The last two years in the district quarterfinals, the Northampton football won surprisingly close games over EPC North foes that they had easily dispatched during the regular season. The 2023 edition of the Konkrete Kids did not allow Stroudsburg a glimmer of hope last Friday as they surged to a 24-0 lead and closed out the Mounties 31-15 to advance to the class 6A district semifinals for the third straight year.

“That was one of the things we were concerned about coming off an emotional loss to Whitehall. That was the first time the defense didn’t look great. Week 11s have been a bit of a bugaboo for us. But I felt like we were in control most of the night. It wasn’t like the last two years where we struggled to do stuff”, assessed head coach John Toman postgame.

The Kids’ offensive identity for the last three years has centered around the power running of Caden Henritzy, so it was no surprise that their first touchdown of the game came on a 6-play drive where Henritzy toted the rock 5 times including the capper from 16 yards out. He also went over 1,000 yards for the season during the drive.

Zander Rickert recovered a Stroudsburg fumble on the ensuing kickoff and Northampton cashed in 5 plays later on a QB sneak from AJ Slivka to go up 13-0 after the missed PAT.

A Mike Coleman interception 2 plays later got the ball right back to the Kids’ offense. A methodical, 8- minute drive resulted in an Aaron Gutkowski 23-yard field goal, but of bigger consequence on the drive was that Henritzy had to be carried off the field by his teammates after being tackled at the Stroudsburg 5. The injury turned out to not be as serious as it first appeared and there is a chance he could play tomorrow.

Northampton basically wrapped up the game on the two drives that bookended halftime.

On the final possession of the first half, the Mounties got down to the K-Kids’ 2-yard line with 18 seconds before intermission. Gavin Grell stuffed a run for a three-yard loss, Tristan Pinnock defended a fade into the end zone, and Slivka recorded a sack to finally snuff out the threat.

Northampton got the ball to start the third quarter and turned to Billy Stuhldreher to shoulder the load in Henritzy’s absence. The junior responded by carrying 7 times for 69 yards and the score that put the Kids up 24. Stuhledreher finished with a game-high 109 yards on the ground.

Stroudsburg finally got on the board with a minute left in the third quarter. The Kids pushed the margin back to 31-8 on a 47-yard touchdown strike from Gavin Taff to Coleman. The Mounties got a late 84-yard touchdown pass to make the final score a little more competitive than the game really was.

In the district semifinals, the K-Kids will travel to Nazareth to take on the second-seeded Blue Eagles. While the two schools have an intense rivalry across many sports, this will be their first meeting on the gridiron since 2020.

Nazareth is currently ranked ninth in the state in 6A, with the only blemish on their record a 31-24 loss to second-ranked Parkland.

Toman offered his assessment of the Blue Eagles, “They’ve got a ton of speed. We’re going to have to match that. We have to cover better. We’re going to have to control the tempo of the game. They’re just chaos. Everything they do is chaos. We need to be physical and control the tempo.”

Senior captain Colby Reph spoke about striving to finish his Northampton career by playing for a district title, “It feels unreal. It does not feel real. I feel like I’m back starting as a sophomore, just playing my first games on this field. It’s crazy. It would mean everything (to beat Nazareth). It’s all we wanted for the last three years.”

The EPC announced their divisional All-Star selections this past week and to no one’s surprise, the North teams were loaded with Konkrete Kids. Caden Henritzy was named the offensive MVP of the EPC North for the second year in a row. Other selections on offense are (player, position, 1st or 2nd team): Henritzy (RB, 1), Bo Wheeler (TE, 1), Tristan Pinnock (WR, 1), Jacob Ladd (OT, 1), Colby Reph (G, 1), Braydon Gable (C, 1), Gavin Taff (QB, 2).

Defensive All-Stars were: Reph (DL, 1), AJ Slivka (OLB, 1), Brett Rickert (ILB, 1), Pinnock (CB, 1), Mike Coleman (S, 1), Jake Biery (DE, 2), Wheeler (DE, 2), Gavin Grell (DL, 2), Henritzy (OLB, 2).

Aaron Gutkowski was named first team punter and second team placekicker.