Nazareth’s much-ballyhooed Division 1 junior quarterback Peyton Falzone was named the EPC’s MVP on offense this season by the league’s coaches.
The Virginia Tech commit had earned the honor after putting up some gaudy numbers this season: Nearly 2,000 yards passing; 23 touchdowns and just three interceptions.
None of those numbers seemed to matter much to Emmaus’ defense on Friday night in their District XI Class 6A quarterfinal round game against the Blue Eagles at East Penn School District Stadium.
Over the past two weeks, former Hornet and defensive coordinator Jake Hildebrand’s unit have made some of the best offenses in the league looking pedestrian, and Nazareth’s, averaging 36 points per game, was just the latest.
Posting its second shutout in as many games and third in the last four weeks, Emmaus throttled Falzone’s high flying offense unit following up their impressive performance from just a week ago over archrival Parkland, with an even better effort as the Hornets cruised to an easy 35-0 rout of Nazareth ending the Blue Eagles season.
“Our kids are dialed in,” emphasized Emmaus head coach Harold Fairclough. “Last week’s performance against Parkland was great so we just carried that momentum into this one.
“We had another good week of practice, and I think a lot of it is us being focused and locked in. Our coaches did a great job of putting together a great game plan and our kids did an even better job of coming out and executing and playing with a lot of energy and a lot of effort”
Emmaus won its sixth straight game and earned a semifinal date and a rematch on Friday at 7 p.m. at Cottingham Stadium against top-seeded Easton, which rolled to a 42-7 victory over eighth-seeded Stroudsburg. The game will be aired LIVE on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network, beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m.
The two teams met in a classic earlier this season at Emmaus with the Red Rovers prevailing in overtime 28-21. The Hornets have had success, however, in recent history at Easton winning the previous two meetings, 42-14 a year ago and 42-21 in 2022.
Senior two-way performer Reilly Bechtel had another big game for the Hornets offense, which accumulated over 300 yards on the ground against a Nazareth defense that was torched for 563 yards in a 63-55 loss to Easton last week. Bechtel had his fifth 100-yard game of the season, rushing for a career-high148 yards and scored his 16th and 17th touchdowns of the season on runs of 6 and 41 yards.
Bechtel, who was named to the 1st Team All-EPC defensive unit, was also a force on the other side of the ball and was proud of his team’s defensive effort.
I think it’s a real big deal,” he said. “We shut out to two dominant teams. They (Nazareth) won districts last year and Parkland two years ago, so I think that says something about our defense and preparedness that we had.”
Junior quarterback Jerek Cooper also ran for 81 yards in the game and his 37-yard TD scamper on the Hornets opening possession of the night wound up being the only points Emmaus would need as they snapped a two-game losing streak against a Nazareth team, which was shutout for the first time since 2009.
Sophomore running back Jay Santos came off the bench and added a career-high 81 yards on the ground and put the game into the mercy rule with his sixth touchdown of the season on a 17-yard run.
“He’s a kid who we’ve had our eye on,” said Fairclough of Santos. “He’s a young kid and he provides a spark for us. He’s doing a fantastic job in his role.”
The Emmaus defense, which has allowed just 27 points over the last six games, was once again stout and opportunistic as they forced a turnover with junior Cole Moreau coming up with his second interception return for a touchdown, this one covering 41 yards in the second quarter that put the Hornets ahead 14-0.
“They were in the mesh route two plays earlier and my coach told me to stay on it and play the ball and I capitalized on it,” recalled Moreau.
“We have such confidence right now. When we do our jobs, we do great on defense. We knew they have a great team. We had to put our hearts out on the field, because we knew this was one of the last games we’d play on our field. We wanted to go out with a win, and we did.”
Defensively, senior Neo Michel, junior Robert Edwards, the league’s MVP, and Moreau each had 10 total tackles for Emmaus.
Nazareth ended its season at 7-4. Falzone was just 19 of 39 on the night for 139 yards and an interception.
The game was marred by penalties with the Hornets being whistled 10 times for 116 yards, while Nazareth had nine for 72 yards.
“We have to clean those up moving forward,” said Fairclough. “There were a lot of penalties on both sides of the ball and it’s something we always talk about.”
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Emmaus 35, Nazareth 0
Naz – 0-0-0-0 – 0
Em – 7-14-0-14 – 35
Scoring:
Em- Jerek Cooper 37-yard run (Will Buck PAT)
Em – Cole Moreau 41-yard INT (Buck PAT)
Em – Reilly Bechtel 6-yard run (Buck PAT)
Em – Bechtel 41-yard run (Buck PAT)
Em – Jay Santos 17-yard run (Buck PAT)
Individual stats – Emmaus
Rushing – Reilly Bechtel 16-141, 2 TD; Jerek Cooper 11-81, TD; Jay Santos 7-81, TD
Passing – Jerek Cooper 4 of 7, 14 yards
Receiving – Kai Jefferson-Rushing 3-12, Daniel Duggan 1-2
Nazareth
Rushing – Peyton Falzone 10-66, Marquez Wimberly 11-24, Angione 2-11
Passing – Peyton Falzone 19 of 39, 139 yards, 1 Int
Receiving – Caleb Newsome 4-40, Marquez Wimberly 3-3, Luke Depietro 3-19, Chase Kilareski 2-20, Austin Boyce 2-8, Tanner Zelachowski 3-41
PHOTO GALLERY (Courtesy of Tom Ashelman)
Pictured: Jerek Cooper
Pictured: Cole Moreau
Pictured: Zach Stephens
Pictured: Will Buck
Pictured: Neo Michel