Defensive Battle. Slugfest. War of Attrition.

There are many ways to describe Saturday night’s overtime gridiron clash between Northampton and Allentown Central Catholic. But no matter which euphemism you choose, at the end of the day the only thing that matters is the final score: Vikings 17 Konkrete Kids 16.

The overtime started with the score at 10-all and the Vikings with possession. After the Kids stuffed a first down run, Central scored on a 10-yard pass and kicked the extra point to go up 17-10.

Northampton used all 4 of their plays to gain the 10 yards they needed. Quarterback AJ Slivka ran the ball in from a yard out to make the score 17-16. Head coach John Toman opted to go for the win and attempt a two-point conversion from the three-yard line. Slivka had a run/pass option and was stopped short after he pulled the ball down.

The way the overtime played out was directly influenced by the opening kickoff. The Kids’ Tymir Williams injured his knee on the play and spent the rest of the game on the sidelines on crutches.

Toman explained the impact of the loss of Williams, “There was a lot of stuff designed for him tonight. So that was obviously not good to lose the kid. And then he’s a starting corner on defense. We had a sophomore corner in there playing on their touchdown in the overtime. We were a little short in the secondary because of cramps. Wesley Valera, number 32, did a great job for us after Tymir went down, and then he cramped really bad, so we were short corners, so we figured we would just go for it (on the 2-point conversion).”

Aside from the Williams injury, the game started well for Northampton. They went 75 yards on 11 plays capped off by a one-yard plunge by Caden Henritzy to go up 7-0. They had three third down conversions on the drive including a big 34-yard pass hookup between Slivka and Tristan Pinnock.

On the K-Kids’ second drive, Henritzy took a screen pass 77 yards to set up a first and goal at the four. Central’s touchdown-saving tackle wound up resulting in a four-point swing as the Kids lost 8 yards on first down and settled for an Aaron Gutkowski 29-yard field goal to go up 10-0.

The Vikings kicked a field goal with 1:38 left in the first half to make the score 10-3 at the intermission.

Central scored the tying touchdown with 3:13 left in the third quarter on a 4-play, 38-yard drive.

Northampton breached midfield on both of their final possessions in regulation, reaching the Vikings’ 30 with 4 minutes left in the game and the 47 with just a few ticks remaining on the clock.

Slivka was 7 of 13 passing for 158 yards and he ran 21 times for 49 yards. Henritzy had 44 yards on 14 carries and 106 yards on 3 receptions. Pinnock had 15 yards on the ground and 39 through the air.

The defense, led by Colby Reph’s 9 total tackles, 3 for loss, held Central to 253 yards from scrimmage.