So close, yet so far.

To borrow the old adage, Northampton’s football team may have felt that way in their season-opening, 17-16 overtime loss to Allentown Central Catholic last week.

The Konkrete Kids’ quarterback A.J. Slivka was stopped short on a two-point conversion attempt that would have lifted them into an opening-night victory. With their loss, the Kids had their 20-game regular-season winning streak snapped.

But the Kids had a valiant effort on a steamy night, which allowed them to substitute freely.

Northampton’s Caden Henritzy scored on a one-year run in the opening quarter, and Slivka scored on a one-yard keeper in overtime. Aaron Gutkowski booted a 29-yard field goal that finished the scoring.

Head coach John Toman knew the game had all the makings of a championship prize fight.

“It was a tough start to the season,” said Toman. “I’m proud of the fight the team showed. We played a lot of players as teammates got cramped or injured. We kept fighting and had the opportunity to win.

“We just came up short.”

The Kids will travel north Friday night to Pocono Mountain East, which suffered a 41-0 loss to Emmaus in its opener. It will be the Kids’ East Penn Conference North Division opener.

Toman expects to see much of the same that he saw last year.

“They are very similar to last year offensively and defensively,” said Toman. “They will try to shorten the game with delay tactics and milking the clock.

“We will be focusing on the fundamentals this week, and cleaning up the little mistakes.”

Henritzy knows his team will put it behind them.

“Obviously, the game didn’t go as planned and some things didn’t go our way,” he stressed. “But one loss doesn’t define who we are as a team.

“As a team, that is the kind of game we want to play in. We lost a close game that went to overtime against a good football team. We are going to clean up things as a whole, and we will be just fine. We’re going to bounce back and be better because of it.”

PREDICTION (season record 0-1): Last season, Northampton routed Pocono Mountain East, 48-0. They began the season with a 50-8 victory over Pocono Mountain West and outscored their opponents 169-18 in their first three games ... Pocono Mountain East managed just 40 yards of total offense against Emmaus ... Receiver Ty Williams left the game with a knee injury, and his status is unknown ... Slivka completed 7 of 13 for 158 yards, and Henritzy rushed for 44 yards on 14 carries. Slivka ran for a team-high 49 yards on 21 carries ... In last year’s game against PME, the Kids rushed for 189 yards and Henritzy had 67 ... Billy Stuhldreher and Cayden Reph led the Kids in tackles against ACC with nine apiece, Reph having three for losses ... After their crushing defeat, this is exactly what the Kids need. They will open their three-time defense of the EPC North crown with a convincing victory that will likely get them back on another dominating path ... Coach Ronalds, I was thinking about tomato pie from Roseto, but Sal’s cheesesteaks still sound good ... K-KIDS, 56-0.