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Nazareth gets their Revenge against Parkland

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

| November 18, 2023

Bethlehem-

In a rematch from week 4 in the EPC, Nazareth flips the script and scores the late touchdown to grab the victory, this time, for the District XI crown.

To start off the game Parkland kicked off to the Blue Eagles who muffed the opening kickoff and started with less-than-ideal field position to start their first offensive series at their own 10 yard-line.  The drive would start out very run heavy with rushes from Wimberly(7 rushes, 27 yards), Kuehner(9 rec, 137 yards), and Falzone ( 14-25, 183 yards)(87 yards rushing, 1 TD) which got the Blue Eagle offense almost to midfield. Then later in the drive Falzone would find Mason Kuehner on a quick dig route who would then break 2 tackles and gain 22 yards for the first explosive pass play for Nazareth on the evening.  The drive would stall out in the red-zone for the Blue Eagles who would line up to attempt a field goal, only to have it emphatically blocked by the Parkland defense who really tightened up once backed up against their own end zone.

On the ensuing Trojan drive after the blocked kick, the Parkland offense mostly stuck to the ground attack with solid gains by both Trey Tremba (21 rushes, 110 yards, 1 TD) and Luke Spang(7-18, 138 yards, 1 TD).  The Trojan drive was also helped by a blatant defensive pass interference call which helped move the Parkland offense deeper in to Nazareth territory.  Everything was moving in the Trojans’ direction but an offensive pass interference call on what looked to be a spectacular catch by Jendel Sanchez, brought the ball back and forced the Trojan offense to work from behind the sticks.  The Nazareth defense would hold and force a punt.  The Parkland special teams would come through with a great punt and pin the Nazareth offense deep inside their own territory at their own 3 yardline to start their next offensive series.

Falzone and the Blue Eagle offense wasted no time in getting out of their own endzone with a first play 27 yard completion to Kuehner who made a spectacular catch over a Parkland defender.

The completion would get the Nazareth offense out of the shadow of their own endzone, but the drive would stall out and the Blue Eagles would have to punt to the Trojans.  Parkland’s offense would also manage a quick first down via a 10 yard run by Tremba, only to stall out and punt.  The punt however would be mishandled by the punter would would be dropped for a huge loss and give the ball to the Nazareth offense inside Parkland territory.  The Trojan defense would stand strong however and after allowing a single first down would force a turnover on downs after Nazareth would go for it on 4th down and Falzone would be unable to connect with Hilarczyk.  The Trojans would take over and have minimal success moving to ball.  Their special teams once again would come up big for them as they would down their next punt at the Nazareth 1 yardline.  In what must have seemed like a “glitch in the matrix moment” for Parkland, Nazareth’s Falzone once again found Kuehner for a big completion on the first play of the drive to get the Blue Eagles out of the shadow of their own endzone.  Falzone would lead Nazareth down the field in the waning moments of the first half and with 2 seconds left in the half, the Parkland defense would get a huge stop at the 1 yardline to bring the first half to a close.  The teams headed to their locker rooms in a scoreless tie.

The second half would seemingly be night and day from the first.  Parkland, having deferred from the first half, received the opening kick of the 2nd half.  The Trojan offense was finally able to get a big play of their own when Spang would find Tremba for a huge 47 yard completion down the middle of the field down to the Nazareth 22 yard line. After picking up another first down via two Tremba runs, the Nazareth defense force a field goal attempt by Parkland.  The kick would soar through the uprights and Parkland would have the first score and lead of the game, 3-0 with 9:38 left in the 3rd quarter.

The next Nazareth drive would see a heavy dose of Jed Bendekovits who after some modest pickups on the ground would break a long run right up the middle and finally be dragged down at the Parkland 12 yardline. The Parkland defense would bend but not break on this drive forcing another field goal attempt by the Blue Eagles.  This one would make it through the uprights and tie the game a 3 with 4:06 left in the 3rd quarter.

On their next drive Parkland would start out sticking to their guns and feed Tremba who would break off a great 20 yard run.  After this long gain Spang and the Trojan passing attack took over as he would find Alex Klechner for a 12 yard gain and then a few plays later find Leo Dauberman down the middle for a 36 yard touchdown to put the Trojans up 10-3 with  11:46 left in the game.

The Nazareth offense would answer right back on their next drive.  Sticking with Bendekovits on the ground, he would pile up some short gains and then would find a hole right up the middle later in the drive and take it in from 26 yards out to tie the game back up at 10.

Not to be outdone, the Parkland offense went on a 10 play drive of their own almost exclusively on the ground courtesy of Trey Tremba.  Tremba would find paydirt on his 5th carry of the drive from 14 yards out and once again put Parkland ahead.  This time, 17-10 with only 3:31 left in the game.

The next offensive possession for the Blue Eagles would see their quarterback Falzone take over the drive on the ground and on his second 25 yard run of the drive, find the pilon at the goal line to bring Nazareth within 1 of tying the game back up.  There was no tie to be had, Nazareth decided to go for 2 and from a quite unconventional formation and upon seeing this, the Parkland coaching staff called their final timeout to talk it over with their defense.  On the attempt, Kuehner would find Frankie Mroz just across the goal line to convert the 2 point attempt and put Nazareth up 18-17 with just over a minute left in the game.

Parkland would get the ball back with no timeouts, and just over a minute left in the game.  Spang would engineer the Trojan drive into Nazareth territory through the ground and air.  After getting some help from the officials on an easy to call defensive pass interference, he would find Leo Dauberman for a 17 yard gain bringing the Trojan offense to the Nazareth 30 yardline.  On the next play Spang once again found Dauberman over the middle.  As he was making his way toward the endzone, Blue Eagle defensive back Logan Hilarczyk would punch the ball out of his hands and fellow Blue Eagle Marquez Wimberly would scoop it up and take it to the house as time expired to cap off the game and give Nazareth their 6th District title by a final score 0f 24-17 over Parkland.

After the game, medal, and trophy presentations, I was able to track down Nazareth QB Peyton Falzone who when asked about the contrasting halves tonight said ” There wasn’t much of a change really, we had them where we wanted them we just couldn’t convert. We were shooting ourselves in the foot with penalties.  We had a great game-plan going in so that’s what we were happy about”.  When asked about his touchdown run in the 2nd half he said,”Their d-end flipped the field really far so I saw it and I took off and I saw the left side of the field and that was wide open so I thought I would take a chance and go for the pilon.”  When I then asked about their game next week he said “Yeah, you know next week is a different animal, but we’re gonna enjoy this while we got it.”

Aside from winning the District XI 6A Championship, there was also another reason to celebrate as Nazareth’s Mason Kuehner became the Blue Eagles’ all time leader in receiving yards and Running back Jed Bendekovits (19 rushes, 148 yards, 1 TD) went over 1,000 yards on the season.

The loss for the Trojans (12-1) brings their fantastic 2023 season to a close.  With the victory, Nazareth (12-1) awaits the winner of the St. Joe’s Prep (9-1) vs Abraham Lincoln(6-5) matchup tomorrow at the Northeast Supersite in Germantown.

 

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