Hollywood’s Cutting Room Floor: Week 3 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference Edition
Tagged under: District 11, News, pfn
Brian Ptashinski | September 12, 2023
Weather was the culprit last week that wreaked havoc on games in the EPC.
Week three of the high school football season was marred by postponements and cancellations leading to rescheduling of contests in the Lehigh Valley. The week started with a Thursday night game between East Stroudsburg South and Pleasant Valley but the game was delayed an hour to start and then some lightning in the area just after 9pm with 1:48 still left in the first half led officials to postpone the game to Monday at 5pm. The Stroudsburg at Northampton game also Thursday was moved to Saturday afternoon. All games were completed nonetheless.
When all was said and done it seems that Parkland and Nazareth have established themselves as the front runners in the EPC South but Allentown Central Catholic, Bethlehem Catholic are close behind with perfect records then Freedom, Emmaus, Whitehall and Liberty are not far behind along with Easton who trails by a couple of games.
This week the Game of the Week, and maybe the year occurs on Friday as Nazareth travels to Orefield to face Parkland. The Blue Eagles are ranked fifth in the state in the latest PFN rankings in 6A while the Trojans are ranked 7th.
In the North, Northampton and Pleasant Valley lead the way with 2-1 records. Stroudsburg, Pocono Mtn West, East Stroudsburg South are all 1-2 East Stroudsburg North, Pocono Mtn East, William Allen and Dieruff round out the division.
Last Weekends Results
East Stroudsburg North 18 William Allen 12
Bethlehem Catholic 42 Pocono Mtn East 6
Pocono Mtn West 49 Louis Dieruff 20
Northampton 31 Stroudsburg 0
Pleasant Valley 14 East Stroudsburg South 12
Whitehall 27 Easton 0
Parkland 42 Liberty 14
Nazareth 42 Freedom 26
Allentown CC 27 Emmaus 24
Let’s Take A Look At This Week’s Games:
Pleasant Valley Bears (2-1) at William Allen Canaries (0-3) Friday 7pm at J. Birney Crum Stadium
Pleasant Valley sneaked by East Stroudsburg South 14-12 and Allen narrowly lost to East Stroudsburg North 18-12
Hollywood was at the ESS at PV game on Thursday and Monday A 30 yard touchdown by Valentino Byers-Richardson Thursday and then a ten yard run by Alex Ecker alon with Ecker converting a 2pt conversion Monday put the Bears up and then a Dakoda Lucas picked off a Cavaliers pass in the last minute sealed the win. The Canaries had nearly 200 yards at ESN but three turnovers hurt Allen. Quarterback Lawson Vazquez threw for nearly 110 yards and had one scoring pass as well as a rushing touchdown.
East Stroudsburg North Timberwolves (1-2) at Pocono Mtn East Cardinals Friday 7pm
The Timberwolves defeated Allen 18-12 while PME lost to Bethlehem Catholic 42-6
ESN rushed for 255 yards against Allen and averaged nearly seven yards per carry. The Cardinals avoided being shutout for third consecutive week.
Louis Dieruff Huskies (0-3) at Northampton Konkrete Kids (2-1) Friday 7pm at Al Erdosy Stadium
Dieruff lost to PMW 49-20 and Northampton shut down Stroudsburg 31-0
The Huskies looked to improve on last season’s record but they again start off winless and it doesn’t get any easier next couple of weeks. Juan Manzano had a 70 yard kickoff return against West. The K-Kids defense only allowed 22 yards against Stroudsburg and two first downs one coming off a penalty.
Pocono Mountain West Panthers (1-2) at East Stroudsburg South Cavaliers (1-2) Friday 7pm at the “Purple Pit”
The Panthers defeated Dieruff 49-20 and South lost a close 14-12 decision to Panther Valley.
Panthers QB Ryder Bray threw for 5 touchdowns and over 300 yards against Dieruff and ran for a score. South will have to rebound in a key match-up to stay in the 5A playoff race and only having four days to get ready as they completed their game Monday.
Stroudsburg Mountaineers (1-2) at Easton Red Rovers (1-2) Friday 7pm at Cottingham Stadium
Mountaineers were overwhelmed by Northampton 31-0 and the Rovers also were blanked by Whitehall 27-0
Stroudsburg could muster very little against Northampton Saturday. The defense allowed 2 Konkrete Kids drives to go into double digit plays and the offense gave up a pick 6. The Rovers need a win this week as they hit a stretch of playing no one but South teams the rest of the way as they hold the last playoff spot currently.
Bethlehem Liberty Hurricanes (2-1) at Bethlehem Catholic Golden Hawks (3-0) Saturday 7pm BASD Stadium
Liberty was on the short end of a 52-14 score to Parkland and the Golden Hawks defeated PME 42-6.
Gabe Green was lone bright spot for Liberty as he rushed for over 100 yards and scored twice but, as a team there allowed just under 150 yards total. There was talk back in the spring when coach Tyler Ward took over the program that the team only had 25 players and they weren’t sure if there was going to be a season, but now they are looking to stay unbeaten nearing the midway point. Hollywood will be here Saturday night.
Whitehall Zephyrs (2-1) at Emmaus Green Hornets (1-2) Friday 7pm EPSD Stadium
Whitehall blanked Easton 27-0 Emmaus dropped a heart-breaker to Central Catholic 27-24
The Zephyrs after being dominated by Becahi two weeks ago they regrouped to stop Easton. Trey Dogmanits thew for nearly 200 yards and a couple of scores. Dalton Wickel ran for over 100 and two touchdowns. Emmaus had to come back on Saturday to fnish their game with Allentown Central Catholic after trailing 24-13 The Hornets rallied back to tie the score, only to lose it on a last second field goal. This could be one of the two games that might get overlooked this weekend.
Allentown Central Catholic Vikings (3-0) at Bethlehem Freedom Patriots (1-2) Friday 7pm at BASD Stadium
Central Catholic survived a scare from Emmaus 27-24 and Freedom lost to Nazareth 49-26
Central Catholic is loaded with talent at key skilled positions and are ranked 4th in that state in 4A by PFN. quarterback Antonio Fontanez has played well sine being the signal caller and has DJ Kelly, Jareel Calhoun and Aiden Sorrentino at his disposal as wideouts. But needed a 51 yard field goal by Luke Myers last week at the horn to beat Emmaus 27-24. Freedom has been here before, last year they started 1-2 then went on a roll to make it to the District XI 6A championship game. Coach Jason Roeder lost a lot of talent off that team and our still trying to find their identity. The Patriots had 11 penalties last week for 110 yards but did manage to gain nearly 500 yards of offense against Nazareth.
Nazareth Blue Eagles (3-0) at Parkland Trojans (3-0) Friday 7pm Orefield Middle School Stadium
As mentioned both of these teams are ranked in the top ten 6A classification by PFN and this could be just be a preview as these two squads could meet again in the District XI playoffs, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. The Blue Eagles have plenty of speed across both sides of the ball. They did trail Freedom last week in the third quarter but made the plays when needed to pull away in the fourth, Marquez Wimberly and Jed Bendekovits combined for over 200 yards rushing and Peyon Falzone had a nice game receiving. Parkland are averaging over 8 yards per carry. Luke Spang has thrown for nearly 450 yards over first 3 games and Trey Tremba has rushed for over 300 yards. This could be a shootout Friday. Definetley a must-see game.
Next week we will take a look at the District XI power rankings as we hit the midway point of the regular season. GET OUT AND SEE A GAME!!
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