1. Nazareth Blue Eagles (1-0)
Nazareth is going to be a real problem. I said in my scores thread on Friday that I think they’re a top 5 team in the state and they might be closer to 2 than 5. The big question mark for Nazareth was quarterback, where they were breaking in a first year starter surrounded by a lot of returning talent. It helps that the first year starter is sophomore Peyton Falzone (son of head coach Tom Falzone) who, while in 10th grade, is also 6’4 190 pounds with an offer from Maryland before he’s played a varsity snap. After watching clips of their first game, I’m all the way in. Falzone went 12-16 for 260 yards and three touchdowns in his varsity debut, including two beautiful throws to returning All State wideout Mason Kuehner for scores. Falzone is probably going to end up the best college prospect quarterback we’ve had up here since Brendan Nosovitch.
But it’s what’s around Falzone that has them as solid favorites. Kuehner is an excellent high school wide receiver (holds offers from Temple, Old Dominion, James Madison, Kent State, plus a bevy of the top tier FCS schools – Richmond, New Hampshire, Villanova, Harvard, Delaware) and gets paired with Logan Hilarczyk, who had 25 catches as a junior, and sophomore transfer Caleb Newsome, who had over 500 yards receiving at Peddie School and already is gathering FCs offers as an underclassman. Marquez Wimberly returned the opening kickoff of the season for a touchdown and Tom Falzone has noted “we haven’t had a kid like him here in the backfield” since he took over. Oh, and all five offensive linemen are back – including All State left tackle Sean Kinney. Defensively, Newsome, Wimberly, and Kuehner highlight the defensive backfield and Kinney is the premier nose tackle in the area. After giving up a TD on the opening drive, they stifled East Stroudsburg South on Friday.
The schedule is super front loaded, so we’ll see exactly how good they are in the next few weeks with Emmaus, Freedom, and Parkland in weeks 2-4. But I think this is the best D11 team since Parkland in 2015.
2. Parkland Trojans (1-0)
Parkland also rolled to a 40 point win on opening weekend. Picking the Trojans is leaning on the experience of three year starting quarterback Luke Spang and the all around excellence of running back/slot receiver Trey Tremba. Spang has been a steady hand running the Trojan offense and has bulked up a little for his senior season (6’1 190) and holds some Division III offers. Tremba is a West Point commit after racking up 1,700 yards from scrimmage last year with 24 touchdowns – he’ll be in his fourth year as a starter. They’re aided by a veteran offensive line that brings back four starters, while the group doesn’t have a standout or next level guy, they’ll play with typical Tim Moncman-coached toughness and have a ton of experience to lean on. They’re incredibly green at receiver, though Connor Johns has picked up a Lehigh offer after only playing one season of football and I think the staff believes a lot in his potential. Defensively, they bring back three starters up front, including all league defensive tackle Russell Clark (5’10 240) but will need to their linebackers and a vast majority of their secondary. This is a good team, but I don’t think they have quite the star power to be the pick to win it.
3. Emmaus Green Hornets (1-0)
Harold Fairclough has turned Emmaus into a perennial contender after decades of being a local also-ran. That has resulted in a few regular season conference championships and a pair of D11 finals trips, but has not yet translated into their first ever District title. Emmaus has certainly been vocal about that next step being the goal, though they have some holes to fill to get there. For Emmaus, it starts this year on the offensive and defensive lines, where Mario Landino (6’4 255) and Ben Mercado (6’5 270) make up the best tandem of offensive backles and defensive ends in the conference. Landino in particular is a game-wrecker on defense and should be a double digit sack guy off the edge. He’s a James Madison commit, while Mercado will play at FCS Sacred Heart. They also have Josiah Williams at quarterback – he started at sophomore while Jake Fotta missed the season with a torn ACL. Williams played in some specialty packages and got snaps at receiver last year when Fotta returned and was one of their best defenders at free safety. He’ll be back at QB and is probably the most dangerous dual-threat guy in the Valley. How they grow up at running back and receiver will dicate how serious of a contender they are.
4. Allentown Central Catholic Vikings (1-0)
The Vikings had the toughest opener of any team in the EPC South, needing a stopped two-point conversion in overtime to survive, 17-16, against EPC North favorite Northampton. ACC has a ton of high end talent – Braheem Battles (6’3 315) is an FCS prospect at defensive tackle after an All State sophomore season, Jareel Calhoun (5’10 175) is a burner at receiver who also earned All State nods as a 10th grader, and Fynn McDonald (6’8 325) is a monster at offensive tackle, and Brown commit Nasir McLean (5’11 175) at corner – but will need to replace a trio of All State linebackers and figure out quarterback. Rob Melosky named Liberty transfer, Antonio Fontanez, a sophomore, the starter at QB and he had an up and down debut, but stamped it with a game-winning TD pass in overtime. ACC is huge and physical up front and will really benefit from the EPC South schedule when they enter the 4A playoffs at the end of the season. Initially, I had them in the tier with Nazareth and Parkland, but after playing Northampton closer than I thought they would, I’m withholding a little bit of optimism, though they still should be quite good.
5. Freedom Patriots (1-0)
Speaking of playing teams too close, Freedom pitched a 14-0 shutout of STroudsubrg on opening night, which is great news about their defense and not so much about the revamped offense. Chase Walker got the start at quarterback and Noah Pierre scored a pair of touchdowns, but it was not the explosive spread option running attack we’ve seen from Freedom over the last half decade. Defensively, they’re going to be really tough, particularly with Tanner Wheeler (6’5 270) coming off the edge (really good year for Lehigh Valley defensive linemen with Wheeler, Landino, Kinney, Battles, and Mercado). Ryan Ellis, Jordyn Moore, Dylan Hill, and Caden Curry give Freedom a really good set of offensive and defensive linemen, but how the skill spots develop will determine whether they can challenge the top four.
6. Northampton Konkrete Kids (0-1)
Moving into the EPC North has saved Northampton football. After struggling mightily in the EPC South, including three straight seasons without a conference win, the conference moved them into the North (and made Bethlehem Catholic and ACC permanent South members) and Northampton thrived with the more manageable schedule – they’re 42-8 since the move and have won 26 straight North contensts. But they have not beaten an EPC South team in the D11 playoffs, which is clearly the goal this year. John Toman thinks this is the best Northampton squad of the run, led by Caden Henritzy, who ran for 1,400 yarsd as a junior and should break the K-Kids all-time rushing mark this season. Triston Pinnock and Tymir Williams give them a pair of receivesr who can do some damage, and they’re huge on the offensive line, including Temple recruit Ben Reph. They’ll be physical on defesne, with Henritzy and Pinnock returning All Leauge guys. Their other crossover game is Whitehall, which should be a win, and they’ll head into the playoffs likely 1-9 and the #2 seed behind the South winner (unless they totally cannibalize each other). Then the real challenge starts.
7. Notre Dame (Green Pond) Crusaders (1-0)
The pick to win D11 in 4A, Notre Dame’s high flying offense put up 48 points in a season opening win over Saucon Valley. Danny Darno threw for 188 yards and ran for 135 and accounted for four total touchdowns in the win. Once again, Notre Dame is going to score a ton of points under head coach Phil Stambaugh (formerly of Pius X) but how far they advance will be based on how well they can play defense. They gave up 230 yards rushing to Saucon Valley, so lots of prep is needed before they can bank on beating North Schuylkill, but it’s going to be a lot of fun getting there.
8. Northwestern Lehigh Tigers (1-0)
The defending 3A champions in D11, Northwestern Lehigh opened with a 49-6 win over Tamaqua and should be excellent again for head coach Josh Snyder. Dalton Clymer is the headliner, a 1,000 yard rusher who also had 100 tackles as a junior and will be the feature weapon on offense and defense. They spent Friday rotating quarterbacks between Mason Bollinger and Shane Leh, though both were always on the field at either QB or receiver. They’re a tiny school in the middle of nowhere, so they’ll struggle when they hit the Neuman-Goretti’s of the world, but Snyder has his alma mater really humming along as an excellent small school program (49-11 over the last five years).
9. Executive Education Raptors (1-0)
Executive Education is a charter school in Allentown that won the 1A title in D11 last year in their second year as a program. They’ve been a staple on the state basketball scene since the school was founded, with lots of groaning that it’s essentially a basketball program with a school attached to it (they announced their basketball head coach, local legend Ray Barbosa, in the same press conference where they announced the opening of the school). They seem to have similar ambitions in football, where they have tried to play a regional schedule and really blitz advertise the Valley to bump up enrollment numbers with football players. They’re better in the skill spots than on the offensive line, after extensively competing in the 7-on-7 circuit, but they should be a solid favorite in the smallest classification.
10. Stroudsburg Mounties (0-1)
Stroudsburg gets the nod in my final spot after pushing Freedom to the limit on Friday. They couldn’t muster a touchdown, but held the Patriots to 14 points in a solid season opening effort. They’ll compete with Northampton for top dog status in the EPC North.
My Musing on the Easton Red Rovers
My alma mater opened the season with a 42-0 win over East Stroudsburg North. While ESN is traditionally one of the weakest football teams in Pennsylvania, there were some good things to see from Easton in Matt Senneca’s first game as head coach. Running back Will Day (Jr. 5’11 185) ran for 101 yards on 8 carries and scored twice. More importantly, he’s grown a ton since his sophomore season and runs with some real power. Senneca noted after the game that he likes how Day’s skillset as a back fits into how they block and he could have a really big year. That actually was the thing that seemed to be the biggest difference from the previous regime – the offense looked like it had a coherent philosophy, pistol, spread to run, play with serious tempo. Both quarterbacks took advantage of smoke reads and took free yards on quick throws when ESN would load up the box, but they didn’t really chuck it downfield. It was also a really young group – they started two sophomores and two juniors on the offensive line, a sophomore at tight end, a sophomore at quarterback, a junior running back, a freshman got snaps in H-back sets, and they had two sophomores on the defensive line, one at linebacker, and one in the secondary. I only counted five seniors getting serious snaps early in the game. This team is going to take their lumps. But if Senneca can coach them up, we may be talking about actually living up to program expectations in 2024 and 2025.
