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Parkland cruises to victory over Nazareth

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

| September 20, 2025

Nazareth-

In their 1000th game, Nazareth had no answers for a well balanced Trojan offensive attack, and no luck moving the ball against a staunch Parkland defense in a lopsided affair this Friday evening.

This battle of two undefeated EPC powers began with Parkland receiving the opening kickoff. Trojan quarterback Finn Coen was unable to get anything going with this initial possession and Parkland was forced to punt the ball away to Nazareth.  Starting from their own 28, Cooper Madson and the Nazareth offense fared only slightly better, picking up a first down before Parkland forced them to punt.  This second possession for Parkland seemed to be when things clicked for Coen and the rest of the Trojan offense.  Early in the drive, Coen sprung free on a 50 yard scamper all the way down to the Nazareth 25 yardline.  A few plays later, running back TJ Lawrence got Parkland on the board and they never looked back.

On the ensuing possession for Nazareth, they were once again unable to get much of anything going before punting back to Parkland.  The struggles on offense flowed over to special teams for Nazareth as Naquon Thomason got through the Nazareth line and was able to block the punt which was picked up by Dom Matrich for the scoop and score, putting Parkland up 14-0 with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter.  Following the score, Nazareth’s next possession resulted in another punt.  Parkland began the 2nd quarter  with the ball and with the help of a late hit out of bounds penalty, moved right down the field against the Nazareth defense and once again found the end-zone thanks to a great 26 yard pass and catch from Coen to TJ Lawrence, his 2nd score on the evening putting Parkland up 21-0 with 10:06 left in the first half.

Continuing their dominance on defense, Parkland forced another punt by Nazareth on the following drive.  The punt was fielded by the Trojans’ Nassim Adams who brought the ball all the way back to the Nazareth 3 yard line.  Liam Spang found room up the middle on the very next play to put Parkland up 28-0 with 7:52 remaining in the 2nd quarter.

Running out of time in the first half, Cooper Madson and the Nazareth offense  finally started to click and were able to march down the field and with 4:45 remaining in the first half, Madson found Matt Leluga in the back of the end-zone for a fantastic 1-handed grab to get the Blue Eagles on the board.  With 4:45 left in the 2nd quarter, it was Parkland 28, Nazareth 6.

Hoping for this to be the turning point of the game, the ensuing Parkland drive was ended by a Marquez Wimberly interception which he returned all the way to the Nazareth 38.  Madson got his offense down to the 7, and on the last play of the first half, his pass in to the end zone was broken up by a Parkland defender.  However, a pass interference penalty on Parkland gave Nazareth 1 more untimed play before the end of the half.  This pass, to the other side of the end-zone was instead picked off by Parkland’s Jeremie Jean Baptiste just out of the grasp of Nazareth’s Luke Depietro.

Coming out of half-time, Nazareth was unable to get anything going on offense and punted the ball back to Parkland who thanks to another splendid return by Nassim Adams who returned the punt all the way to the Nazareth 30 yard-line.  A few plays later, TJ Lawrence made good on the great starting field position and after regaining his balance after stumbling, rumbled 25 yards to the house for another Parkland touchdown, complete with the Saquon Barkley celebration.

Later in the 3rd, Coen found Blake Nassry for another 25 score to extend and finalize the Parkland lead 42 -6 with 2:58 remaining in the 3rd quarter.

After the game I was able to speak with Parkland quarterback Finn Coen who had this to say about his and his team’s performance…

 

With the victory, Parkland moves to 5-0 on the season and will host Allen(3-2) next week.  Picking up their first loss of the season, Nazareth falls to (4-1) and will host Liberty (4-1) who are fresh off a shutout victory over Dieruff.

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