Anyone glancing the final scores from the weekend’s high school football action seeing Northampton’s 42-6 Mery Rule win against Pleasant Valley could be forgiven for assuming the game was another EPC North snoozer.

A strong Bears’ rushing attack allowed PV to take advantage of a Kids’ miscue on special teams and give Northampton their first deficit in regulation time this season at 6-0. In week one, Central did not lead until the first possession of OT in the 17-16 game.

The K-Kids trailed for 6 minutes of game time before they capitalized on a Bears’ fumble to go 30 yards in 5 plays, capped by an AJ Slivka 3-yard run and Aaron Gutkowski PAT to take a 7-6 lead with 3:13 left in the first half.

The Northampton defense stuffed a 4th and 2 at the PV 45 with 1:21 remaining in the second quarter and the Kids made them pay. Gavin Taff hit a wide open Caden Henritzy with a 34-yard strike down the seem to stake the Kids to a 14-6 halftime lead.

Head coach John Toman reflected on the game, “We need to face some adversity. It’s not going to be easy in a couple weeks. It’s good that they gave us a battle and we came out on top.”

He added, “We lost Billy (Stuhldreher) on the first offensive play and then (Tristan) Pinnock went down on their touchdown. You know, we were going to ride Caden (Henritzy) at that point. Mikey Coleman came up with a bunch of catches and made a big play defensively. AJ (Slivka) gave us a spark at quarterback.”

One Northampton staffer referred to the power running attack of Henritzy and Slivka as the “In Case of Emergency, Break Glass” offense.

The two senior captains accounted for 26 of the K-Kids 34 carries in the run game, 187 of Northampton’s 287 yards from scrimmage, and 2 touchdowns apiece. The carry and yardage ratios would be even higher ignoring the final drive when the game was well in hand.

The second half did not offer much in the way of competition. PV’s star back, Alex Ecker, was injured in the first half and without having to account for the Bears’ main weapon, the K-Kids held them to negative 23 yards over the last 24 minutes of the game.

Senior Mikey Coleman, fresh off scoring his first varsity touchdown, a 68-yard reception the week before against Allen, scored a defensive TD with a 35-yard pick six to put the game out of reach at 28-6.

Coleman described the play, “I saw open field and saw a cutback lane and just took it. They (PV) try to lull you to sleep with the run and then hit one over the top, so you just have to stay ready.”

Henritzy offered his postgame assessment, “That was a tough game. They run the option and that’s tough to defend. Tonight we just finished in the second half. We came out and were more physical. It was tough going both ways without someone to spell me in the backfield. I hope Billy gets healthy and we’ll see how he feels next week.”

With a 6-1 record and only 3 games left in the regular season, Northampton fans can start looking at possible district playoff seeding. The K-Kids are currently third in the 6A power ratings behind Parkland and Nazareth. The Blue Eagles’ closing schedule (PV, Becahi, Easton) is not too daunting, so it is unlikely the Kids will move up. Emmaus resides in fourth and still has Parkland left to play, giving Northampton some margin for error if they suffer a hiccup against a resurgent Whitehall program in two weeks.