Northampton had no answers for Zach Sabol and Ethan Parvel on Friday night.
Sabol matched his career-high with 21 points and Parvel added 18 as the two combined for more than half of Emmaus’ offense as the Hornets pulled away pulled away from a pesky K-Kid squad for a 60-48 win at Pete Schneider Gymnasium.
“Those two had 25 of our 28 points in the first half,” said Emmaus head coach Steve Yoder. “He (Parvel) single-handedly kept us in the game in the first half with his offense and of course Zach was rebounding like crazy and did some scoring for us as well.”
Parvel, the Whitehall transfer, was too much for Northampton to handle in the first half as he scored 15 points, eight coming in the opening quarter.
“I’m running out of words for Ethan,” said Yoder. “It’s just amazing what the kid does. I’m glad he’s on our team. “
He’s also glad to have the 6-8 Sabol who nearly had triple-double with his 18 rebounds to go along with seven blocks.
“He’s special.” said Yoder of Sabol. “We haven’t had those kinds of numbers since Matt Wiseley (2011-12). Matt wasn’t the scorer that Zach is, but Zach is every bit the rebounder and he change the game without scoring a point. I just love the big fella.”
Emmaus improved to 3-0 overall and 2-0 in the EPC after its third double-digit win of the season. The Hornets also gained a bit of revenge on the K-Kids who defeated them twice in three meetings a year ago, including a 58-54 loss in the District XI Class 6A semifinals at Allen High School.
Emmaus, which hasn’t loss at Northampton since back in the 2009-10 season, used the middle quarters to pull away from Northampton. After a 12-all tie in the opening eight minutes, the Hornets outscored the K-Kids by a combined 31-16 in the second and third quarters to take a commanding 43-28 lead into the fourth.
“It was a slow start but not awful,” said Yoder. “The last three quarters were pretty good. Credit to Northampton because their kids never go away. They’re a young team but they’re skilled. They make up for their lack of size with being really scrappy so hats off to them. We were just a little bit better tonight.”
Senior Bryce Diehl scored all eight of his points in the second half, while sophomore Danny Bohman came off the bench and also added eight points – all coming in the fourth quarter.
Northampton (1-1) was led in scoring by junior Zach Gula who scored nine of his team-high 11 points after halftime. Freshman Issac Harris added 10 points off the bench, while junior Donte Rodriguez chipped in with nine.
The Hornets will return home next week for a pair of key divisional games against Nazareth (Tuesday) and Central Catholic (Friday) before closing out the week with a non-league game against the state’s No. 1 ranked team in Class 5A Abington Heights (Saturday) at 4 p.m. at Muhlenberg College.
Emmaus – Zach Sabol 8-11 5-8 21, Bryce Diehl 4-8 0-0 8, Cam Brooks 0-2 0-0 0, Ethan Parvel 7-11 2-3 18, Mark Swedberg 1-7 0-2 2. Subs: Danny Bohman 3-7 0-1 8, Devon Boyko 0-0 0-0 0, Mason Boyd 1-2 1-2 3, Josh Moyer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals: FG 23-48, FT 8-16, 3s 4 (Parvel 2, Bohman 2)
Northampton – Gilliard 2-3 1-4 7, Rodriguez 4-6 0-0 9, Cole 2-9 0-0 5, Brandon 1-5 0-0 2, Gula 4-10 2-2 11, Harris 3-8 1-2 10, Alto 0-2 0-0 0, Altomare 0-2 0-0 0, Ojeda-Torres 1-2 0-0 2, Sah 1-3 0-0 2. Totals: FG 18-49, FT 4-8, 3s (8 – Harris 3, Gilliard 2, Rodriguez, Cole, Gula)
Em – 12 – 16 – 15 – 17 – 60
No – 12 – 9 – 7 – 20 – 48
JV – Em 47-41
Fresh – Em 36-23