An early interception return for a touchdown by Easton put Emmaus in an early hole in their key road test on Friday night at Cottingham Stadium.
The 6-0 deficit, the only lead the Red Rovers had all night, hardly fazed the Hornets.
Head coach Harold Fairclough’s team responded to Easton’s score with 35 straight unanswered points of their own and used yet another dominating defensive effort, silencing the overflow crowd in a ‘Pink Out’ atmosphere by rolling to a 42-14 rout in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference (EPC) South Division matchup.
The victory was the third straight for Emmaus which moved over the .500 mark (4-3) for the first time this season. It was also the second time in as many years that the Hornets won at Cottingham, rolling to a near similar result a year ago (42-21).
Senior quarterback Josiah Williams shook off the early interception and led the Emmaus offense as he accounted for half of his team’s six touchdowns on the night, throwing for two scores and running for another. He finished the night 10 of 18 for 179 yards and he also reached a personal milestone early in the fourth quarter eclipsing the 3,000-career passing yard mark.
Williams teammate, senior running back Jasiyah Banks, also had a big night with a career-high three touchdowns on runs of 1,1 and 11 yards.
Senior wide receiver Cael Kratzer had a career-best 96 yards on four receptions, including a 51-yard touchdown in the third quarter that gave Emmaus a 35-6 lead. Kratzer had to leave the game later with an injury.
Defensively, the Hornets were once again stout as they limited Easton to just 137 yards of total offense and just one touchdown. Defensive coordinator Jake Hildebrand’s unit was coming off of a pair of shutout wins over Dieruff and Bethlehem Catholic and had not given up a score for 11 straight quarters before Easton finally scored their only offensive touchdown of the night in the fourth quarter on sophomore quarterback Cole Ordway’s 8-yard touchdown pass to junior wideout Jasir Frutchey.
Junior Rafael Terrero, who was coming off of arguably his best game of the season last week, had another big night from his free safety position as he had two interceptions and a fumble recovery.
Terrero’s teammate, junior linebacker Reilly Bechtel, was outstanding as he led the Emmaus ‘D’ with seven tackles – six for loss – and one sack.
Junior kicker Will Buck was a perfect 6-for-6 on PAT attempts and his kickoffs pinned Easton deep in its own territory all night.
Easton, which had won two of its last three games, dropped to 3-4 with the loss. Ordway threw two interceptions and finished just 13 of 30 for 83 yards through the air. Junior running back Dorian Thomas was held to just 34 yards on 12 carries after coming off a career-high 163-yard effort in the Red Rovers 21-13 win over Liberty last week. The 42 points was the most allowed by Easton this season.
Emmaus will return home next Friday at 7 p.m. when they host Liberty (2-5). The game will be carried LIVE on The Eastern Pa. Sports Network beginning with the pregame show at 6:30 p.m.
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Emmaus 42, Easton 14
Em – 0-14-21-7 – 42
Ea – 6-0-0-8 – 14
Scoring:
Ea – Logan Braido 15 yard INT (PAT blocked)
Em – Jasiyah Banks 1 yard run (Will Buck PAT)
Em – Banks 1 yard run (Buck PAT)
Em – John Wassel 18 yard pass from Josiah Williams (Buck PAT)
Em – Banks 11 yard run (Buck PAT)
Em – Cael Kratzer 51 yard pass from Williams (Buck PAT)
Ea – Jasir Frutchey 8 yard pass from Cole Ordway (Ordway run)
Em – Williams 5 yard run (Buck PAT)
INDIVIDUAL STATS – Emmaus
Rushing – Josiah Williams 12-59, TD: Riley Guiffre 8-46, Neo Michel 5-23, Jasiyah Banks 7-15, 3 TD; Jerek Cooper 1-7, Reilly Bechtel 2-5
Passing – Josiah Williams 10 of 18, 179 yards, 2 TD, 1 Int., Jerek Cooper 0-0 0, Gavin Newhart 0-0 0
Receiving – Cael Kratzer 4-96, TD; John Wassel 2-21, TD; Rafael Terrero 2-20, Ben Jones 1-41, Jerek Cooper 1-1.
PHOTO GALLERY (Courtesy of Tom Ashelman)
