The Northampton football team began its defense of the EPC North Division title last Friday at Al Erdosy Stadium with a resounding 50-8 triumph over Pocono Mountain West.

Head coach John Toman praised his offense, “Offensively we only didn’t score on one drive – that was the last drive at the end. I thought we did a really good job of spreading the ball around and getting the ball into all our skill players hands.”

Junior running back Caden Henritzy led the way with 97 yards on 13 carries and scored 3 touchdowns. Tristan Pinnock had 44 yards on the ground with just 2 carries and had 5 receptions for 55 yards. Breakout sophomore receiver Tymir Williams had 5 catches for 71 yards. Jaelen Richardson had 3 receptions for 60 yards and a TD.

One storyline going into the season was which of the two Northampton quarterbacks would win the starting job. Both AJ Slivka and Antonino Russo had significant playing time and both played well.

Russo was 10 of 11 passing for 140 yards and a TD. He also ran 6 times for 19 yards. Slivka was 6 of 7 for 86 and a TD and had 3 carries for 29 yards including a 12-yard TD for the opening score of the game.

Toman addressed the QB depth chart, “It’s a fluid situation. They’re very supportive of each other. In the second half AJ said, ‘I’m cramping, let him go.’ They know they’re competing, but they’re also very satisfied with where they’re at. Both of them moved the offense, so we’re going to keep going where we’re at right now.”

Despite the lopsided final margin, the game was at 16-8 with 2:13 left in the first half. Tight end Aiden Salvato out-battled a pair of West defenders to haul in a 25-yard Slivka pass for a touchdown with 40 seconds left before intermission.

On the Panthers’ first play of their ensuing drive, Jeff Head jarred the ball loose from the West running back and Brett Rickert scooped up the fumble and took it 42 yards to the house to give the Kids a 29-8 lead at the half. The play was especially sweet for Rickert after having his 2021 season end prematurely due to injury.

The defense was also dominant for Northampton throughout the game. West had 105 yards of total offense for the game with 100 of those yards coming on their lone scoring drive in the second quarter due to overcoming 3 false starts on an 85-yard scoring drive. A 54-yard catch-and-run by Tyrese Hester Bey accounted for the touchdown.

With Rickert’s fumble return and Gavin Grell’s safety in the final minute, the K-Kid defense matched the points scored by the Panthers’ offense.

The Kids figure to face a little more resistance when they take on Stroudsburg on Lou Wolf Field on Friday at 7 p.m. The Mountaineers are widely regarded as the third-best team in the EPC North behind Northampton and East Stroudsburg South.

They are coming off a 35-0 win in week one against Pocono Mountain East. Toman gave some quick thoughts on this week’s opponent, “They’ve got a great tailback. He burned us last year for two touchdowns. They looked good in their scrimmage. We’re going to have a challenge next week.”

Andre Reames, the aforementioned tailback, was the EPC North First Team back in 2021 after amassing 1,022 yards on 162 carries and 15 TDs. The Kids won last year’s meeting at Stroudsburg 35-14.