If you were told the score of a sporting event was 4-0 after one period of play and asked to guess the sport, how long would it take you to guess football?

After one quarter in last week’s game against Stroudsburg, the Konkrete Kids found themselves on the wrong side of that exact score. A pair of safeties on high punt snaps on Northampton’s first two possessions gave the Mountaineers hope of pulling the road upset.

It took until the second half for the Kids’ dominance to emerge, but they turned that 4-point deficit and slim 7-4 halftime lead into a 41-4 blowout by the time the final horn sounded.

The K-Kids were fortunate to only be trailing by four early in the game. Stroudsburg took the opening kickoff and drove down to the Northampton 6-yard line before a Caden Henritzy interception ended the scoring threat.

The Kids took the lead with just under 4 minutes left in the first half. Facing a 4th and 10 from the Stroudsburg 33 and the uncertainty in the kicking game, they decided to go for it. AJ Slivka took the snap, rolled right and heaved a pass toward the end zone. The ball slipped through the fingertips of a Mountaineer DB and into the waiting arms of Jaelen Richardson for the touchdown.

Northampton head coach John Toman summed up the first half, “We made some mistakes that we didn’t last week. There’s a lot of emotions in games. Sometimes at the beginning of the game you’re all fired up, they’re fired up, but emotion dies down and you have to play football.”

Richardson’s second touchdown of the game came on the defensive side of the ball. On Stroudsburg’s first possession of the second half, he took an interception 18 yards to the house to stake the Kids to a 14-6 lead. He later added another interception on the Mountaineers first drive of the fourth quarter.

Richardson is a dynamic talent in all three phases of the game. He spoke about his role, “I know I gotta make plays. That’s what my team needs me to do and I’m going to make plays whenever I have to.”

Northampton is blessed with playmakers across their roster. Caden Henritzy had 15 carries for 65 yards and a touchdown as well as a 20-yard pass completion in addition to his interception. Slivka added a pair of rushing touchdowns to go with his TD toss to Richardson. Antonino Russo ran for 62 yards and threw for 64 more. Tristen Pinnock and Carson Czarnecki each had explosive plays in the passing game.

Defensively, the Kids gave up 65 yards on the first drive and only 31 total yards after that and forced 6 turnovers.

Next up for the K-Kids is the long road trip to Dingmans Ferry to play East Stroudsburg North. The Timberwolves beat Pocono Mountain East last week 20-14 to claim their first victory since 2019. Expect the second half to start under the Mercy Rule and a result to be not much different than last year’s 61-8 thrashing.