Lehigh Valley Week 10

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Fun slate of games in the final week

Nazareth hosts Easton and can clinch an EPC championship with a win. Would be their first conference title since 2011 and only their second league title this century. They’re led by Maine commit at quarterback Anthony Harris who is in the mix for EPC player of the year. It would also be a sweet win for Scott Byrd, Nazareth’s offensive line coach, who spent 30 years at Easton and is the best in the Valley at his job.

Bethlehem Catholic and Allentown Central Catholic meet up in the Holy War, and while Becahi is a solid favorite, ACC has played really well lately, with a big win over Emmaus and taking Freedom to the wire.

Freedom and Liberty tangle in the Christmas City Classic, with the Patriots heavy favorites, though Liberty always gets up for this one.

Northampton can clinch an EPC North title, their first league championship since sharing the 1997 MVC title. They host winless Whitehall in the Concrete Bowl.

Parkland and Emmaus meet in the battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard. Emmaus upset Bethlehem Catholic with Brandon Camire going crazy. He can go over 1,700 yards tonight, though Parkland is fully healthy and embarrassed Easton last week. This should be the most physical game of the night.

In small schools, Pen Argyl and Bangor meet for the 100th time in one of the great underrated rivalries in the area. Salisbury and Southern Lehigh should also be a fun one, where the Falcons can clinch a 3A playoff berth, but will have to contain the Spartan ground game.

 

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Becahi opens with an 85 yard scoring drive to take a 7-0 lead on ACC. Matt Stianche caught a TD pass for the score, big play was Tavion Banks picking up 7 on a 4th and 2.

Nazareth misses a field goal after an ill advised Easton fake punt gave them a short field.

 

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Sophomore Ty Trembs fires a 25 yard TD to Luke Dauberman on fourth down to give Parkland a 7-0 lead over Emmaus.

 

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Nazareth takes a 7-0 lead on Easton with a 33 yard touchdown pass from Harris to Stefanik.

 

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ACC flips a 5 yard touchdown pass to knot things up at 7 with Becahi.

Ali Barkley and Tyrese Brandon have traded touchdowns in Whitehall-Northampton in a 7-7 game.

 

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Easton has gone for it on three fourth downs. Their best play is a three yard loss, and they’ve combined to lose 29 yards on three plays. Yuck.

 

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ACC finishes a 94 yard drive with a Jayden Williams TD run and leads Becahi 14-7. Interesting development here in an early 4A playoff preview.

 

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Nazareth makes a field goal after the Easton tire fire to go up 10-0.

 

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Nahjee Adams bursts in from 6 to cut the Nazareth lead to 10-7. Kick return out past midfield by A’sad Brown and a 25 yard completion to Chase Holmes set up the score.

 

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Nazareth answers. Anthony Harris completes a 22 yard pass on 4th down, then Nate Stefanik scores on a jet sweep. 17-7 Blue Eagles and they’ll get the ball to start the second half. Can really throw a knockout punch.

 

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Nazareth goes up 23-7 on the first play of the 4th quarter. Easton has a 7 minute drive in the third and gets no points (a fourth down sack ended the drive - still haven’t gained a yard on a fourth down try). Nazareth gets a big gain on a flea flicker then Stefanik scores his third TD of the night. Nazareth scores a defensive TD as I type this post to go up 30-7. Beat. Em. Down. After losing to Nazareth twice in 35 years, Easton is going to lose to them twice in three years.

ACC up on Becahi 23-17, but Tavion Banks just cut it to a one score game.

Parkland bearing up Emmaus 24-3.

 

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Allentown Central Catholic with a huge 31-24 win over Bethlehem Catholic. Should be able to run out the last 1:48 of the game. Matt Rauscher and Jayden Williams combined for 287 yards on the ground in the win.

Whitehall is about to win their first game of the year as they lead Northampton 30-20 late in that one. The KKids will have to share the North title.

Easton getting embarrassed 37-7, Nate Stefanik just scored his fourth TD of the night.

 

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Further anecdotal proof that playoffs can absolutely be cut by a round without hurting anybody. A four team playoff in D11 6A this year would be:

Nazareth (9-1) vs Northampton (9-1)
Freedom (9-1) vs Parkland (8-2)

Pretty good! All teams that took care of business and are reasonable district title contenders and state playoff teams. Instead, Easton (6-4), Stroudsburg (6-4), Emmaus (5-5) and Pocono Mountain West (4-6) all are playoff teams and we have a pointless round coming up this weekend. Particularly with adding classes, we could easily lose a round of playoffs too.