District 11 Playoffs

[RoverNation05]

Brackets came out Sunday after Freedom's Saturday night romp over Liberty closed out the regular season in D11 6A. Here's what we've got

#8 Stroudsburg Mounties (6-4) at #1 Easton Red Rovers (9-1)
#5 Nazareth Blue Eagles (7-3) at #4 Emmaus Green Hornets (8-2)

#7 Northampton Konkrete Kids (5-5) at #2 Freedom Patriots (9-1)
#6 Liberty Hurricanes (7-3) at #3 Parkland Trojans (8-2)

Only curious result of power points is Parkland getting seeded ahead of Emmaus despite getting crushed, 27-0 in the season finale with the Green Hornets. Emmaus won the Lehigh County division of the EPC, but is seeded behind their arch-rival.

Lots of great potential rematches. Easton blew out Stroudsburg in the regular season, and should do the same Friday. That will get them the winner of Nazareth-Emmaus, so they'll either have to beat the team they just survived a 63-55 insane game with, or a team that took them to overtime, and missed a chip shot field goal in regulation that would have beaten the Rovers.

On the other side, it seems like everything is lined up for a Parkland-Freedom rematch. In the regular season, two turnovers and a shanked punt led directly to points for Freedom in a 30-13 rout. Expect a lot closer match up in round two, as Freedom is down a number of starters with big injuries (Justin Peluso has been out since week 5, and offensive lineman Aaron James joined him on IR after the Easton game).

First two rounds are hosted by the higher seed, with the finals played at a neutral site - I think Northampton, but I haven't seen that confirmed. Let the record show, I HATE neutral sites for the finals - everybody plays everybody during the season, so earning one of the top seeds should come with home field advantage all the way through. Some of the best high school football atmosphere's I've seen are D11 titles games at home sites, and changing that was a mistake.

 

[D1 Transplant]

I understand Parkland accumulated more power points than Emmaus, but come on. District 11 needed to step up on this one and seeded the teams. This makes no sense to me. How can Emmaus, with the same record, and a victory against Parkland, finish behind them?

 

[Frank_montco]

I understand Parkland accumulated more power points than Emmaus, but come on. District 11 needed to step up on this one and seeded the teams. This makes no sense to me. How can Emmaus, with the same record, and a victory against Parkland, finish behind them?

Unfortunately the Loss to Neshaminy(4 losses). No real perfect system if using power points. Unlucky how it turned out.

 

[RoverNation05]

Picking games

Easton should stomp Stroudsburg. We’re 29 years removed from Stroudsburg coming into Cottingham and beating an Easton team on a hot streak to knock out the Rovers in their opening playoff game (1995 semis). Don’t see it happening again - Easton won handily in the regular season and I dont think the Mounties have answers.

Nazareth and Emmaus is the weekend highlight. These teams did not meet during the season. Nazareth has to figure out what happened in their run defense last week, because much like Easton, Emmaus can punch you in the mouth. Reilly Bechtel is a 1,000 yard rusher, they’ve got a run threat in Jerek Cooper at quarterback, and a big and physical offensive line, anchored be all league tackle Brody McHugh. Obviously on the other side, Nazareth’s offense is a laser show, with the best quarterback up here since Nosovitch, and two insanely dangerous skill guys. Emmaus is very good on defense, led by EPC DPOY Robert Edwards at 4 technique. He’s huge with a great motor and has put up spectacular numbers this year. Nazareth is undersized up front, and will need to scheme around the 6’3 305 pounder. I think they can, so I’ll go Nazareth, but I’m wary of Bechtel just running them over.

Freedom will stomp Northampton. The KKids are perfectly good, but they’ve never hit that next level of football in their ascendance. Freedom is the most experienced and one of the most talented teams in the field, they won’t get upset.

Parkland and Liberty is a little more interesting with Parkland laying and egg against Emmaus last week. The offense isn’t quite there, particularly in the passing game, and Liberty is frisky on defense. But they’ve also been gashed in the run during their three losses, so maybe Parkland and their three all league linemen clear a path for TJ Lawrence to break out. Parkland comfortably.

 

[RoverNation05]

Easton-Stroudsburg radio



Nazareth-Emmaus broadcast

 

[RoverNation05]

Emmaus up 21-0 on Nazareth

 

[RoverNation05]

Easton unsurprisingly rolls Stroudsburg - up 28-0 at halftime, 42-7 final. The bigger story from the game is Cole Ordway threw for 320 yards on a season high 29 attempts. Easton came out throwing and got touchdown catches from JC Wilson and Jasir Frutchey, and Ordway also ran for a pair of touchdowns. Overall, Easton was sloppy - a boatload of penalties kept this one out of mercy rule way longer than it should - but they win their 10th game and advance to their first D11 semifinal since 2019 (where they also played Emmaus).

The highlight came turned into a laugher, with Emmaus posting their second straight shutout, this one a wildly impressive 35-0 win over Nazareth, one week after the Blue Eagles scored 55 points. They harassed Peyton Falzone into going 19-40 with an interception and just 137 yards. Meanwhile, Emmaus ran for 323 yards, including 147 from Reilly Bechtel and 88 from quarterback Jerek Cooper, who opened the game with a 40 yard TD run on the fifth play from scrimmage. Most impressively, Emmaus held Marquez Wimberly to 10 carries for 20 yards and one catch for four yards. Nazareth finishes their title defense 7-4.

Freedom shut out Northamtpon for three quarters and comfortably won 38-15. Amare DuBoise starred with a career high 117 yards on five catches.

Parkland scored late to pull away from Liberty, 27-9 in a game that was 13-9 for large chunks of it. Liberty was playing without quarterback Antonio Fontanez, who sat out after transferring back to Liberty from Allentown Central Catholic, where he played as a sophomore (he played freshman football at Liberty). Parkland will travel to Freedom next week.