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Parkland Escapes With A Win In Key Etern Pennsylvania Conference Showdown

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

| September 16, 2023

In a battle between two state ranked unbeaten teams the Parkland Trojans escape late Nazareth rally Friday night.

OREFIELD-In a game that was much hyped, even in the preseason, the Nazareth Blue Eagles traveled the 30 minute drive along route 22 to face the Parkland Trojans, not only in a key EPC South contest, but also a game that had state-wide implications. In the latest Pennsylvania Football News rankings, the Blue Eagles were 5th and Parkland 7th and the game lived up to the buildup. Before a packed house at the Orefield Middle School field The Trojans survived a furious second half comeback to edge the Blue Eagles 31-24 on a perfect night for football.

It looked as though the Trojans might have though made it look like a runaway early as they took the opening kickoff and returned it to near midfield. From there the Trey Tremba show began to take over, as he capped the initial drive with a 33 yard run at the 9:56 mark of the opening quarter. Aiden Gallagher added the point-after for a 7-0 lead.

The two teams would exchange field goals in the first twelve minutes as the Trojans held a 10-3 lead going into the second quarter. Gallagher from 28 yards for a 10-0 lead. Then with just 25 seconds remaining Nathan Baker connected on a 22 yard kick to close out the quarter to make it 10-3.

Tremba, an Army commit continued his dominance in the first half as he would find the end zone twice and gained 202 of his game high 266 yards on the night and scored three times. His second score of the night came on a four yard run with 9:32 left in the second to make the score 16-3 and it looked like maybe the rout was on. The PAT was no good as bad snap squashed the attempt.

Bur in thw words of Lee Corso, of ESPN’s College Gameday, :Not so fast, my friend!” That is because Nazareth’s RB Jed Benedekovits the dashed into the end zone from 30 yards to cut the deficit to six at 16-10 just 30 seconds later.

It didn’t take Parkland long though to match that score as Tremba once again took off on a 34 yard run at the 7:55 mark as found an opening much like his first score and simply outran any Blue Eagle defenders to the end zone. There was no further scoring and the teams headed off to the locker room with Parkland leading 24-10. Another bad snap on the point-after, but holder Satoshi Rosenblum composed himself and tossed a pass to Marcel Burden for the two-point conversion.

The third quarter was a battle of attrition as neither team could get a foothold, as the Trojans looked like they were milking the clock as they would wait till final seconds of the play clock before snapping the ball. The quick-to-the line Nazareth squad could not find their rhythm at the moment either. Then with just 1:17 left and with Nazareth in possession of the ball at the Trojan 19, quarterback Peyton Falzone hit his receiver Caleb Newsome, a transfer from the Peddie School, out in the flat and Newsome faked out the defender to scoot across the goal line and now make it a 24-17 Parkland lead as the game entered the final stanza.

The Falzone to Newsome connection would hook up again with under a minute gone by in the final quarter from 59 yards out as the speedster took off down the Nazareth sidelines to tie the score at 24 with 11:18 left in the game.

Again neither team did much on offense as the time began to wind down and a possible overtime period was looming, but then Parkland delivered the final blow. Using Tremba in the slot quarterback Luke Spang who was 10-18 passing for 137 yards on the night, avoided a Nazareth blitz and was able to step up in the pocket to loft a pass down the middle to a single-covered Tremba who made the catch and broke the tackle and scored from 39 yards out and with the PAT making it 31-24 with 1:22 left in regulation

“I don’t know how he (Spang) got it to me but he did. I ran a post pattern, I saw I had single saftey (Kogan Hilarczyk) on me and Spang put the ball in the perfect spot.” Tremba said after the game.

Nazareth had a chance to try to tie the score after the Tremba score but a fourth down pass from their own 40 came up a yard short of the line to gain and the Trojans took over on downs to run the clock out.

“Our kids made some big plays in the key moments.” Coach Tim Moncman said post-game.They have a lot of talent over there and when they moved tackle Sean Kinney to the middle of the line that gave us some problems in the second half. But our kids played the full 48 minutes like I knew they would.” He concluded.

Here is what quarterback Luke Spang said after the game:

Parkland (4-0) will be on the road Friday night at 7:30 to face another unbeaten and state-ranked opponent in 4A The Vikings of Allentown Central Catholic (4-0) at J. Birney Crum Stadium. The Vikings edged Bethelehem Freedom 35-34 Friday. Nazareth (3-1) will be at BASD Stadium to face Liberty next Friday 7PM. The Hurricanes will play Bethlehem Catholic Saturday night.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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