Lots of hardware was handed out Friday night at Parkland School District Stadium after the Trojans football team beat visiting Emmaus 41-17 to wrap up a perfect regular season.
The Western Lehigh Exchange Club handed out offensive MVP awards for both sides — Luke Spang and Jake Beidleman for Parkland and Mario Landio and Jerek Cooper for Emmaus — and the big trophy to Parkland for winning the Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard.
And Trojans athletic director Andy Stephens handed out the biggest one to Parkland for winning the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division title.
But while the postgame had a party feel to it, complete with the marching band performing a concert, the home team has much bigger celebrations on its mind.
The Trojans will be the top seed and the favorite to repeat as District 11 6A champs. They be home when the subregional tournament begins Friday night with District 4’s Williamsport (5-5) the expected opponent and with a win would be home again for the semifinals on Nov. 10.
And considering they are ranked No. 2 in the state in 6A behind only perennial Philly Catholic League power St. Joe’s Prep, a run toward Cumberland Valley, site of the state finals on Dec. 9, isn’t unthinkable.
Why can Parkland make a run? Because they can also pass.
To advance deep into the PIAA tournament, teams must be balanced on offense and Parkland is more balanced than it has been in previous years as evidenced by an offensive performance Friday night that featured 159 yards rushing and 230 passing, not to mention a punt return for a touchdown and a blocked punt on special teams.
Senior quarterback Luke Spang saved the best performance of his career for his last regular-season game, completing 12 of 16 passes for 230 yards and four passing TDs to go with one rushing TD.
Three of Spang’s touchdowns came in the second half and all went to fellow senior Connor Johns. Their scoring connections covered 58, 39 and 31 yards.
Johns finished with four catches for 133 yards.
“After the first one, I think me and Spang were really in a zone,” Johns said. “We thought that they couldn’t stop us. We watched the film and we thought we had a favorable matchup. I asked the coach to get me the ball and see what I could do with it and we capitalized on the opportunities we had.”
Johns knows that to keep going for potentially six more games in the same manner the last 10 have gone, a dual-threat offense could be key.
“You don’t want to be predictable,” he said.
Spang agreed.
“Connor and I work out after every practice and tonight was a testament to that hard work because we know where each other is going to be,” Spang said. “I just put the ball up and I know he’s going to go make a play.”
Trey Tremba, who entered the game as the EPC South’s leading rusher, was hardly forgotten. He had 95 yards on 20 carries and scored the night’s first TD on a swing pass from Spang that went for 25 yards. He also had a 74-yard punt return for a score early in the third quarter after Emmaus trailed only 14-3 at halftime.
The offensive MVP award went to Spang, but it just as easily could have gone to Tremba or Johns and the dilemma facing the award voters is also the one that can drive defensive coordinators crazy going forward. Who do you want to single out?
“We did have some lapses tonight and if we can eliminate those, we will be in good shape,” Spang said. “We have to practice like it’s a new season. We now have a new three-game season [in districts].”
Emmaus had its own good moments. Sophomore Jerek Cooper who played quarterback most of the second half, threw for a TD and Jasiyah Banks ran for one. Cooper also threw a 53-yard pass to Riley Giuffre on a gadget play to set up a Will Buck field.
The Green Hornets fell to 5-5 overall and 3-5 in the EPC South, but will get their own playoff 6A berth with a road game next Friday, most likely against Freedom in a rematch of the Patriots’ 25-19 win on Oct. 20.
“We had some really good moments, but when you are going up against a team like Parkland, you need a lot more of them,” Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough said. “We’ll take some good away from this for sure. We got a little momentum in the second half offensively. Defensively, they just exploited some of our weak spots. Johns was a tough matchup for us, but he’s a tough matchup for everyone.”
After an up-and-down ride through the past 10 weeks, Fairclough said the good news is that it’s on to the second season.
“I told our kids that when we wake up tomorrow morning we’re 0-0 again,” Fairclough said. “The 10 games in the regular season are over. We’re not getting them back. So we have to move forward and earn every week we can from here on out.”
Remembering Frankie
A moment of silence was held before the game to honor the memory of Hall of Fame PIAA official Frank D’Angelo, who died earlier in the week at the age of 61. D’Angelo was a popular official in baseball, basketball and football and was also a PIAA rules interpreter. In addition, D’Angelo’s close friend, Bobby Andrews, served as the game’s referee, and was acknowledged for working his final regular-season game. After several decades as one of the area’s prominent officials, Andews is retiring after this season.
Series history
Parkland entered Friday night’s game with a 41-20-2 series lead. The first game between the Trojans and Green Hornets came in 1959 and they have met every year except 1998, 1999 and 2001 when Parkland left the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference for the Mountain Valley Conference. They have met twice in District 11 playoff games. Emmaus won the first six in the series, but Parkland has had two six-game winning streaks and seven-game stretch of victories from 1994-2003. Since 2010, the series has been even with both teams collecting seven wins.
Career records
There are a lot of similarities between Emmaus coach Fairclough and Parkland coach Tim Moncman. Both have won more than 100 games in their careers (Moncman had 159 entering Friday night and Fairclough 110). Both won state titles at previous stops — Fairclough at Allentown Central Catholic in 2010 and Moncman at Liberty in 2008. Both were also Moravian University assistants and both are in their eighth seasons at the current schools. Fairclough began Friday 61-25 at Emmaus and Moncman 71-21 at Parkland.
Did you know?
Parkland’s Tremba entered Friday’s game with 57 touchdowns in his career, which, according to District 11 statistician Duke Helm, tied him for 43rd place in district history. Tremba began the game tied with Chuck Dibilio of Nazareth (2008-10) and Kevin Gulyas from Allentown Central Catholic (2008-11).
Scoring summary
Emmaus 0 – 3 – 14 – 0 — 17
Parkland 7 – 7 – 21 – 6 — 41
FIRST QUARTER
P: Trey Tremba 25 pass from Luke Spang (Aidan Gallagher kick), 6:31
SECOND QUARTER
P: Spang 2 run (Gallagher kick), 9:25
E: Will Buck 39 field goal, 4:56
THIRD QUARTER
P: Tremba 74 punt return (Gallagher kick), 9:58
E: Jasiyah Banks 25 run (Buck kick), 8:21
P: Connor Johns 58 pass from Spang (Gallagher kick), 5:42
P: Johns 39 pass from Spang (Gallagher kick), 2:52
E: Rafael Terrero 63 pass from Jerek Cooper (Buck kick),
FOURTH QUARTER
P: Johns 31 pass from Spang (kick failed), 10:51
Individual stat leaders
RUSHING
Emmaus (22 attempts for 126 yards): Josh Williams 11-37; Jasiyah Banks 1-25, TD; Jerek Cooper 2-33.
Parkland (37 attempts for 159 yards); Trey Tremba 20-95; Luke Spang 9-42, TD.
PASSING
Emmaus: Josh Williams 6-15-1, 45 yards; Jerek Cooper 8-18-1, 136 yards, TD.
Parkland: Luke Spang 12-16-1, 230 yards, 4 TDs.
RECEIVING
Emmaus: Riley Giuffre 4-85; Rafael Terrero 3-76, TD; Daniel Duggan 3-13.
Parkland: Connor Johns 4-133, 3 TDs; Trey Tremba 3-41, TD; Jendel Sanchez 2-30.
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Parkland football makes its a perfect 10-0, routs Emmaus to complete EPC regular season - The Morning Call
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