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Game Preview District 11 3A Playoffs: Notre Dame Green Pond vs. Salisbury

Tagged under: District 11, News, pfn, Playoffs

| October 29, 2025

This Thursday night at Catasauqua Field, the 10-0 Notre Dame Green Pond Crusaders will take on the 2-8 Salisbury Township Falcons. Head coach Phil Stambaugh and the Crusaders who are 10-0 for the first time in school history, are coming off a 56-0 win against Wilson, in which their star QB, Matt Bodnar, threw for 311 yards, 5 TDs, and completed 13 of 17 passing attempts. They also received a big contribution from backup QB, Tommy Murphy, who completed 6 of 8 passes for 71 yards and a touchdown, as well as rushing for 109 yards on 3 attempts and 1 touchdown. Alex Clark was the leading receiver in the game, who had 118 yards on 3 receptions and 2 touchdowns. Notre Dame’s explosive offense has been the catalyst of why they remain undefeated in the 2025 season.

Notre Dame’s offense is led by senior Matt Bodnar at QB, who has completed 150 of 218 passes on the season for 2,397 yards, with a 33 to 3 TD-INT ratio. They also have a balanced rushing attack that includes juniors Aaron Gordon and Jonathan Striba. Gordon has 40 attempts for 266 yards and 5 TDs on the season, and Striba has 46 attempts for 296 yards and 5 TDs. They also have a strong WR core lead by junior Drew Boyd, who has 30 receptions for 618 yards and 7 TDs. They also have senior Alex Clark, who has 22 receptions for 403 yards and 8 TDs, and junior CJ Diaz, who has 19 receptions for 290 yards and 6 TDs. The Crusaders will need their balanced offensive, paired with a stingy defense, as they continue as they continue on their journey to win a district title and a run at a state title. On that defense are players like senior Faustie Capobianco, junior John Hull and senior Kalet Wilson each avg 7.5 tackles per game. Senior Garrett Grants leads the team in sacks with 6 and Drew Boyd leads with 4 INTs

On the other side, the Salisbury Township Falcons, led by 2nd year head coach Kevin Dizenzo, have had the opposite luck of their opponent, battling injuries the whole season, including the loss of their starting QB, junior Keaton Frye, against Palmerton earlier in the season. Although they are coming off a 56-27 loss to the Palisades Pirates, there still was some positives to take away from the game, including freshman QB Iovani Lopez-Rodriguez throwing for 168 yards and 2 touchdowns on only 9 pass attempts, as well as senior WR Jamanni Cruz picking up 104 yards and a touchdown. Given all the adversity that Salisbury has battled this season, it has been hard for them to establish the brand of football they wanted to at the start of the season when they had a healthier roster.

Salisbury has been trying to find a solution to replace their original starting QB, Keaton Frye, with Jarrod Blunt taking over initially, and Iovani Lopez-Rodriguez seeing snaps last week. Their active leading rusher is sophomore Jarrod Blunt as well, with 71 attempts for 267 yards and 1 TD. Their WR core is led by sophomore Jadiel Gonzalez with 11 receptions for 259 yards and 1 TD, and Jamanni Cruz, who has 16 receptions for 251 yards and 2 TDs. The frequent turnover at QB has led to inconsistency from the offense as a whole and has limited their potential up to this point. The Falcons will need their defense to step up as well, like their leader in tackles senior Elijah Garriga and senior Jadan Claudio the sack leader with 3, if Salisbury is going to pull off an upset over the heavily favored Crusaders.

These 2 teams battled in week 2 of the 2025 season, with Notre Dame picking up a 63-0 shutout victory. While this game offers Salisbury a chance at redemption, it will be up to whatever QB is under center to lead a balanced offensive attack that can keep pace with Matt Bodnar and the Notre Dame offense.

Both head coaches spoke about their team’s season and their mindsets entering Thursday nights matchup and what they need to do for their teams to win.

“We want to make sure we’re playing the game the right way, and keeping on track with what our goals are, and our goal is to win a district title and go after a state championship”

-Phil Stambaugh

“We have to play our best brand of football, and if the best version of us shows up with the players that we have, we’re always going to feel like we are in the game”

-Kevin Dizenzo

 

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