PFN’s Road Trippin’ With Davin: Week 2

Tagged under: District 12, District 4, News, pfn

Davin Ridall | September 4, 2026

Welcome to week 2 of my road trippin’ series, and now with all of the opening week festivities in the rearview mirror, we’re back to just some regular ol’ high school football. This week we’ve got some good matchups on tap, but more importantly, lots of miles to cover. Friday will be an almost 2 hour journey north, while Saturday will be a 3 and a half hour trip southeast, which will feature my first ever visit to an out of state stadium. With all of that said, let’s have a look at our week 2 matchups.

Athens Wildcats (1-0) vs Troy Trojans (0-0)
Friday 9/4, 7:00 PM, Alparon Park

Our first game of the week brings us to Alparon Park in Troy, Pennsylvania, about two hours north of my hometown. This will be my second time visiting that stadium, but my first time as a reporter, the last time I was there was in 2021 as part of the Central Columbia marching band. Troy has been a top tier contender in 2A for each of the past three seasons, making it to the District 4 title game every year since 2023, including winning the state title in 2024. They were expected to compete for their second straight state title last year, but never made it out of the district bracket, falling to Southern Columbia 48-0 in the district title game. Last week’s 26-19 loss at home to Montoursville marked Troy’s first regular season loss to a District 4 team since 2022 when they lost to Canton. Watching their performance against Montoursville last week mostly confirmed that 2026 will likely be a step back from the past three season’s for the Trojans, and it makes sense with how many key pieces they lost this offseason. Junior quarterback Spencer Martin made his first start last week and only threw for 46 yards and a touchdown while also throwing 3 interceptions. Their rushing attack that averaged almost 325 yards a game last year only managed 129 yards, so offensively this Trojans team still has a lot to fix. They’re going to face an Athens team this week that is on the opposite end of the spectrum, as they crushed Wyalusing last week 44-0. Last year when these two teams met, Troy was a perennial title contender and Athens went punch for punch with them, however they ultimately lost 51-35. This year I believe the story is much different as Troy seems to be on a bit of a decline while Athens is trending up. Last year was a bit of a surprising year for Athens, as they went 9-2 after two down years for program in 2023 and 2024, going 3-8 and 5-6 respectively. In their first game of the 2026 season the Wildcats looked incredible, as mentioned earlier they crushed Wyalusing 44-0 and just dominated the game entirely on both sides of the ball. Senior quarterback Connor Davidson looked great in his first game back after missing the last two games of 2025 due to suspension, throwing for 97 yards and 4 touchdowns, all of which came in the first half. He also ran for 98 yards on just 5 carries, with the team as a whole rushing for 219 yards in the game. Athens’ defense not only pitched a shutout in the game, but they held Wyalusing to negative 4 total yards. The Wildcats will be looking to defeat Troy for the first time since 2017, and I think they have a good chance to do it.

Father Judge Crusaders (1-0) vs Lansdale Catholic Crusaders (0-1)
Saturday 9/5, 11:00 AM, Carey Stadium

Games two and three of the week bring us to my first out of state trip, Carey Stadium located in Ocean City, New Jersey. Carey Stadium is home to the Ocean City High School Red Raiders and has been in use since 1919, and it is located just off of the boardwalk which is why it is commonly referred to as “The Beach House.” It commonly hosts games for the Philadelphia area high school teams, this week it actually hosts three of them. Enough about the stadium now, let’s talk about the teams playing there this week, starting with Father Judge and Lansdale Catholic. Father Judge is fresh off of a wild victory against Archbishop Ryan last week, winning 16-13 in overtime after trailing 13-6 with less than a minute to go in the game. Lansdale Catholic on the other hand struggled big time against Pope John Paul II last week, falling on the road 37-0. Lansdale Catholic went 12-3 last season, coming up just one game shy of reaching the state title, falling to the eventual state champions in Southern Columbia. They lost a handful of seniors this past offseason, but brought back a good amount of starters back from that 2025 team. Father Judge went 3-8 last season, but this game against Lansdale Catholic was one of their three victories in 2025, beating them 30-27.

Bonner-Prendie Friars (0-1) vs Archbishop Ryan Raiders (0-1)
Saturday 9/5, 3:00 PM, Carey Stadium

Our final game of the week is a matchup between the Bonner-Prendie Friars and the Archbishop Ryan Raiders, both of which are teams that are fresh off of a close loss in week 1, however these are very different teams that we are talking about here. Bonner-Prendie is ranked number one in the state in the 4A class, and last week they lost to St. Augustine Prep 24-20 on the road. St. Augustine Prep is ranked number 11 in the entire state of New Jersey according to MaxPreps. Archbishop Ryan lost to Father Judge last week 16-13 in overtime, as I mentioned while talking about Father Judge. The Crusaders are a 6A team, but they are not one of the top contenders in that class. Archbishop Ryan moved down from 4A to 3A after the 2025 season, and is the top ranked team in 3A in District 12. They went 9-3 last season but fell short of the 4A state playoffs, getting bested by Cardinal O’Hara in the district playoffs. Last year the Raiders got shut out 26-0 in their game against Bonner-Prendie, even in a year where Bonner lost to Cardinal O’Hara in the district title game. The Friars returned so much of their roster from 2025, making them one of, if not the most battle tested roster in the entire class. Both teams will be coming into this game looking to avenge their week 1 losses, however I think it is safe to say that Bonner has the upper hand going into this matchup.

You can follow all of these games by following my twitter account @dridallmedia and for coverage of everything Pennsylvania high school football related, follow @PaFootballNews on twitter.