The Northampton golf team had high hopes entering the 2023 season.

The team went unbeaten in the EPC, which included a one-stroke win over Nazareth early in the season. Head coach Brian Davies and his team knew they’d see Nazareth again.

But at the EPC tournament, held Monday Sept. 18, the Kids beat both Nazareth and Parkland by 11 strokes to win the title.

Davies said the tournament was a tough one for several reasons.

“We have relied on depth all year to beat teams,” Davies said. “We have 8 players who could score in a match on any given day, so it was difficult to cut the team event down to 5. Fortunately the 5 team players we brought collectively beat the competition by 11 strokes.”

Gavin Pychinka led the way for Northampton, firing a 74 at Olde Homestead. It was good enough for second place behind Stroudsburg’s Hunter Probst who shot a 72. Jayden Bleiler also placed, shooting 80 to take eighth place.

Kohler Strohl shot 81 and just missed placing. Tyler Matute-Keiper shot 82 and Trent Moyer carded an 83. Justin Edwards shot 84 as did Michael Seidick. All those golfers cracked the top-22.

“Olde Homestead can be a difficult course, especially with the morning rain and windy conditions,” Davies said. “However, the course dried up well and most of the poor weather held off until the late afternoon.”

While Davies and the Kids are pleased with the results, their list of accomplishments has only just begun, and they hope there is plenty more hardware to add to the trophy case.

“It was great to win the team tournament and the EPC league championships, but that is only two-thirds of our goals this year,” Davies said. “We want the golf triple crown (League, Tourney and Districts) but it isn’t going to be easy.

“We will most likely have to rematch Nazareth again, and beat the best team in District 11 by scoring average - Southern Lehigh. But this is the team to do it. We have senior leadership and some of the top juniors in the district.”

EPC Top-12 Individual

72 Hunter Probst SB

74 Gavin Pychinka NH

75 Jase Barker LIB

76 Landen Benner PARK

77 Evan Murphy PME

78 Noah Schurman EMM

79 Zachary Miller NAZ

80 Jayden Bleiler NH

80 Lewis Ronca NAZ

80 Matt Ronca LIB

80 Louie Pagano FRE

80 AJ Sundstrom PARK

Girls scores

85 Camryn Hoff NAZ

88 Chloe Chase PARK

90 Allie Tarreto NAZ

93 Ashlyn McCormick PMW

94 Maya Schutz EMM

99 Shayla Ames FRE

115 Madeline Van Buskirk PME

N/A Pippa Grigsby LIB

Team Scores

317 Northampton

328 Nazareth

328 Parkland

329 Emmaus

339 Liberty

345 PM East

352 Freedom

372 Stroudsburg