The hype machine billed last week’s Northampton vs East Stroudsburg South football game as a battle for the EPC North title, but sometimes battles are routs and the Kids’ trip to the Purple Pit fell squarely into that category as they thrashed the Cavaliers 35-0 on their home turf.

Despite a convincing win over the best team that they have played to date, head coach John Toman did not feel that they had played a complete game.

He explained, “I don’t know if we played so well offensively, we kind of sputtered a little bit. More turnovers (3) in a game than in any other that I’ve been here. Defensively and specials we did a really good job. All in all, 35-0 against a school that was the district 5A champs last year, I’m happy with that.”

The Kids’ defense has only given up a total of 14 points through 5 games this year and completely stifled the South offense on Friday night. They held the Cavaliers to 5 first downs, 74 total yards, and only allowed two offensive snaps on their side of the field, all while forcing 3 turnovers.

While Toman might not have been satisfied with the efficiency of his offense, one group that came away impressed with the Kids on that side of the ball were the East Stroudsburg South partisans in the press box.

They were gobsmacked by the size of the Northampton offensive line and couldn’t stop raving about the power and decisiveness of Caden Henritzy hitting the holes that O-line opened up for him.

Henritzy had his highest workload of the season toting the ball 28 times for 141 yards and a pair of touchdowns.

The leader of the K-Kids offensive and defensive lines, Christian Bundra, offered his thoughts on his units’ performances.

“We all just shot off the ball and controlled the line,” he said. “We were just a better line in this game.” He continued, “We’ve been waiting for this game all year after what happened last year. We trained harder and were locked in all week at practice.”

Quarterback Antonino Russo was 5 for 11 for 95 yards with an 11-yard TD to Jaelen Richardson and a pair of interceptions. He also had 5 runs for a total of 25 yards.

Richardson had 3 catches in total including a 41 yarder on the Kids’ second possession that set up Northampton’s first score of the game, a 1-yard plunge by fullback Carson Czarnecki.

Tristen Pinnock had a 30-yard reception in the first half and an interception on the Cavaliers’ first possession of the second half.

AJ Slivka had a sack, an interception on defense, and a 2-yard TD run for the final score of the game.

As impressive as the Kids have been this season, there will always be a contingent of EPC football pundits who will be quick to point out that, “They’re doing it against the North.” This week Northampton gets their first shot at a team from the South when they take on Bethlehem Catholic and former head coach Kyle Haas on Saturday afternoon in Bethlehem.

The Golden Hawks are 3-2 this year with wins over Whitehall, PM West, and Liberty and losses to Nazareth and Emmaus. Bundra was unequivocal in his assessment of the contest, “It’s the most important game of the year. It’s our chance to show what we can do against the South, that we can hang with the big boys.”