Catasauqua head football coach Travis Brett was hoping to have his team healthy to play in their annual backyard battle with Northampton on Thanksgiving morning at Alumni Field.

He didn’t realize the other health issues would cancel the 98th meeting between the two clubs.

“It threw us for a loop,” said the first-year head coach, who heard the game was canceled two days before due to COVID-19. “We coaches found out about 1:30 Tuesday, and the kids knew because of their social media.

“Still, the kids were upset. The young ones were too, and that’s saying how they appreciated the game. We had two kids who were quarantined, but they didn’t have it. We also had a coach who had to quarantine because his daughter had it.”

Brett took the same stance he did during the summer.

“I told the kids that initially we were begging for one game, and we ended up with eight,” he said. “We were blessed to have that many games.”

He knew his club (2-6) wouldn’t be at full strength against Northampton (1-4), but they were ready. They had a signature win against Minersville in the opening round of districts, but they then fell to Palisades in the semifinals.

“We were pretty banged up after the Minersville game,” Brett stated. “They came back, but we were about 80 percent.

“We were really fired up after the Minersville win, but we didn’t play with enough intensity against Palisades. It was tough for them to get back for Palisades. We came out flat.”

And they came out more banged up.

“In our first practice for Northampton, we had 14 kids on the field,” said Brett. “The following day we had 23. We still had some kids battling to get back.”

Senior Austin Brett, who likely would have missed the game with an elbow injury sustained against Palisades, wasn’t happy with the curtain coming down early.

“It’s not the way we wanted to end our season,” he said. “We lost to Palisades, and we were getting into the groove to play Northampton. To get shut down the day before was tough.

“But overall, I think the season went well. I saw improvements all over the field, and I was glad to end my football season with a couple of wins under my belt.”

Freshman quarterback Nasir McLean was anxious for the moment.

“Not playing Thursday definitely hurt,” he said. “It hurt pretty bad because I wasn’t able to start my first ever Turkey Day game as a freshman quarterback. The season didn’t go as we expected, but we also went further than we expected.

“Nobody expected us to win a district game and go to the semifinals. I had a lot of fun this season and the seniors made my freshman year one that won’t be forgotten.”

Brett is optimistic the team’s late season momentum can pay some dividends.

“I know I have to do some things to get more kids in the program,” he said. “We have a lot of freshmen and sophomores. We’re hoping to get some more numbers. People saw what we did, and we believe it can attract some more players.”