A lot of movement this week. First, Liberty drops from 3 down to 6 after a 37-35 loss to Nazareth, who moves up from 9 to 5. The Blue Eagles jump Bethlehem Catholic, who lost to Liberty, on the strength of two quality wins and the "best" loss of the one-loss group, a last minute 31-27 defeat by #4 Freedom. Easton hops Freedom on the transitive property, their 49-7 win over Emmaus slightly more impressive than Freedom’s 28-7 victory over the same Green Hornet squad. Freedom also unfortunately loses some subjective points with the season ending injury to star running back Roberto Diez. Becahi falls back slightly nobody of note while other teams are starting to gain quality wins, and Liberty has lost some luster after falling from the ranks of the undefeateds. Meanwhile, Saucon Valley went on the road blew out fellow Colonial League and 3A contender Southern Lehigh. Stroudsburg re-enters the rankings after a dominant win over East Stroudsburg South, and some rehabilitation of their close Nazareth loss after an excellent early season showing by the Blue Eagles. Parkland and Wyoming Valley West remain 1 and 2, with Parkland needing to wait another week before their schedule picks up, and the Spartans with a chance to impress this week against Berwick, though I’m not sure how big of a performance would be needed to move them ahead of the Trojans, who are such a consensus favorite.
1. Parkland (3-0)
Last Week: Parkland beat Allentown Central Catholic 28-14 in a workmanlike victory. A solid, but quiet performance from Devante Cross (12-20 for 149 yards, 13 carries, 70 yards, 2 touchdowns) and Parkland got the most production from their ground game this season, getting 87 yards from Eric DiGiralomo and 70 from Jahan Worth. But the big story was Parkland’s defense, which sacked former teammate Ethan Persa seven times and held ACC scoreless until the game was out of reach in the fourth quarter.
Early Star: Eric DiGiralomo made 85 tackles last season as the only underclassman in the linebacking corps. This season, DiGiralomo takes the mantle from Preston Saylor, Nezar Haddad, Matt Laub, Nick Gurinowich, Rob Dvorcek, and the other great Parkland linebackers that serve as the backbone of their defense. DiGiralomo has spent most of his season in opposing backfields in Tim Moncman’s blitz heavy scheme. The Lehigh lacrosse commit is also seeing carries at running back, where he has scored three touchdowns.
This Week: Parkland has their last breather, a home contest with Pocono Mountain West, before the schedule really kicks into high gear. The Trojans finish the season with Whitehall, Liberty, Easton, Freedom, Nazareth, and Emmaus, the toughest six-week stretch of any team in the District.
2. Wyoming Valley West (3-0)
Last Week: The Spartans skated past Pittston, 63-14, with Sean Judge returning two interceptions for touchdowns as the game’s big star. Quarterback Aaron Austin continued his solid debut season under center, completing eight of ten passes for 160 yards and three touchdowns in the first half to put the game away by the break.
Early Star: Wyoming Valley West has been getting the expected big production on both sides of the ball from their stars. I’ll highlight one of the less flashy guys, fullback/middle linebacker Billy Davidson. After leading the Spartans with 88 tackles last season, Davidson has racked up 28 stops, four for loss, plus a pick and a forced fumble on defense. Offensively, Davidson is averaging 13.1 yards per carry, on his way to 144 yards and 2 touchdowns, plus opening up holes from the fullback/H-back spot for Sean Judge.
This Week: Wyoming Valley West’s explosive offense will have to contend with the excellent Berwick defense on Friday. The Dawgs have given up just one offensive touchdown in three games and have not been scored on in nine straight quarters. In last week’s shutout of Dallas Area, Berwick recorded six sacks, and keeping Aaron Austin’s jersey clean will be imperative for Chris Bleich and co. on the WVW offensive line. Offensively, the Dawgs have nowhere near the fire power of the Spartans, but run a grind it out, ball control offense that I think is going to have a lot of trouble against the talented front four on WVW’s defense that can eat space for Davidson and the rest of the Spartan linebackers to come up and stop the run..
3. Easton (3-0)
Last Week: Northampton did exactly what Emmaus wanted to execute; they put 9 guys in the box at all times and limited the Easton running game, daring them to throw. Of course, those results did not go exactly as planned, as Trey Durrah completed 8 of 13 passes for 206 yards and three touchdowns. Wide receiver Trevon Mills caught four passes for 96 yards, tight ends Trey Bailey and Rich Tattolli and running back Nysir Minney-Gratz all caught touchdowns, and Katrell Thompson returned a punt 66 yards for a score, Easton's third in as many games. The Red Rover defense held Northampton to 68 yards of total offense.
Early Star: The Red Rover defense is allowing just 122.6 yards per game (84.3 rushing, 38.6 passing). They’ve allowed just 2.5 yards per carry, and the first team defense has allowed only one touchdown. Steve Shiffert has started comparing it to his 2004 unit which was even more undersized, but had a similar, fast, gang tackling style, and gave up 8.6 points per game to fuel an Eastern Final run. The 2015 group has been fabulous against the pass, getting great pressure from the front four, particularly Daloni Caldwell off of the edge, and they have athletes in the secondary that allow coordinator Doug Powell to implement creative and aggressive schemes with his linebackers.
Next Game: Easton takes on Allentown Central Catholic. The Vikings couldn’t get much going offensively last week against Parkland, but slowed down the potent Trojan offense, and were particularly impressive limiting the impact of Kenny Yeboah. Easton offers a much different look than the Trojans, but Central has the speed in the back seven to give them problems. And while ACC’s offense remains a work in progress, few playcallers have had as much success against Doug Powell defenses as Rob Melosky.
4. Freedom (3-0)
Last Week: Joe Young carved up Emmaus, completing 13 of 18 passes to seven different receivers for 185 yards and a touchdown and rushing for 106 yards on 13 carries in Freedom’s 28-7 win. The defense uncharacteristically only forced one turnover, but held non-Kyle Boney members of Emmaus’s offense to 57 yards on 31 plays. Boney did rush for 157 yards on 25 carries, but was held without a touchdown for the first time all season.
Early Star: Freedom did suffer a tremendous casualty in Friday’s win, losing running back Roberto Diez for the season with a lower leg injury. Diez was in the midst of a breakout senior campaign, running for 270 yards and 6 touchdowns in Freedom’s first two games and piling up over 50 yards in the first half against Emmaus on eight carries. He had clearly worked very hard in the offseason, putting on a bunch of good weight and looking like a back who could lead his team to a deep playoff run. Now Freedom has to scramble to replace him in the run game for at least the remainder of the regular season, if not for the whole year.
Next Week: Freedom takes on Northampton at newly renovated Al Erdosy Stadium, in the final week of a brutal stretch for the Konkrete Kids, who saw Parkland-Easton-Freedom all in a row. Northampton is better, but has not moved the ball much in the last two weeks, and the prospects aren’t good against the Freedom defense. Easton and Parkland both carved them up through the air, and Joe Young will be expected to do the same.
