Hollywood’s Cutting Room Floor-6A Playoff Edition St. Joe’s Prep vs Parkland

Tagged under: District 11, District 12, News, Playoffs

Brian Ptashinski | November 25, 2022

Parkland Trojans Look to Reverse Recent Trend Versus District 12 and State Power St. Joe’s Prep.

10-1 St. Joe’s Prep Hawks (Tim Roken 4th year 49-6) vs 9-4 Parkland Trojans (Tim Moncman 7th year 62-20) Saturday 1pm at Bethlehem School District Stadium, Bethelehem, PA

St. Joe’s Prep comes into Saturday’s contest with Parkland as the #1 team in the state per pafootballnews.com. They have had the best of the District XI 6A champions they past few years, with a 45-24 win over Nazareth in 2019 and a close 24-21 win over a game Bethlehem Freedom squad last year, The Hawks are led by junior quarterback Samaj Jones who has thrown for 1,845 yards on 105 of 170 passing and 23 touchdowns including a school-record seven in a game with St. Peter’s Prep(NJ) in week two. Jones has also rushed for 509 yards on 105 carries and 10 scores.

Khaseem Phillips has gained 612 yards on the season on 87 touches as a team thy have rushed for 1,841 yards on 302 carries. They had a season high of 283 yards in their first game with LaSalle College High School.

David Washington is the leading receiver for the Hawks with 32 receptions for 411 yards. Brandon Rehman is right behind Washington with 383 yards on 20 catches. The Hawks also have another weapon in Elijah Jones who has caught 10 balls for 349 yards on the season.

The only setback the team faced was a 48-37 loss to National power St. Aquinas of Florida on August 27th. They have gone to win three contests to teams outside of Pennsylvania 55-20 over St Peters(NJ) 14-7 over Erasmus Hall(NY) and 31-21 over Gonzaga(DC).

Defensively they have limited the opposition to just 734 yards rushing in 11 games on 204 attempts carrying the ball and 875 yards threw the air on 75-147 passes against. They have outscored their opponents 324-139. Cole Nilles is the leading tackler with 56, 40 solo’s. Anthony Sacca has 40 total tackles and 25 of those solo.

Parkland Trojans were led by RB Trey Tremba in their 35-10 win over defending District XI 6A champion Bethlehem Freedom last Friday at Cottingham Stadium in Easton. Tremba rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns in the win.Quarterback Luke Spang completed 9 of 12 passes for 160 yards and two touchdowns to WR Jack Harrison who caught 4 passes for 83 yards in addition to his touchdowns of 11 and 32 yards. Spang has thrown for 1.858 yards on 117-184 17 scores and just 5 interceptions on the season.

Tremba has rushed for 1,237 yards on 190 carries and has 21 touchdowns. On the receiving end the Trojans have three receivers with over 400 yards catching the ball Harrison with 39 receptions for 757 yards and 6 touchdowns. Nakhi Bullock has caught 27 balls for 477 yards and 5 times he reached the end zone. Tremba in addition to being one of the premier backs in the EPC has 28 catches for 428 yards and 5 touchdowns.

Parkland’s defense allowed only 133 yards rushing to the Patriots on 36 carries and just one touchdown. They held Jalen Fletcher to just 99 yards on 21 carries.The secondary only gave up 140 yards on 15 receptions in that contest. Quarterback Xavier Dunbar played much of the game due to an injury to starter Ethan Neidig who went 6 of 9 for 54 yards. Dunbar finished the game 9-19 and 81 yards with two interceptions.

HOLLYWOOD’S TAKE– The District XI champions seem to struggle in these match-ups with PCL teams in the past. The Hawks were defeated by Mount Lebanon in last years’ state final 34-17 and are hungry to get to Cumberland Valley for a shot at redemption. Parkland is beginning to gel at the right time after getting off to 2-3 start. The line will have to find a way to opening holes for Tremba and give time for Spang to make some plays down field throwing the rock. If Parkland is going to pull the upset, they’ll need to control tempo and make it a four quarter game. If they can keep it close in the fourt quarter they will have a shot. Hollywood thinks though St. Joe’s will deny Parkland advancing beyond this weekend 28-17.

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