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Easton escapes victorious in offensive slugfest against Nazareth to claim EPC Division Crown

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

| October 26, 2024

Easton-

In a game full of explosive offensive plays, the Red Rovers, amassing 568 yards on the ground, came up with a few more when it counted to come out on top Friday night.  They didn’t waste any time as Sr. running back Dorian Thomas took the first play of the game right up the middle of the defense 71 yards to the house to open the scoring mere seconds in to the game.

The Nazareth offense took the field ready to respond, however the Red Rover defense had other ideas a forced what would start a rare string of 3 and outs,( with a Nazareth turnover on downs sprinkled in) for both Nazareth and Easton.  The Easton offense  started to find success once again as the first quarter was coming to a close.  This time is was on the back of Sr. running back William Day who carried the ball on 8 of the 9 plays of the scoring drive. In the middle of the drive, Ordway found Jasir Frutchey for a long 33 yard gain over the top of the Nazareth defense.

Day capped off the drive with a 10 yard with what looked initially to be a broken play, but he followed Ordway around the right side of his offensive line and found the corner of the end-zone to put the Red Rovers up 14-0 with just over a minute left in the opening quarter.

It was now or never for Nazareth as it seemed like Easton was going to start to pull away.  Quarterback Peyton Falzone and the Blue Eagle offense had other ideas however and quickly found pay-dirt themselves.  It only took 3 plays for Falzone to find Caleb Newsome for a 42 yard touchdown strike on the first play of the 2nd quarter to get Nazareth on the board.

The Red Rover offense went right back to work on the ensuing drive.  This drive was highlighted by 2 more grabs by Frutchey from Ordway.   The ground game however was the star once again for Easton and on the 9th play of this drive Dorian Thomas found the end-zone from a yard out to put the Red Rovers back up by 2 scores 21-7 with 6:42 left in the half.

Falzone and the Nazareth offense took the field on the ensuing drive and looked to be stymied once again by the Red Rover defense.  However, the quarterback had other ideas.  On 4th and 6 from just inside their own territory, Falzone found Luke Depietro over top of the Red Rover defense for an explosive 51 yard score to trim the deficit once again down to a single score with 5 and a half minutes left in the half.

The Easton offense took the field ready to respond, but the Blue Eagle defense had other ideas this time and forced a 3 and out.  Ordway punted the ball away and the Rovers were able to down the ball all the way down at the Nazareth 2 yard line.  Nazareth handed the ball off on 1st and 2nd down to Marquez Wimberly to try to get out of the shadow of their own end-zone, but he was only able to gain 4 yards on the 2 attempts.  On third down, Falzone would miss his intended target and force the Blue Eagles to punt from their own end-zone.  Easton returned the punt all the way to the Nazareth 31 yard line.  The Rover offense took little time to find the end-zone as 3 plays later, Day would scamper in for an 18 yard score to put Easton up 28-14 with 1:34 left in the half.

Not to be outdone on special teams, Nazareth returned the ensuing kick-off all the way out to the 40.  Falzone took this drive over on the ground and through the air as he carved up the Red Rover defense down the field just before half.  He lead an 8 play scoring drive in just over a minute with the drive being capped off by a 6 yard Touchdown just inside the pylon to bring the score to 28-21 in favor of Easton with just 33 seconds left in the half.

The 2nd half kick-off gave the Easton coverage team more issues as once again Nazareth was able to get great field position all the way out to their 44 yard-line.  This Nazareth drive only needed 4 plays to cash-in as Falzone found Newsome in the flat on a wide receiver screen and he high-stepped and streaked down the sideline for the game-tying score early in the 3rd quarter.

The Easton offense took the field on their next drive eager to reclaim the lead and in what seemed to be just a few blinks, they were back on the board.  This drive capped by another big run by Dorian Thomas who found an opening around the left side of his line and muscled his way across the goal-line to put the Rovers back on top.

The back and forth match continued on the ensuing Blue Eagle drive as Falzone carved up the Easton defense once again.  First, he found Newsome for a long 33 yard gain on the first play of the drive.  Then, 3 plays later found Wimberly for a 47 yard touchdown on a broken play which saw the quarterback dodging multiple defenders in the backfield while keeping the play alive.  On his way down the field, Wimberly even had some time to let the raucous Easton students know that Nazareth would not be going quietly.

Easton and their ground game went right back to work on their next possession.  Thomas took the first play of the drive 46 yards all the way down to the Nazareth 20 yard-line.  The Rovers continued to pound the rock all the way down to the 2 yard-line and then Ordway rolled out to his right and  found Justin Cosover in the flat who would take it in for the 2 yard touchdown to put Easton back on top 42-35 with 2:25 left in the 3rd quarter.

The following kick-off continued the coverage issues for the Red Rovers as Nazareth’s Lance Zuercher returned the kick all the way back to the Easton 28 yard-line. The Easton defense came up with a huge stop on 4th down on this drive and kept the Nazareth offense off the board.  Easton’s offense took this momentum from their defense and went right back to work.  The first play of the ensuing Red Rover drive saw Dorian Thomas break off a huge 24 yard gain, followed 2 plays later by another long 20 some yard run around the outside.  The 3 quarter came to an end with Easton once again on the doorstep of another touchdown.  Two plays later, Willie Day would find the end-zone again from 7 yards out to extend the Red Rover lead back to 14, 49-35 with 11:42 left in the game.

Nazareth, down but not out, took the field on offense once again after returning the ensuing kick-off to their own 41.  Blue Eagle running back Jacob Angione found a huge hole right up the middle of the Easton defense on the 2nd play of the drive and was stopped just short of the goal-line after being caught from behind after a 41 yard gain.  After hurrying up to the line, Falzone would keep it himself on the next play and find the end-zone around the right side of his line to bring the back to within 1 score.

Easton’s offense took the field after the ensuing kick-off and once again stuck to their ground game.  Dorain Thomas started off the Rover drive with 4 consecutive carries amassing over 30 yards and then Day was subbed in to cap off the drive with 3 carries of his own which was capped by a 4 yard touchdown run up the middle of the Nazareth defense with 6:32 left in the game.

Nazareth’s offense took the field and quickly marched down the field.  Later in the drive, Falzone took off on a broken play and ran 23 yards all the way down to the Easton 10 yard-line.  The quarterback found Matt Leluga on the very next play, wide-open in the end-zone for the easy score.

Like clockwork, the Easton offense took the field once again and ran the ball right down the Nazareth defense’s throat.  The drive started with a big 23 yard carry by Willie Day and then 5 plays later was capped by a 1 yard Dorian Thomas run to put Easton back up by 2 scores, 63-49 with 3:13 left in the game.

An unsportsmanlike penalty on Easton after the touchdown pushed back their kickoff and once again the Nazareth offense took over with great field position. This drive would start at the Easton 41 yard-line.  Falzone took over this drive and after picking up a first down on the ground, found the end-zone a few plays later just inside the pylon.  A false start on the extra-point attempt pushed the try back, and would be missed wide bringing the score to 63-55 in favor of the Rovers with 1:43 left in the game.

Nazareth then attempted a squib kick, but Easton recovered.  The Rovers went back to one of the work-horses for the night, Willie Day, and 2 plays later after gashing the Nazareth defense for a 36 yard gain, slid down just inside the Nazareth 35 yard-line to run out the clock and end the game.

With the Victory Easton moves to 9-1 on the year and captures the EPC Northampton Division title.  Next week they will play either Stroudsburg, Northampton, or Dieruff in the district quarterfinals at Cottingham.  With the loss, Nazareth falls to 7-3 and awaits results from this Saturday’s games to see who they will match up against next week in the playoffs.

 

Stats

Rushing:

(N)

Peyton Falzone 7-83, 2 TDs;

Jacob Angione 1-50;

Marquez Wimberly 12-42;

 

(E)

Dorian Thomas 22-315, 4 TDs;

Will Day 30-238, 4 TDs;

Andrew Biddle 1-11;

Cole Ordway 4-4.

Passing:

(N) Falzone 17-38-0, 282 yards, 6 TDs;

(E) Ordway 4-8-0, 59 yards, TD.

Receiving:

(N)

Caleb Newsome 8-132, 2 TDs;

Wimberly 4-71, TD;

Luke DiPietro 1-51, TD;

Tanner Zelachowski 2-15, TD;

Matt Leluga 1-10, TD;

Austin Boyce 1-3;

(E)

Jasir Frutchey 3-56;

Justin Cosover 1-3, TD.

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