One thing can be said if your taking in a Whitehall Zephyr football game this season. It’s going to be entertaining.
This was the case once again at Zephyr Stadium Friday night as the home team outlasted a desperate Emmaus Green Hornet team, who were fighting for their playoff lives, by a score of 48-41 on Senior Night at Whitehall.
Emmaus came into the game banged up, but used a potent ground attack led by a dominant performance from Andy Davidson, who had 41 carries for 285 yards and five touchdowns. In the end it was the last five yards that Davidson and Emmaus couldn’t get that sealed the deal for Whitehall.
With the score tied at 41 after scoring a touchdown and recovering an onside kick, the Green Hornets moved the ball inside the Zephs five-yard line. Three plays and they could not cross the goal line but were forced to try a field goal with under two minutes remaining. But Whitehall’s Zach Hixson had other ideas. He got his hand on the 21 yard attempt and Whitehall took over on their own 20 with 1:37 to play.
“This was big winning this game on Senior Night,” Hixson stated. “The playoffs are coming up and this win puts us in a good spot, this was big, no question,” he added.
From there, the Zephs used their star running back Saquon Barkley, who finished the night with 18 carries for 185 yards and a score. Barkley carried the ball three times on the last drive for 49 yards, including a huge 30-yard sprint to the Emmaus 19. Quarterback Gianni Sinatore then completed a pass to Hixson to the one-yard line, Sinatore called his own number on the next play for the final tally of the night with just 19 seconds left in contest. Sinatore rushed for 51 yards and was eight of 16 in passing for an additional 189 yards and four TD passes.
“They took Barkley out of the game. They loaded up the box to stop him, which opened up our passing game,” Coach Brian Gilbert stated.
Whitehall (7-2) inched closer to placing themselves in district playoffs with the win. Emmaus may be on the outside looking in with the loss Friday night as they have a rivalry showdown with Parkland looming next week. “If you told me we would score 41 points tonight I would have felt good about us winning,” a disappointed Randy Cuthbert stated. “We had chances tonight. We have to learn how to finish if we are to make an impact in this league going forward,” he concluded.
Whitehall concludes its regular season next Saturday afternoon at Leh Stadium in Nazareth against Northampton.
