With the 2020-2021 school year in the books, I took some time to reflect on the most memorable sports events that I wrote about over the past year. As I was making my list, I came up with eleven events that stood out, so that’s how long the list is.

Only events I covered made the list, so there are certainly other performances by K-Kids’ athletes and teams that would be worthy of inclusion in a list of highlights. It was my loss not to witness them. The top five will appear next week.

11. Boys Basketball – Northampton 62 Easton 56 (OT)

The K-Kids salvaged a split of back-to-back overtime games with the Rovers that ultimately led to clinching a share of the Northampton County Division title and a number 2 seed in the district tournament. Isaiah Harris scored the tying hoop with 20 seconds left in regulation. Isaac Harris led all scorers with 28 points.

10. Wrestling Dual Meet – Nazareth 32 Northampton 29

Normally a Northampton - Nazareth dual meet coming down to the final bout tied at 29 would rank higher. Normally the event would have happened in a packed gym with a thousand wrestling fans losing their minds. A COVID-limited crowd of a few dozen Nazareth fans saw the last dual meet of the season for both teams as the pandemic virtually eliminated the wrestling regular season for all EPC schools.

9. Girls Basketball - Northampton 53 Nazareth 41

Nazareth lost twice all season, in the state semifinals and on a Saturday afternoon in February in Pete Schneider Gymnasium. The K-Kids outscored the Blue Eagles in every quarter. Grace Lesko led the team with 16 points. Northampton had an up-and-down season, but for one game played like the best team in the area.

8. Girls Soccer - Northampton 2 Whitehall 1 (4-1 PK)

The K-Kids entered districts with their two leading scorers, Raine Korpics and Isabella Nota unavailable due to injury. Both goals in regulation came within 20 seconds of each other early in the second half. Unable to reach a resolution during the remaining 37 minutes of regulation and 30 minutes of overtime, the teams headed to penalty kicks. Korinne Andersch, Lauren Straub, and Ali Gallo knocked home the first three attempts and Alex Benedict drove home the clincher.

7. Morgan Sterner scores 1,000 career points

Canceled and shortened seasons due to the pandemic threatened to derail many athletes’ pursuit of career milestones. Sterner entered the season needing to average about 17 points a game over the scheduled 10-game regular season. Her 1,000th point came with 16 seconds left in the final regular season contest against Emmaus, a game that was added after the season started. The senior captain finished her career with 1,036 points, good for 10th all-time among female K-Kids’ players.

6. Field Hockey – Northampton 2 Easton 1

The Rovers had ended the K-Kids season in OT in the 2019 district tournament and had been the one team outside of Emmaus that Northampton had not been able to beat in recent years. Goalie Kadee Schrader and the rest of the defense withstood a dozen Easton corners in the second half to hold on to their 2-1 halftime lead in what head coach Carrie Saul called “the longest 30 minutes of my life.”