Frustration.

It was the word that lingers on head coach Kyle Haas’ mind as well as his players about the Northampton football season.

It was shown on the faces of the Konkrete Kids’ coaches and players when their season-ending neighborhood Thanksgiving tussle was canceled due to the coronavirus.

“Not playing was upsetting,” said senior quarterback Joe Kerbacher. “The team was very upset and angry. We really were looking forward to playing the game.”

The Kids officially found out about their predicament Tuesday afternoon, even though neither team had any positive COVID-19 cases.

“We had zero cases,” said Haas about coronavirus that canceled the 98th meeting between the two teams. “I believe both schools were going off the governor’s new guidelines. It definitely had to be a county thing.

“It’s sad. People don’t understand how this affected the kids. They did everything we asked of them. It’s tough because they didn’t get to experience some of the things that the other teams did. We coaches didn’t get a chance to say goodbye at a final practice.”

Senior lineman Sam Nelson saw it as another opportunity that went awry.

“Being unable to play the Catty game was heartbreaking,” he said. “It was supposed to give us closure on our season and bring us together one last time.”

Looking back on the season, Haas saw the pattern begin with the opening–game loss to Freedom and carried through to a last-second, one-point defeat to Whitehall.

“It was a frustrating year on a number of fronts,” he said. “We lost to Freedom who had an illegal player at the time. We had the last-second loss to Whitehall and then we get bumped out of the playoffs by a team that played three games.

“We played Nazareth tight and they beat us with some trick plays. We had a game lined up with Notre Dame and they backed out.

“It was a series of unfortunate setbacks. People didn’t think we would be as good as we were. We easily could have been 3-2 instead of 1-4. We were pretty close and we have nothing to show for it.”

Kerbacher and Nelson viewed a similar picture.

“I thought we played well as a team,” said Kerbacher. “Our record didn’t show it.”

“The season didn’t go smoothly,” added Nelson. “But we played our hearts out.”

Haas is optimistic about his team’s future with 14 juniors, 16 sophomores, and 27 incoming freshmen for the 2021 season.

“We’re excited,” said Haas. “We like our younger kids and believe they can be pretty good.”