which Parkland team was the best?

[BradlyPitt]

state champs in 2002, state finalists in 2007 and 2015

which was their best team? maybe another team that didn't make the finals?

which team?

 

[RoverNation05]

I’ll start with the easy one – the best Parkland team is the 2002 group that won a state championship – because of how good their defense is. Obviously, they had superman and that was most if not all of their offense. Austin Scott needs no introduction, but the numbers are still eye popping every time – 357 carries, 3,853 yards, 10.8 yards per carry, 53 touchdowns. It was an historically great rushing attack, with Scott’s fullback, Nick Pinchek running for 1,115 yards (8.2 yards per carry) and 12 touchdowns of his own. Still, the personnel on offense was underwhelming outside of Scott and Pinchek – their best lineman was sophomore left tackle Morgan Thomas (6’3 295) who was an Division II All American at East Stroudsburg, but was really young and was more “really good football player” than “tremendous athlete and football player”. The interior lineman were 6’0 250-5’10 225-5’10 255. None played at a higher level. The right tackle, Chris Psarsky, was 6’2 235 and played defense at Bloomsburg. So Scott put up those numbers running behind a pedestrian offensive line, by state champion standards. They also only threw 81 passes in 15 games, though wideout/winback Brandon Rosenblatt (Yale) and tight end Mike Glass (walk on – South Carolina) were credible threats with the ball in their hands, and Pinchek was their leading receiver with 14 catches.

But it’s the defense, namely the front 7, that makes this the best Parkland team. Brothers Travis (6’4 230 defensive end) and Cody Decker (6’5 270 defensive tackle) combined for 45 sacks, including seven against Woodland Hills in the title game – Travis, only a junior, had 13 sacks in the five game playoff run alone. He went onto earn FCS All American honors at Dusquense. Cody had four sacks in the win over Central Dauphin They were both All State along with middle linebacker Adam Atiyeh, who was the best non-Scott college prospect – he played fullback at Pitt – and was an old school thumper inside (6’3 230). Then the rest of the defensive front was Glass (6’4 220) at end, 270 pound nose guard Shane Schneider (Shippensburg), and the two outside linebackers both were Division I wrestlers (Mike Heist – Pitt; Nick Guida – Illinois, who was a state champ on the mat at 171). Pinchek was an All State safety, and had FCS offers to play defensive back, but walked on at Penn State where he ran down kicks for four years on special teams.

At the end of the regular season, the top three teams in the state were #1 Central Dauphin, #2 Bethlehem Catholic, and #3 Woodland Hills. I think Parkland is the only state champ ever to go through the top three teams in the state on their way to a championship. Parkland was #5 after losing their opener in overtime to Bethlehem Catholic. They returned the favor by beating Becahi them 14-11 in the D11 final, where their defense held Becahi to 188 yards of total offense – despite Becahi having the All State quarterback who went onto play at West Virginia, who threw to three Division I receivers.

In quarters, they beat Central Dauphin, who was #13 in the country by USA Today, 28-21. The Rams came into the game leading the state in scoring at 47.3 points per game, but Parkland sacked them seven times, held them to -6 yards rushing, 15-40 passing, and under 200 yards of total offense, in one of the great defensive efforts I’ve ever seen.

In semis they killed North Penn (the bulk of whom would come back and win the 2003 state championship), then beat Woodland Hills, who had moved up to #3 in the country in the USA Today poll, 34-12 in the final. Scott ran for 251 and five touchdowns, but the defense sacked Woodland Hills a state title game record 10 times (seven coming from the Decker brothers). Woodland Hills had 202 yards of offense, with just 9 of those coming in the second half, and they did not get a first down after they took a 12-7 lead in the second quarter.

Long way of saying, that Parkland team was really good, and is their definite #1, but in part 2 I'll go through some of the others.

 

[RoverNation05]

Parkland has kind of an interesting football history – they opened in 1954 as a small-ish school out in the farmland outside of Allentown. They got decent to good in the early 1960s to mid 1970s when they were in the Lehigh-Northampton League (Parkland played with fellow small schools Southern Lehigh, Salisbury, Nazareth, Wilson, Northwestern Lehigh, Saucon Valley, Pen Argyl, Bangor, Pleasant Valley, East Stroudsburg, Palisades, Pocono Mountain, and Jim Thorpe). They were the class of that league in the early ‘70s, which would be like winning the Colonial League today. In 1976, they joined the newly formed East Penn Conference (the present day EPC South, plus Philipsburg, NJ instead of Nazareth) and got their teeth kicked in for nearly 20 years. They were a legitimately terrible football program for the rest of the 70s, all of the 80s, and the early 1990s.

Two things changed Parkland’s fortunes. One, the housing boom of the 1990s turned all of those farmlands into sprawling suburbs which people fled the city of Allentown for as non-urban housing went up close to the city. Lots of the names you see at Parkland as second and third generation Lehigh Valley families were names you’d see on William Allen and Dieruff rosters in the ‘70s and ‘80s, plus obviously tons of new people moving to the area with the increased housing supply in Parkland School District. Second, in addition to students, they also took the football coach from William Allen – Rich Snisack, who had the Canaries as D11 champs in 1992. Snisack is the one who built Parkland into what it is today, going 65-19 from 1994-2000 before becoming principal, then superintendent, of Parkland schools. The chain of coaches from Rich Snisack to Rob Melosky to Jim Morgans to Tim Moncman is as good as you’ll find at any school.



2015
I think the second best Parkland team was the 2015 state runner-ups. I’m a big Devante Cross fan, I think he’s as good a high school quarterback as we’ve had up here, including Nosovitch, Persa, Gonzalez, etc. No other Parkland team has had a quarterback like that, which I think is the difference maker – that season he threw for 2,947 yards and 26 touchdowns and ran for 1,385 yards and 19 touchdowns. The one “what-if” for that Parkland team is if Cross did not tear his MCL in the state quarterfinal against LaSalle. Cross only ran the ball seven times combined in their semifinal against Upper Dublin and final against Pittsburgh Central Catholic after carrying it 209 times in the first 14 games of the year – including a 28 carry, 131 yard 2 TD performance in the aforementioned quarterfinal win. The PCC game in the finals was way closer than I expected it to be (18-15), and I wonder if Parkland could have pulled it out if Cross wasn’t hurt and could have run the ball/scrambled rather than have to just sit in the pocket. When Cross was a junior, he threw for 281 and ran for 96 against St. Joseph’s Prep in a 34-30 loss, who knows what happens if he was physically capable of a similar effort against the Vikings.

Cross went to Virginia, where he started out as a quarterback, but moved to safety, where he was All ACC and is currently on the practice squad with the Green Bay Packers.

Cross also had one of the best receivers of the state playoff era up here in Kenny Yeboah, a 6’5 225 pound monster who now plays for the Jets. Yeboah had 72 catches for 1,159 yards and 14 TDs that year. Yeboah started his career at Temple, then transferred to Ole Miss where he was an All SEC tight end. They also had a third FBS player in left tackle/defensive end Noel Brouse (6’5 280), who played at UConn. Brouse, Cross, and Yeboah were all All State. The receiving corps was huge, with everybody bigger than 6’3. What they lacked was a speedster/home run hitter type. They also were only okay at running back, with future Lehigh lacrosse player Eric DiGiralomo running for 1,000 yards, but Cross was really the main threat to carry the ball. Defensively, they were merely good, with a lot of two-way guys in Cross, Yeboah, DiGiralomo, and Brouse, though sophomore Jahan Worth had a huge playoff run and went onto earn All State honors the next two seasons before playing at Dusquense. DJ Hohman was an All State pick at defensive end, though he was a classic, undersized high school kid with a huge motor and a screw loose rather than a next level talent type.

There are arguments to be made that Parkland may have been a little better in 2014 – they had a little more variety at receiver with Jarey Elder as a speed/slot guy (who was an All State pick at corner). They put the fear of God into SJP in quarters, with the eventual state champ Hawks scoring a late touchdown to win 34-30. That’s another “what-if” injury question as Brouse separated his shoulder in the D11 finals. But I think the year of maturity on Cross probably makes the 2015 group a little better.


1999
It’s funny to look back at a lot of the preseason coverage in 1999 and how much hype there was for a Parkland-CB West eastern final. Parkland started a ton of sophomores in 1997 and made the D11 championship game, then that group added sophomore phenom Tim Massaquoi and rolled to a D11 title in 1998 before getting beat pretty good by CB West in the eastern final. But Parkland brought back 18 starters, while CB West graduated a ton.

Parkland went 10-0 in the regular season with an average margin of victory nearly 30 points per game. They were led by running back Sean Bleiler (who was a captain on the Delaware team that won a national championship in 2003), who had 1,800 yards and 25 touchdowns in the regular season, running behind an offensive line that went 270-255-240-265-305 – huge for a public school team in the late 1990s, plus 240 pound fullback Brandon Trate (Kutztown). Massaquoi (Michigan/Tampa Bay Buccaneers) was their top receiving threat and best linebacker, with Blelier and Mike Baber (Navy) was an excellent trio. Anthony Fay (Penn) was an all state safety too. They beat Easton 42-13 in the final game of the regular season. The big match up was going to be Parkland-Bethlehem Catholic for the D11 final, with the winner getting the crack at CB West. But Parkland played Easton in D11 semis, and got absolutely shocked 7-6 in the craziest turnaround between games I’ve ever seen. Easton basically played keep-away for 48 minutes and ended Parkland’s season. Becahi beat Easton 21-20 the next week, and was beating CB West 14-7 with five minutes left in the game before the Bucks got a TD drive and a punt return TD to win one of the great non-championship games in state playoff history. Parkland was probably more talented than that Becahi team, and was probably the best Lehigh Valley 4A team of the 1990s - I'd listen to arguments about whether they're better than either of the ACC teams that won 3A in 1993 and 1998 or the Becahi team that won 3A in 1990.


2007
I always kind of forget this Parkland team went to the state finals in the midst of Liberty’s big mid-2000s run. They were #1 in the state in 2006, and gave up something crazy like 4 points per game, but that was the year where the LVC had Parkland, Easton, and Liberty all in the top 5 in 4A. Parkland drew Easton in D11 semis, and in one of the great games ever, Easton kicked a 35 yard field goal as time expired to win 17-15. Parkland brought back the vast majority of their starters for the 2007 group.

What stands out about 2007 was the defense – they had seven consecutive shutouts from September 28 to November 9. The big match up was supposed to be Parkland-Liberty, but Hazleton shocked Liberty in overtime in semis, and nearly got Parkland, when they were lined up for a 28 yard field goal on the final play of the game, trailing 16-14. But Sam Tajiri came off the edge and blocked it to save Parkland. The big star on defense was free safety Jaleel Clark (6’5 205), a junior who had seven interceptions and was an All State pick. Their other all state guy was junior defensive end Clint Miller (6’4 240), who had 12 sacks – Miller had low level FBS offers, but didn’t play in college. Their linebackers were all FCS guys – Nate Zimmel (Georgetown), Pete Bross (Lafayette), and Adam Gristick (Eastern Illinois). Very solid group that carried them.

Offensively, 2007 was a weird team. This was Jim Morgans third year at Parkland, and they were still running his patented Wing-T that he won two state titles with at Allentown Central Catholic in the 1990s. They had five different ballcarriers with more than 400 yards on the season, led by fullback Kevin Herod’s 1,000 yard season. Herod went onto be a Division II All American at Shippensburg. What set this Wing-T version of Parkland apart was their ability to throw the ball – quarterback John Laub threw for almost 2,000 yards had a 22-3 TD/Int ratio. He played QB at Richmond after Parkland. His main target was Clark, who caught 56 passes for 858 yards and 10 TDs. Clark was All State again the following season and played receiver at Missouri, who went to the SEC championship game twice in his career. Still, it was more methodical than explosive, which bit them in the state finals against Pittsburgh Central Catholic, where they couldn’t get on the board against a very good PCC defense. They also did not have a lineman who went to play college football, which also showed against the Vikings and probably separates them from the 2015 and 1999 groups.


2000
So the 1999 group graudated Sean Bleiler, who had back-to-back 1,800 yard seasons for Parkland at running back, and went onto be a very good college football player. Sure they had Tim Massaquoi at receiver, but what were they going to do at running back, which is really how you won in 2000? Enter sophomore Austin Scott. The 2000 Trojan group lost early to Allentown Central Catholic, but ran the table the rest of the way thanks to a state sophomore record 1,918 yards from Scott and an absurd season from Massaquoi, who caught 50 of the 109 passes Parkland threw that year for 750 yards and 11 TDs. Throw in 305 pound left tackle Jason Englehardt, future Lehigh linebacker Jason Beck, and All State basketball player Adam Lane (Navy) at quarterback and this was almost as good as the 1999 team, probably more dangerous with the big play combo of Scott and Massaquoi, but not quite as physical up front or on defense. But for the second year in a row, they dominated Easton in the regular season (34-13 this time) and then got stunned the following week in D11 semis (41-14!!!! with Massaquoi held without a catch and Scott to just 63 yards). A combination of Scott and Massaquoi is probably never coming around again (Massaquoi was a top 50 national recruit and borderline five star, Scott’s reputation is well known here) and to not win anything was a shocker.


1996
Parkland’s first great season in the modern era was their run to the Eastern Final in 1996. After Penn Hills and CB West both lost in the first round of their district tournaments, Parkland ascended to #1 in the state after an undefeated regular season. They dominated in the early part of the playoffs, beating Dieruff 47-14 for the D11 title, then taking a 47-0 at halftime over District 3 champ Cedar Cliff in the quarterfinal. But they had a nightmare stretch in the Eastern Final against eventual state champ Downingtown, where they gave up a long touchdown, went 3 and out, gave up a TD drive right before halftime, then Downingtown got the ball out of half and scored to go up 21-7 in what ended up a 27-14 win. Downingtown won in state finals 49-14. This Parkland team had the first 2,000/1,000 running back combination in state history with Matt Thomas (Penn) rushing for a then school record 2,267 yards, and fullback Josh Conti (Bloomsburg) running for 1,157. Thomas was all state on offense while Conti was an All State linebacker. Tight end/defensive end Clint Dodson played at Army, where he was a team captain. It was definitely a “styles make fights” year, as Downingtown got blown out by Allentown Central Catholic, 47-21, and Parkland beat ACC 21-7, but Parkland lost to Downingtown in the state tournament. It also was the first time Parkland had any football success since the 1970s, so wasn’t exactly a lot of playoff experience.


2006
The precursor to the state finalists in 2007, and actually might have been a little better on paper. The major personnel changes were Big 33 tackle Mike Fay (6’5 305; Kent State). monster tight end/defensive end Tiree Eure (6’5 245; Minesota) and Big 33 linebacker Owen Thomas (6’2 225; Penn). This was the #1 team in the state at the end of the regular season in the Harrisburg-Patriot News (now Pennlive) poll. Lost 17-15 to Easton in the D11 semis. The big difference was they were almost purely a running team out of the Wing-T, the 2007 group got farther largely due to the development of the passing attack.


1998
Their other Eastern Finalist from the 1990s, this team came kind of a year early. They got throttled by eventual 3A state champ Allentown Central Catholic early in the year, and lost 28-19 to defending 4A D11 champ Whitehall, but they turned around and crushed Whitehall 42-7 in the D11 title game, with Bleiler running for 195 yards and four touchdowns - he had a 1,985 yard, 25 TD junior season, and Tim Massaquoi put up one of the great sophomore years in Valley history with 35 catches for 720 yards and 15 TDs. The 1998 squad was basically the 1999 squad a year younger. They got beaten up pretty good by the 1998 CB West team that is one of the best in the state playoff era.


2014
The precursor to the 2015 state finalist, discussed in that caption. Lost 28-21 to Easton during the regular season, then beat the Red Rovers 13-10 in overtime to win their third straight D11 title. Had a 30-27 lead with four minutes to play against eventual champ St. Joseph's Prep, but D’Andre Swift converted a fourth down at their own 37, then caught a 50 yard touchdown on the next play to give SJP a 34-30 win.

 

[tulla]

Parkland has kind of an interesting football history – they opened in 1954 as a small-ish school out in the farmland outside of Allentown. They got decent to good in the early 1960s to mid 1970s when they were in the Lehigh-Northampton League (Parkland played with fellow small schools Southern Lehigh, Salisbury, Nazareth, Wilson, Northwestern Lehigh, Saucon Valley, Pen Argyl, Bangor, Pleasant Valley, East Stroudsburg, Palisades, Pocono Mountain, and Jim Thorpe). They were the class of that league in the early ‘70s, which would be like winning the Colonial League today. In 1976, they joined the newly formed East Penn Conference (the present day EPC South, plus Philipsburg, NJ instead of Nazareth) and got their teeth kicked in for nearly 20 years. They were a legitimately terrible football program for the rest of the 70s, all of the 80s, and the early 1990s.

Two things changed Parkland’s fortunes. One, the housing boom of the 1990s turned all of those farmlands into sprawling suburbs which people fled the city of Allentown for as non-urban housing went up close to the city. Lots of the names you see at Parkland as second and third generation Lehigh Valley families were names you’d see on William Allen and Dieruff rosters in the ‘70s and ‘80s, plus obviously tons of new people moving to the area with the increased housing supply in Parkland School District. Second, in addition to students, they also took the football coach from William Allen – Rich Snisack, who had the Canaries as D11 champs in 1992. Snisack is the one who built Parkland into what it is today, going 65-19 from 1994-2000 before becoming principal, then superintendent, of Parkland schools. The chain of coaches from Rich Snisack to Rob Melosky to Jim Morgans to Tim Moncman is as good as you’ll find at any school.



2015
I think the second best Parkland team was the 2015 state runner-ups. I’m a big Devante Cross fan, I think he’s as good a high school quarterback as we’ve had up here, including Nosovitch, Persa, Gonzalez, etc. No other Parkland team has had a quarterback like that, which I think is the difference maker – that season he threw for 2,947 yards and 26 touchdowns and ran for 1,385 yards and 19 touchdowns. The one “what-if” for that Parkland team is if Cross did not tear his MCL in the state quarterfinal against LaSalle. Cross only ran the ball seven times combined in their semifinal against Upper Dublin and final against Pittsburgh Central Catholic after carrying it 209 times in the first 14 games of the year – including a 28 carry, 131 yard 2 TD performance in the aforementioned quarterfinal win. The PCC game in the finals was way closer than I expected it to be (18-15), and I wonder if Parkland could have pulled it out if Cross wasn’t hurt and could have run the ball/scrambled rather than have to just sit in the pocket. When Cross was a junior, he threw for 281 and ran for 96 against St. Joseph’s Prep in a 34-30 loss, who knows what happens if he was physically capable of a similar effort against the Vikings.

Cross went to Virginia, where he started out as a quarterback, but moved to safety, where he was All ACC and is currently on the practice squad with the Green Bay Packers.

Cross also had one of the best receivers of the state playoff era up here in Kenny Yeboah, a 6’5 225 pound monster who now plays for the Jets. Yeboah had 72 catches for 1,159 yards and 14 TDs that year. Yeboah started his career at Temple, then transferred to Ole Miss where he was an All SEC tight end. They also had a third FBS player in left tackle/defensive end Noel Brouse (6’5 280), who played at UConn. Brouse, Cross, and Yeboah were all All State. The receiving corps was huge, with everybody bigger than 6’3. What they lacked was a speedster/home run hitter type. They also were only okay at running back, with future Lehigh lacrosse player Eric DiGiralomo running for 1,000 yards, but Cross was really the main threat to carry the ball. Defensively, they were merely good, with a lot of two-way guys in Cross, Yeboah, DiGiralomo, and Brouse, though sophomore Jahan Worth had a huge playoff run and went onto earn All State honors the next two seasons before playing at Dusquense. DJ Hohman was an All State pick at defensive end, though he was a classic, undersized high school kid with a huge motor and a screw loose rather than a next level talent type.

There are arguments to be made that Parkland may have been a little better in 2014 – they had a little more variety at receiver with Jarey Elder as a speed/slot guy (who was an All State pick at corner). They put the fear of God into SJP in quarters, with the eventual state champ Hawks scoring a late touchdown to win 34-30. That’s another “what-if” injury question as Brouse separated his shoulder in the D11 finals. But I think the year of maturity on Cross probably makes the 2015 group a little better.


1999
It’s funny to look back at a lot of the preseason coverage in 1999 and how much hype there was for a Parkland-CB West eastern final. Parkland started a ton of sophomores in 1997 and made the D11 championship game, then that group added sophomore phenom Tim Massaquoi and rolled to a D11 title in 1998 before getting beat pretty good by CB West in the eastern final. But Parkland brought back 18 starters, while CB West graduated a ton.

Parkland went 10-0 in the regular season with an average margin of victory nearly 30 points per game. They were led by running back Sean Bleiler (who was a captain on the Delaware team that won a national championship in 2003), who had 1,800 yards and 25 touchdowns in the regular season, running behind an offensive line that went 270-255-240-265-305 – huge for a public school team in the late 1990s, plus 240 pound fullback Brandon Trate (Kutztown). Massaquoi (Michigan/Tampa Bay Buccaneers) was their top receiving threat and best linebacker, with Blelier and Mike Baber (Navy) was an excellent trio. Anthony Fay (Penn) was an all state safety too. They beat Easton 42-13 in the final game of the regular season. The big match up was going to be Parkland-Bethlehem Catholic for the D11 final, with the winner getting the crack at CB West. But Parkland played Easton in D11 semis, and got absolutely shocked 7-6 in the craziest turnaround between games I’ve ever seen. Easton basically played keep-away for 48 minutes and ended Parkland’s season. Becahi beat Easton 21-20 the next week, and was beating CB West 14-7 with five minutes left in the game before the Bucks got a TD drive and a punt return TD to win one of the great non-championship games in state playoff history. Parkland was probably more talented than that Becahi team, and was probably the best Lehigh Valley 4A team of the 1990s - I'd listen to arguments about whether they're better than either of the ACC teams that won 3A in 1993 and 1998 or the Becahi team that won 3A in 1990.


2007
I always kind of forget this Parkland team went to the state finals in the midst of Liberty’s big mid-2000s run. They were #1 in the state in 2006, and gave up something crazy like 4 points per game, but that was the year where the LVC had Parkland, Easton, and Liberty all in the top 5 in 4A. Parkland drew Easton in D11 semis, and in one of the great games ever, Easton kicked a 35 yard field goal as time expired to win 17-15. Parkland brought back the vast majority of their starters for the 2007 group.

What stands out about 2007 was the defense – they had seven consecutive shutouts from September 28 to November 9. The big match up was supposed to be Parkland-Liberty, but Hazleton shocked Liberty in overtime in semis, and nearly got Parkland, when they were lined up for a 28 yard field goal on the final play of the game, trailing 16-14. But Sam Tajiri came off the edge and blocked it to save Parkland. The big star on defense was free safety Jaleel Clark (6’5 205), a junior who had seven interceptions and was an All State pick. Their other all state guy was junior defensive end Clint Miller (6’4 240), who had 12 sacks – Miller had low level FBS offers, but didn’t play in college. Their linebackers were all FCS guys – Nate Zimmel (Georgetown), Pete Bross (Lafayette), and Adam Gristick (Eastern Illinois). Very solid group that carried them.

Offensively, 2007 was a weird team. This was Jim Morgans third year at Parkland, and they were still running his patented Wing-T that he won two state titles with at Allentown Central Catholic in the 1990s. They had five different ballcarriers with more than 400 yards on the season, led by fullback Kevin Herod’s 1,000 yard season. Herod went onto be a Division II All American at Shippensburg. What set this Wing-T version of Parkland apart was their ability to throw the ball – quarterback John Laub threw for almost 2,000 yards had a 22-3 TD/Int ratio. He played QB at Richmond after Parkland. His main target was Clark, who caught 56 passes for 858 yards and 10 TDs. Clark was All State again the following season and played receiver at Missouri, who went to the SEC championship game twice in his career. Still, it was more methodical than explosive, which bit them in the state finals against Pittsburgh Central Catholic, where they couldn’t get on the board against a very good PCC defense. They also did not have a lineman who went to play college football, which also showed against the Vikings and probably separates them from the 2015 and 1999 groups.


2000
So the 1999 group graudated Sean Bleiler, who had back-to-back 1,800 yard seasons for Parkland at running back, and went onto be a very good college football player. Sure they had Tim Massaquoi at receiver, but what were they going to do at running back, which is really how you won in 2000? Enter sophomore Austin Scott. The 2000 Trojan group lost early to Allentown Central Catholic, but ran the table the rest of the way thanks to a state sophomore record 1,918 yards from Scott and an absurd season from Massaquoi, who caught 50 of the 109 passes Parkland threw that year for 750 yards and 11 TDs. Throw in 305 pound left tackle Jason Englehardt, future Lehigh linebacker Jason Beck, and All State basketball player Adam Lane (Navy) at quarterback and this was almost as good as the 1999 team, probably more dangerous with the big play combo of Scott and Massaquoi, but not quite as physical up front or on defense. But for the second year in a row, they dominated Easton in the regular season (34-13 this time) and then got stunned the following week in D11 semis (41-14!!!! with Massaquoi held without a catch and Scott to just 63 yards). A combination of Scott and Massaquoi is probably never coming around again (Massaquoi was a top 50 national recruit and borderline five star, Scott’s reputation is well known here) and to not win anything was a shocker.


1996
Parkland’s first great season in the modern era was their run to the Eastern Final in 1996. After Penn Hills and CB West both lost in the first round of their district tournaments, Parkland ascended to #1 in the state after an undefeated regular season. They dominated in the early part of the playoffs, beating Dieruff 47-14 for the D11 title, then taking a 47-0 at halftime over District 3 champ Cedar Cliff in the quarterfinal. But they had a nightmare stretch in the Eastern Final against eventual state champ Downingtown, where they gave up a long touchdown, went 3 and out, gave up a TD drive right before halftime, then Downingtown got the ball out of half and scored to go up 21-7 in what ended up a 27-14 win. Downingtown won in state finals 49-14. This Parkland team had the first 2,000/1,000 running back combination in state history with Matt Thomas (Penn) rushing for a then school record 2,267 yards, and fullback Josh Conti (Bloomsburg) running for 1,157. Thomas was all state on offense while Conti was an All State linebacker. Tight end/defensive end Clint Dodson played at Army, where he was a team captain. It was definitely a “styles make fights” year, as Downingtown got blown out by Allentown Central Catholic, 47-21, and Parkland beat ACC 21-7, but Parkland lost to Downingtown in the state tournament. It also was the first time Parkland had any football success since the 1970s, so wasn’t exactly a lot of playoff experience.


2006
The precursor to the state finalists in 2007, and actually might have been a little better on paper. The major personnel changes were Big 33 tackle Mike Fay (6’5 305; Kent State). monster tight end/defensive end Tiree Eure (6’5 245; Minesota) and Big 33 linebacker Owen Thomas (6’2 225; Penn). This was the #1 team in the state at the end of the regular season in the Harrisburg-Patriot News (now Pennlive) poll. Lost 17-15 to Easton in the D11 semis. The big difference was they were almost purely a running team out of the Wing-T, the 2007 group got farther largely due to the development of the passing attack.


1998
Their other Eastern Finalist from the 1990s, this team came kind of a year early. They got throttled by eventual 3A state champ Allentown Central Catholic early in the year, and lost 28-19 to defending 4A D11 champ Whitehall, but they turned around and crushed Whitehall 42-7 in the D11 title game, with Bleiler running for 195 yards and four touchdowns - he had a 1,985 yard, 25 TD junior season, and Tim Massaquoi put up one of the great sophomore years in Valley history with 35 catches for 720 yards and 15 TDs. The 1998 squad was basically the 1999 squad a year younger. They got beaten up pretty good by the 1998 CB West team that is one of the best in the state playoff era.


2014
The precursor to the 2015 state finalist, discussed in that caption. Lost 28-21 to Easton during the regular season, then beat the Red Rovers 13-10 in overtime to win their third straight D11 title. Had a 30-27 lead with four minutes to play against eventual champ St. Joseph's Prep, but D’Andre Swift converted a fourth down at their own 37, then caught a 50 yard touchdown on the next play to give SJP a 34-30 win.

Rover,

You generously didn't mention the fact that SJP's winning TD drive in 2014 was certainly aided by a motion violation on that 4th down play that the refs didn't call. It's possible the Prep would have converted on 4th and 6, but it would have been a lot harder than converting 4th and 1.

The other thing about that game from an SJP perspective was that they had a particularly hard time defending against Parkland's passing game because the previous week John Reid (future cb at Penn State and maybe still in the NFL) was sidelined for the rest of the season by a bad injury.

 

[RoverNation05]

It all come

Rover,

You generously didn't mention the fact that SJP's winning TD drive in 2014 was certainly aided by a motion violation on that 4th down play that the refs didn't call. It's possible the Prep would have converted on 4th and 6, but it would have been a lot harder than converting 4th and 1.

The other thing about that game from an SJP perspective was that they had a particularly hard time defending against Parkland's passing game because the previous week John Reid (future cb at Penn State and maybe still in the NFL) was sidelined for the rest of the season by a bad injury.

It all comes out in the wash. I also didn’t mention the pass interference in 2015 that kept a Parkland drive alive in the win over LaSalle the next year, which was probably letter of the law PI, but also very ticky-tack in a big spot.

I will say, what is impressive about that Parkland era was the “teach an old dog new tricks” of Jim Morgans in his late 60s moving away from the Wing-T, going out and hiring great offensive coordinators (Jim Terwiliger then Bret Comp) and running a spread, pass first offense. Not many great coaches can put aside philosophy and ego like that after so many years.

2014 was also one of the last great years in Lehigh Valley football, so from that standpoint it was a shame Parkland didn’t advance further. They were obviously right there with the state champs, Easton went 12-0, blew out Pennsbury early, beat Parkland and Whitehall during the regular season, scored the most points in school history, and lost just a soul crushing game to get denied the state playoff spot, but that’s as good a team as we’ve had in the state playoff era. Whitehall had Saquon Barkley and beat Parkland during the season and played a 63-49 classic with Easton. It was also the first really good year for Jason Roeder at Freedom that kicked off this era they’ve had - they beat Whitehall during the year and played Easton and Parkland tough. That was a very solid final 4, with Easton beating Freedom and Parkland turning the tables on Whitehall before the classic final. We haven’t had that level of high end depth since up here.

 

[BradlyPitt]

damn Rover that is some impressive insight

 

[RoverNation05]

Give me a couple days and a newspaper archive subscription and there’s no limit to what I can accomplish.

 

[RoverNation05]

It's also a good plug for the State Champs project I started on here a couple years back - here's the entry I had for 2002 Parkland: State Champs Project: Parkland 2002

A lot of these games and players are memorable to me with the fascinating playoff history between Easton and Parkland in the state playoff era. From 1999 to 2014 they met seven times in the playoffs. They met twice in 1999, 2000, 2009, 2012, 2013, and 2014 and only in 2009 did the regular season winner also win the playoff match up. Six of those playoff games were one score affairs, highlighted by the 7-6 game in 1999 (Easton) and the 2014 overtime game (Parkland). The 1999 and 2000 match ups were particularly wild because they played in week 9 of the regular season, then in the first week of the playoffs with wildly different results. In 2012 and 2013, they met in week 2 and the results flipped at the end of the season.

Here are the regular season/postseason match ups (seeds next to postseason games - state ranking at end of regular season noted where applicable)
1999 -regular season: Parkland 42 Easton 13
1999 -playoffs: #4 Easton 7 #1 (#2 in PA) Parkland 6 (D11 semis)
2000 -regular season: Parkland 34 Easton 13
2000 -playoffs: #4 Easton 41 #1 (#6 in PA) Parkland 14 (DXI Semis)
2001 -playoffs: #1 (#3 in PA) Easton 14 #4 Parkland 13 (DXI Semis)
2003 -playoffs: #1 (#4 in PA) Easton 23 #2 (#7 in PA) Parkland 15 (DXI Championship)
2006 -playoffs: #4 (#5 in PA) Easton 17 #1 (#1 in PA) Parkland 15 (DXI Semis)
2009 -regular season: Easton 14 Parkland 3
2009 -playoffs: #1 (#6 in PA) Easton 21 #3 Parkland 14 (DXI Championship)
2012 -regular season: Easton 35 Parkland 28
2012 -playoffs: #6 Parkland 42 #3 Easton 10
2013 -regular season: Easton 24 Parkland 0
2013 -playoffs: #3 Parkland 42 #5 Easton 0 (DXI Championship)
2014 regular season: Easton 28 Parkland 21
2014 playoffs: #7 Parkland 13 #1 (#5 in PA) Easton 10 (OT) (DXI Championship)

Since then, Parkland has crushed Easton in the 2015, 2016, and 2017 playoffs.