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Easton Rolls Over Stroudsburg at Cottingham

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News, pfn

| September 28, 2024

Easton-

On a night celebrating Easton’s “Beast From The East” Marching Band’s 100th year of existence it was the Red Rover defense who got Easton on the board first via a safety early in the 1st quarter.  The Red Rovers were able to pin the Mountaineer offense deep in their own territory after both defenses were able to hold the opposing offenses in check to start the game on their opening possessions.  The Rovers’ Jasir Frutchy and Anthony Diaz were able to track down the Stroudsburg ball carrier and tackle him in his own end-zone to get Easton on the board with just under 3 minutes left in the opening stanza.

On the ensuing drive for the Red Rovers after the free kick by Stroudsburg, Easton’s offense finally figured out the Mountaineer defense making quick work of them with  QB Cole Ordway finding Andrew Biddle over the middle for a Touchdown with just over a minute left in the opening quarter.

Not to be outdone by the Red Rover offense, the Mountaineers  strike back quickly with a long score of their own on the ensuing possession.  After picking up a quick first down, The Mountaineers’ QB Ben Pilcher found Kamari Coleman in the flat who made a few Easton defenders miss and took the short pass all the way to the house to bring the score to 9-7 in favor of Easton with only 7 seconds remaining in the first quarter.

On the ensuing kickoff, a squib kick caught the Rovers’ return team by surprise and was recovered by the Stroudsburg kick-off team.  The Easton defense came to the rescue however and forced the Mountaineers to go 3 and out.  Easton’s offense went right back to work and on what appeared to be almost the exact same play from the previous drive, Ordway once again found  Biddle over the middle for a long 50 yard touchdown to put the Red Rovers up 16-7 with 10 minutes left to play in the first half.

The following drive saw the Red Rover defense force a punt by the Stroudsburg offense, but the line-drive punt hit an Easton defender and was recovered by Stroudsburg, thus extending their drive.  However, the Rovers’ defense came to the rescue, a few plays later they forced a fumble on a pitch by the Mountaineer offense and William Day of the Red Rover defense pounced on it for Easton with just under 8 minutes remaining in the half.

On the 2nd play of the ensuing drive, Ordway connected with Biddle who was streaking down the home sideline for a long completion all the way down to the Stroudsburg 7 yard-line.  Two plays later, Easton running back Dorian Thomas found pay-dirt right up the middle to put Easton up 22-7 with just under 6 minutes remaining in the first half.

The Mountaineer offense was unable to get anything going on their next possession with the Red Rover defense sacking Pilcher twice on this drive and forcing Stroudsburg to punt.  The Red Rover offense went right back to work and quickly drove downfield.  Ordway found Sean McPeek across the middle for a long gain down to the Stroudsburg 3 yard-line.  On the next play Easton’s William Day found the end-zone on a rush up the middle to put the Red Rovers up 29-7 and end the scoring for the first half with 27 seconds remaining in the 2nd quarter.

The 2nd half of the the matchup saw the Easton offense pick up right where it left off.  The Rovers kept the ball on the ground to start the half with Ordway and Dorian Thomas moving the ball down field for Easton.  Then on a 4th down play in Mountaineer territory, Ordway found Frutchey across the middle for a 20 yard gain.  Ordway scrambled around the left side of his line for a 10 yard touchdown on the next play and put the Red Rovers up 36 – 7 with 7:46 left in the 3rd quarter.

The following 2 possessions saw both the Easton and Stroudsburg defenses force 3 and outs.  The following Stroudsburg drive was ended prematurely when the Easton defense intercepted a Pilcher pass. On the very next play, Ordway found an opening in the Mountaineer defense and took it to the house on a 43 yard scamper to put Easton up 43-7 with 4:23 left in the 3rd quarter.

The ensuing Mountaineer possession had Stroudsburg find success through the air as Pilcher found Kamari Coleman for a gain of 12 yards, Keegan Munch for a gain of 30 yards, and Ethan Dudsak for 22 yards and a Touchdown on consecutive passes to close the gap for the Mountaineers and bring the score to 43-14 in favor of the Red Rovers with 27 seconds remaining in the 3rd quarter.

This was the final score of the game and the Easton defense would have the final stop of the game 2 drives later as Justin Cosover would pick off the Stroudsburg QB inside the Easton 5 to turn away the Mountaineers one final time.

After the game I was able to talk with Easton QB Cole Ordway who when asked about this resurgence of Easton Football and Coach Senneca said, ” yeah, it feels great being able to go to school and have the community behind you,  we have to work a lot harder coach Senneca expects a lot out of us”.  I was also able to speak with Red Rover wideout Andrew Biddle who when asked about his 2 long touchdown receptions said, ” we saw they were blitzing their linebackers so a pass down the seam over the middle would work and Cole found me twice.”

With the victory, Easton improves to 5-1 on the year and welcomes Northampton (4-2) to Cottingham next week who defeated Pocono Mountain West (1-5) 42-6 this week.  Looking to bounce back next week, Stroudsburg(3-3) will face off against Pocono Mountain West (1-5) at home.

 

Photos courtesy of Ryan Scipio.

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