year in row
Tristen Pinnock won his team’s MVP award in the annual Catasauqua-Northampton Thanksgiving game as a sophomore in 2021.
After scoring five touchdowns in his Konkrete Kids’ 42-12 win over the Rough Riders on Thursday at Al Erdosy Stadium in the 99th meeting between neighboring rivals, Pinnock was an easy choice as a repeat MVP winner.
He could go for a three-peat in the 100th game next year, but that wasn’t what was on his mind after he caught three TD passes from Antonino Russo and ran for two more in Northampton’s eighth consecutive win in the series.
“Today was about the seniors,” he said. “I love these guys. They’ve been my family and there’s nothing I wouldn’t do for them and they wouldn’t do for me. We’ve been so close these last few years. I’m just happy we could send them out on a high note.”
The victory capped a second straight 12-2 season for Northampton, which again rebounded from a loss in the District 11 6A semifinals with a win on Thanksgiving. Catasauqua finished with seven wins for the second straight series.
The game was more competitive than many expected through the first half and then the K-Kids broke it open with back-to-back scores late in the third quarter. Pinnock scored on a short run and Jaelen Richardson, one of the seniors playing his last game, returned a punt 60 yards for the final touchdown of his career.
It was the only touchdown not scored by Pinnock.
“I saw an open lane, made some
guys miss and went down right down the sideline,” Richardson said. “This group of seniors has worked extremely hard the past two years. We went through some coaching changes and it was a little weird for us. We have the COVID year, too. It was an interesting high school career but we ended it on a high note.”
Northampton extended its lead all-time over Catty to 62-33-4. The K-Kids have scored at least 40 points against Catty in the last seven games.
But the Roughies didn’t roll over. As expected, they kept the ball on the ground and tried to control the clock. They had some 91 yards rushing on 29 carries.
“They came out and did what we thought they’d do feeding their big running back,” Northampton coach John Toman said. “We were able to come out and get two quick scores and got a little separation. We were businesslike and methodical in what we were doing and did enough to be successful. We were a little sloppy on special teams to give them some opportunities, but that happens.”
Catasauqua coach Travis Brett was proud of his kids effort.
“We played pretty well,” he said. “We dropped a pass or else we probably would have gone into the half down only 21-17. We got a big kickoff return to start the second half and couldn’t finish the drive. We also had an interception and didn’t finish that drive either. It’s tough. We just don’t have the numbers. They’re subbing in fresh bodies the entire game. If we have 20 more bodies on our sideline we probably win this game.”
Northampton got four interceptions, including two by AJ Slivka who made a one-handed grab on one of the picks. Richardson added one and Pinnock closed out the game with an interception on the final play.
Asked about Pinnock scoring five touchdowns, Toman said it wasn’t intentional.
“I’m excited for him that he had such a great game, but he just happened to be the guy at the other end of things,” Toman said. “We talk about with the kids and tell them you can’t worry about who’s
getting the touchdowns. You just worry about winning.”
The K-Kids offense was sparked by junior Caden Henritzy, who ran for 185 yards on 15 carries and finished the season with 1,458 yards. He’ll enter his senior season with close to 2,400 career yards.
Senior quarterback Antonino Russo threw for 204 yards and finished his one season as a varsity player with over 1,300 yards passing and 16 TDs.
Anthonie Hunsicker was named the Rough Riders’ MVP after he delivered a workhorse performance that included 91 yards on 29 carries. The rest of the Catty offense had just 43 yards, only 13 in the passing game.
“Our kids believed they could play with them and I thought they did,” Brett said. “They made some mistakes, but if you don’t have fresh bodies, eventually these big guys are going to wear you down
and that’s what’s going to happen.”
Brett was happy Hunsicker got over 1,000 yards on the season.
“He actually missed our first four games with some knee problems,” Brett said. “He hardly practiced the entire season because he was in that trainer’s room a lot. For a kid that didn’t really practice and missed four games, he had a heck of a year. We have some guys who can fill in next year in Chad Beller who’s our center right now. You’re going to see a lot of him next year.”
After going 14-11 over the last two years after Brett said he’s already looking forward to next year.
“We’re making progress,” he said. “The kids have to believe and you have to practice hard. It’s a fulltime job and we will do our best to keep working with the kids. We don’t lose a lot of seniors. We have a lot of good kids coming back so we’re looking forward to what’s
coming up.”
Toman is also looking forward to 2023 after going 24-2 in his first two seasons at Northampton.
“We’ve got Henritzy back, Slivka back, Pinnock back, [lineman] Colby Reph back; we’ve got a good nucleus of juniors coming back,” he said. “But our seniors can leave with their heads held high. They were 24-2 the last two years and I don’t know if there’s another senior group that had the success the last two years that this group had. They set the foundation and the culture for us to continue. For the guys coming back, we give them two weeks and we’ll get back to work before Christmas.”
SCORING SUMMARY NORTHAMPTON 42, CATASAUQUA 12
Catasauqua
Northampton
FIRST QUARTER
N: Tristen Pinnock 4 pass from Antonino Russo (Aaron Gutkowski kick), 8:30 (Drive: 9 plays, 91 yards, 3:30)
N: Pinnock 73 pass from Russo (Gutkowski kick), 01002—12 714147—42