September 7, 2019
RECAP >> The moment certainly wasn’t too big for Jacob Moyer.
Making his first career varsity start at quarterback, Moyer went out and shined in his debut under center at Whitehall on Friday night as he tossed three touchdown passes leading Emmaus to its best overall effort to date in a 49-21 pounding of the Zephyrs.
Moyer, the backup to starter Alex Lanzone who suffered a shoulder injury late in last week’s loss to Nazareth, may have locked down the starting position moving forward with a solid effort leading the Hornets offense up-and-down the field all night against a porous Whitehall defense that had given up a combined 87 points through the first two games of the season.
Moyer hooked up with junior wideout Jameel Sanders on a pair of scoring strikes of 48 and 9 yards with the first coming on Moyer’s first pass of the game on the Hornets opening possession.
The victory by Emmaus helped them improve to 2-1 as they got the sour taste of last week’s home-opening loss to Nazareth out of their mouths. It was also the second consecutive year that the Hornets have defeated the Zephyrs and fourth in the last five meetings. Whitehall, coached by former Emmaus assistant Matt Senneca, remained winless on the season as they dropped to 0-3.
Hornets running back Brandon Camire had yet another big night in the backfield as he scored three more touchdowns on runs of 11, 68 and 60 yards, and finished with 208 yards marking the third consecutive game that the junior has eclipsed 200+ yards. In just three games, Camire already has 11 touchdowns on the season.
Sanders also had a big night for Emmaus with his first two touchdowns of the season to go along with a career-high 60 yards on the ground on just three carries.
Sophomore Jared Groller scored his third career touchdown on a 25-yard run in the first quarter that gave Emmaus a quick 14-0 lead and junior wide receiver Chad Newhard caught his third touchdown of the season on a 12-yard pass from Moyer, the Hornets only score of the second half.
Defensively, Emmaus had its best performance of the season as they held Whitehall to just 277 yards of total offense. Senior linebacker Adam Heiserman led the Hornets with a team-high 8 tackles and one sack. Groller was next with 7 tackles and a sack.
Whitehall senior running back Ali Barkley, the brother of current New York Giants running back Saquon Barkley, finished with 174 yards on the ground and two touchdowns, half of those yards came in the second quarter on 83-yard touchdown run that got the Zephyrs to within 28-14.
Emmaus will return home to East Penn School District Stadium next Friday as they host winless Pleasant Valley (0-3). Penn Sports Radio will have all the action beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m. followed by the opening kickoff at 7 p.m.
Follow @Emmaussports.com on twitter and ‘like’ Emmaus football on facebook to keep up to date on the team throughout the season.
Coach Fairclough on the win: “It’s awesome. Our guys did a great job of responding (following last week’s loss). We’re a young team and it’s going to be a process. We have to learn how to handle a little bit of success. Believe it or not, we still made a lot of mistakes, but we’ll watch the film and we’ll enjoy this one and clean up those mistakes moving forward.”
On Jacob Moyer: “I told him before the game to just go out and there and have fun and sling the thing and he did that. It looked like he was having a ball out there and he got it done for us tonight.”
Emmaus – 14-28-7-0 – 49
Whitehall – 0-14-0-7 – 21
Scoring:
E – Jameel Sanders 48 yard pass from Jacob Moyer (Alex Orlando PAT)
E – Jared Groller 25 yard run (Orlando PAT)
W – Ali Barkley 2 yard run (Kresstoph Whittick PAT)
E – Sanders 9 yard pass from Moyer (Orlando PAT)
E – Camire 11 yard run (Orlando PAT)
W – Barkley 83 yard run (Whittick PAT)
E – Camire 68 yard run (Orlando PAT)
E – Camire 60 yard run (Orlando PAT)
E – Chad Newhard 12 yard pass from Moyer (Orlando PAT)
W – Angelo Daddona 3 yard run (Whittick PAT )
STATS – INDIVIDUAL – EMMAUS
Rushing – Camire 21-208, 3 TD; Sanders 3-60, Groller 5-36, TD; Gabe Trexler 1-1, Moyer 2 (-4)
Passing – Moyer 8 of 16, 114 yards, 3 TD
Receiving – Sanders 4-79, 2 TD; Newhard 1-12, TD; Jaden Delgado 1-11; Bryan Bertsch 1-7, Camire 1-5