By Brian Ptashinski @BPtashinski on Twitter
Easton- Last week’s loss to Liberty left a bad taste in the mouths of the Parkland football team. They went back to work this week making sure that a consecutive loss was not part of the equation. The Trojans put together a solid performance on both sides of ball en route to a 21-3 statement win over the Red Rovers at historic Cottingham Stadium.
Parkland’s suffocating defense forced five turnovers, three of those coming in the fourth quarter alone to help preserve the win. Kenny Yeboah led the way with two key interceptions in the fourth quarter to seal the deal for the Trojans.
“We gave up too many yards and big plays to Liberty last week. We needed to come out and set the tone early that we were not going have same performance happen again,” Yeboah stated.
Parkland got on the scoreboard first on a 18 play 98 yard drive, following a Easton turnover on the Trojan two yard line. The drive, which began midway in the opening quarter carried over into the second quarter and was capped by a 14 yard pass from Devonte Cross to Zach Bross.
Easton had their chances to get points on the board, but penalties killed any hopes of getting the ball in the end zone. Twice, drives that led the Rovers to the brink of scoring were thwarted by costly errors.They could only muster a 25 yard field goal by Diego Santiago late in the third quarter to cut the lead to 7-3.
Parkland extended it’s lead to 14-3 as Cross connected with Yeboah for a 33 yard scoring strike with 10:46 left in the contest. The Cross to Yeboah combination hooked up again on a five yard fade route to complete the scoring for the night.
Cross, who committed to Boston College earlier in the day via twitter finished the night with 147 passing yards and 96 yards via the ground game.
“Our defensive play was the focus of our practices this week,” Parkland coach Jim Morgans said. “Our coaches knew this is what those kids are capable of doing. They had to go and show it tonight,” he concluded.
With this win Parkland improves to 6-1 on the season 4-1 in EPC South. They will be at home next Friday night with undefeated Freedom, who earned a tough win over stubborn Whitehall 29-6. Easton(5-2, 3-2 EPC South) will try to keep their postseason district hopes alive on the road at Liberty, who defeated Northampton 28-18.
