They say revenge is sweet. You don’t have to tell that to the Parkland Trojans football team Friday night after their convincing 42-0 win over Easton at Orefield Middle School, that gave Parkland the district championship. Back in week two, Easton shutout the Trojans 24-0 at Cottingham Stadium.“We made some changes since that first game,” said Parkland coach Jim Morgans. “We went with just one quarterback instead of two like we did earlier in the season,” He added. “Plus we flat out got better through the season,” Morgans concluded.
Parkland running back Kareem Williams had himself quite a night, continuing from what he did against Whitehall the previous week. Williams is trying to match at the high school level what his brother Andre is doing for Boston College this season. Kareem ended up with 312 yards on 20 carries and 4 scores. His teammate Eli Redmond found the end zone twice in a dominant performance by the Trojans.
Williams got the scoring started with just 1:14 left in the opening quarter after Easton downed a punt at the Parkland two. He ripped off a 96 yard run down the visitor’s sideline to give his team a 7-0 lead. Eli Redmond then added a 28 yard score off a swing pass from Devante Cross with 5:22 remaining in the first half. Parkland took a 14-0 lead into the locker room.
The back breaker came early in the second half after the Trojans held the Rovers to a three and out on their opening possession. On the first play from scrimmage, Williams ran through the center of Easton’s line for a 65 yard dash to pay dirt and a 21-0 lead at 10:22 mark of the third quarter
“They took it to us tonight,” said Easton’s Steve Shiffert. “They were more aggressive than we were. You can tell they wanted it more,” he added. “Williams is some athlete, we contained him pretty well in the first game, but tonight he was electric,” Shiffert concluded.
Williams was not finished yet as he scored twice more, once on a 22 yard burst with 5:55 to go in the third period and another 60 yard scamper to the end zone at the 3:25 mark of the same quarter. That gave the Trojans a 35 point lead and put the mercy rule into effect. The final tally came with Eli Redmond returning a punt 75 yards for his second touchdown on the evening.
Parkland (12-1) will now face St. Joe’s Prep in the next round of state playoff competition on the path to Hershey next Saturday afternoon at 1 p.m. at BASD Stadium in Bethlehem. Easton(10-3) still has their Thanksgiving Day matchup with Phillipsburg.
