There was high drama at the end of the Northampton at Allen football game last Friday night. No, the Canaries did not almost pull off one of the greatest upsets in the history of high school football. The Konkrete Kids led comfortably 50-0 with the clock winding down under the Mercy Rule.

However, Northampton was riding a 4-game shutout streak and wanted badly to keep it going. The Canaries had the ball on the Kids’ 2-yard line with 51 seconds left and the clock would not be stopped except in the case of a score, an injury, or a timeout.

The fact that Allen was even in position to threaten the end zone took a bizarre set of circumstances. The Canaries faced 4th and 21 on their own 41-yard and lined up to punt with about 5 minutes left in the contest. A bad snap led to a scramble for the ball in the backfield. The Allen punter gained control of the ball and heaved it down the far sideline for 27 yards and an improbable first down.

As the officials marked the ball the moved the chains, the Northampton sideline erupted in protest, claiming there were ineligible receivers downfield. Nevertheless, play continued from the K-Kids 32.

On the next play, Northampton was flagged for pass interference, moving the ball 15 yards closer to the end zone. Allen called timeout with 2:33 to go, triggering the Kids’ starting defense to surround the coaching staff and beg to be put back into the game.

A holding call against the Canaries set them back 10 yards and bled more time off the clock as the officials walked off the infraction with the clock running. On the next play, the Allen QB lofted a pass toward the goal line. The Kids secondary basically mugged the receiver drawing multiple flags, being willing to trade penalty yardage for time. However, the wideout somehow hauled in the pass at the 2.

Allen’s first attempt resulted in an incomplete pass, but the next play reached paydirt with 15 seconds on the clock. Final score, 50-6.

Senior captain AJ Slivka, who recently announced his commitment to play at Grove City College, described the defense’s desire to keep the shutout streak going, “We took a lot of pride in trying to keep that goose egg. I don’t fully agree on how they got down there, but you know, things happen and they did put up six points, but in my mind I know that our starting defense hasn’t been scored on since the Central game.”

The other major takeaway from the game was the full return to action of Tristan Pinnock. The senior WR/CB injured his shoulder against Stroudsburg, missed the Dieruff game, and played sparingly against ES South. Against Allen, he had 6 touches for 88 total yards including a 36-yard touchdown catch for the Kids’ second score of the night.

Pinnock spoke about his return, “It feels good. There’s nothing better. This is all I want to do right now. Being out that one week and being limited last week wasn’t fun. Now I’m out here doing what I can for my team.”

“I was a little worried when it happened, I can’t lie. I thought, ‘Could this be my season?’, but now I’m back, so why even dwell on it?”, he said.

Northampton’s other scoring plays: Gavin Taff to Sincere Wadlington 9-yard pass, Billy Stuhldreher 19-yard run, Taff to Michael Coleman for 68 yards, Zeke Spencer 43-yard pick-six, Zander Rickert 5-yard run, and Owen Stanchock 1-yard run.

The halftime score was 43-0.