EMMAUS – The Emmaus Hornets defense turned many heads last week in the Lehigh Valley when they shutout rival Parkland 27-0 to clinch the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference West Division title.
Now it has back-to-back shutouts and the victim this time was none other than defending District XI 6A Champion Nazareth.
Behind a complete effort on defense and an overpowering rushing attack, the fourth-seeded Hornets rolled past the fifth seed Nazareth 35-0 in the first round of the District XI 6A playoffs on Friday night at the EPSD stadium.
“Any time you can slow a team like that down or even shut them out it is a great feeling,” Emmaus head coach Harold Fairclough said. “Our kids were dialed in and ready to go and they came out and did a heck of a job executing a great game plan put forth by our staff.”
One week after scoring 55 points in a 63-55 shootout loss to Easton, Nazareth was shutout for the first time since 2009 when they lost 28-0 which also came at the hands of Easton.
“We were out of sync on every play,” Nazareth head coach Tom Falzone said. “There were either two or three guys not on the same page or some other mistake was being made. We just could not get it together.”
The Hornets defense will get the spotlight in the victory, but it was the Emmaus offense that made the opening statement. Quarterback Jerek Cooper needed just five plays to lead the Hornets (9-2) down the field and raced 37 yards down the left sideline to put Emmaus ahead 7-0 just over two minutes into the contest.
“I am most proud of the relentless effort our kids gave tonight,” Fairclough said. “It was awesome to see those guys fly around while making big and timely plays.”
Nazareth’s offense did not even come close to crossing into Hornets territory on its first two drives, but seemed to get a spark right at the very end of the first quarter when Luke DePietro ran a punt back 54 yards to the Emmaus 14-yard line. Instead, the Eagles (7-4) finished the drive losing four yards and were turned over on downs following back-to-back drops on 3rd and 4th downs.
The Eagles defense did its best to keep the offense in the game by forcing a pair of three-and-outs in the second quarter.
However, the struggles on offense hit a fever pitch when quarterback Peyton Falzone tossed a 37-yard pick-6 to linebacker Cole Moreau with 5:29 left in the second quarter to put Emmaus up 14-0.
“A couple plays before they ran the same mesh route and coach told me I had to stay on my guy because I was behind the last time,” Moreau said. “I read the route and when he (Falzone) threw behind him I capitalized on it.”
Now suddenly the pressure was on the Eagles defense again late in the first half and the walls began to cave in when the Hornets took advantage of short field to go up 21-0 with 26 seconds left in the second quarter. Emmaus rushed with ease on all six plays that started from the Eagles 32-yard line and Reilly Bechtel capped the drive with a 6-yard score.
“Tonight, I thought our defense was great, but we just did not do enough to help them out,” Tom Falzone said. “We put them in bad situations all night and it finally caught up to us.”
The Hornets did not score a point in the third quarter but completed a 13-play drive that took off 5:34 off the clock which wore down a tiring Eagles defense. Nazareth put together a good-looking drive to start the second half until once again having it end in a turnover on downs in the red zone. The Eagles advanced as far as the Hornets 6-yard line before Peyton Falzone was sacked by Bechtel.
“It is so thrilling every time to step on the field knowing we are capable of pitching a shutout like that on defense,” Bechtel said. “I am excited what next week brings for us and more importantly just to have another week together with these guys.”
Bechtel ended any chance the Eagles had at a potential rally when he burst through the middle of the line untouched on 3rd-and-11 from the Nazareth 41-yard line for his second touchdown of the game to make it 28-0. Javier Santos put the finishing touches on the Emmaus win with a 17-yard touchdown with just over five minutes left in regulation.
“I think we ultimately got our run game going on that last drive in the first half,” Fairclough said. “Mark Scisly, our offensive line coach, made some great adjustments at halftime. Nazareth did about one or two things we did not see on film coming into this game so credit to our kids to buy into the adjustments and execute.”
The Hornets ended the game with 324 rushing yards as a team on 39 carries to average 8.3 yards per carry. Bechtel had 147 of those yards on 17 carries while Cooper posted 88, and Santos finished with 81.
Emmaus limited Virginia Tech commit Peyton Falzone to throw for just 137 yards on 19-of-39 passing with his interception.
With the EPC new conference realignment, the Hornets and Eagles did not get to face each other in the regular season. However, Emmaus gets its first EPC rematch next week at Cottingham Stadium against top-seeded Easton after the Red Rovers easily dispatched Stroudsburg 42-7.
Emmaus missed a game-winning field goal in regulation as time expired after letting an early 14-0 lead slip away in the September 21st meeting at EPSD Stadium, falling 28-21. Now, the Hornets get their second chance at the Red Rovers.
“We are going to enjoy this one first, but our kids knew we were possibly going to see them (Easton) down the road.” Fairclough said. “They have a very good offense, but I just want to see this effort showed tonight out of our guys again.”
| SCORE BY QUARTERS | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Final |
| Nazareth | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Emmaus | 7 | 14 | 0 | 14 | 35 |
Scoring summary
| 1 | EM | Cooper, 37 run (Buck kick) | 9:32 |
| 2 | EM | Moreau 37 interception return (Buck kick) | 5:29 |
| 2 | EM | Bechtel, 6 run (Buck kick) | 0:26 |
| 4 | EM | Bechtel, 41 run (Buck kick) | 10:56 |
| 4 | EM | Santos, 17 run (Buck kick) | 5:37 |
Team statistics
| Nazareth | Emmaus | |
| First downs | 13 | 16 |
| Rushes-yards | 25-92 | 39-324 |
| Passing yards | 137 | 14 |
| Total yards | 229 | 338 |
| Passes COMP-ATT-INT | 19-39-1 | 3-6-0 |
| Fumbles-lost | 0-0 | 0-0 |
| Punts-average | 4-32.0 | 4-38.0 |
| Penalties-yards | 7-65 | 11-126 |
Individual statistics
RUSHING
Nazareth: Falzone 12-58, Wimberly 10-20, Angione 2-11, Smith 1-3
Emmaus: Bechtel 16-147, Cooper 13-88, Santos 7-81, Jefferson-Rushing 3-8
PASSING
Nazareth: Falzone 19-39-1–137
Emmaus: Cooper 3-6-0–14
RECEIVING
Nazareth: Newsome 4-40, Zelachowski 3-41, DePietro 3-19, Wimberly 3-1, Kilareski 2-20, Boyce 2-8, Simpson 2-8
Emmaus: Jefferson-Rushing 2-12, Duggan 1-2
INTERCEPTIONS
Emmaus: Moreau
