After a draining overtime loss to Whitehall in their season finale last week, Northampton’s football team was glad to get back to their norm.

In the opening round of the District 11 Class 6A playoffs, the Konkrete Kids downed Stroudsburg, 31-15. The Kids beat Stroudsburg, 14-7, in a tight, opening-round game last year.

“It was great win for us,” said Kids’ head coach John Toman about the Stroudsburg victory. “We didn’t struggle in Week 11 like in year’s past. It was a solid team effort.”

The Kids (10-2) will travel to Nazareth (10-1) Friday night in a semifinal meeting. The Blue Eagles are coming off a 42-8 victory over Wilkes-Barre Area in which their defense forced three turnovers that resulted in scores.

This will be a matchup of two of the more explosive offensive teams and stingy defensive teams in the Lehigh Valley. Northampton is averaging 40.4 points per game, and Nazareth averages 37.8 per contest.

The Kids have scored 485 points this season and allowed 98, while the Blue Eagles have scored 416 and allowed 121.

Northampton’s Caden Henritzy, who rushed for 107 yards on 15 carries, knew it wouldn’t be easy against Stroudsburg. Billy Stuhldreher added 107 yards on 17 carries, and the Kids ran for 257 yards overall. Henritzy left the game with an apparent injury.

“It was tough to play a team twice in a season, and Stroudsburg always puts up a good fight,” said Henritzy. “We had a solid performance on both sides of the ball. We just need to keep playing our game.”

Henritzy and his teammates have a lingering memory of semifinals exits the past two years.

“The last two years we’ve gotten to the semifinals and failed to move on,” he added. “This year, we are looking to get over the hump.”

For the season, Nazareth quarterback Peyton Falzone has completed 64 of 104 passes for 1,039 yards with 10 touchdowns and zero interceptions. Jed Bendekovits is the Eagles’ leading rusher with 720 yards with 12 touchdowns, and Marquez Wimberly has 557 yards with eight touchdowns. Mason Kuehner leads the team in receptions with 23 for 320 yards and four touchdowns. Caleb Newsome added 15 catches for 365 yards with five touchdowns.

Nazareth head coach Tom Falzone, who formerly coached at Catasauqua and will be meeting Northampton for the first time in 10 years, expects the game to be a backyard brawl.

“They are huge up front and certainly have had success pounding the football,” said Falzone about his team’s opponent. “They are well coached and play a physical style of football. The K-Kids have played a very tough schedule against the other EPC South schools they have faced with a chance to win both of those games.

“They do a lot of nice things on both sides of the ball, and we know they definitely do not fear Nazareth. Hopefully, we can find a way to hang with them Friday.”

“This game is going to be a battle,” stressed Henritzy. “It’s playoff football, and it’s win or go home. Preparation is the key this week. It’s going to be a big week for us.”

PREDICTION (Overall record 10-2): Henritzy is expected to play Friday ... Northampton and Nazareth have never met in the district playoffs ... Nazareth won the district title in the 2019 and 2020 seasons ... Kids were eliminated by Parkland (31-13) in semifinals last year and by Freedom, 21-7 in 2021 ... Nazareth was eliminated in the opening round by Parkland in 2022, and by Emmaus, 20-19 in 2021 ... Nazareth has won seven straight and held their opponents to a combined 50 points ... Northampton and Nazareth had four common opponents this season in Allentown Central Catholic, East Stroudsburg South, Whitehall, and Pleasant Valley ... Northampton went 2-2 against the lot, while Nazareth beat all four ... A.J. Slivka had four tackles and Jake Biery had three for the Kids against Stroudsburg ... This will be a skirmish that will bring back plenty of memories from the two teams’ games from the past in the old Lehigh Valley League ... Kids will need to run the ball and keep Nazareth’s offense off the field. Their defense also will need a stellar effort ... This will come down to the Kids dealing with another East Penn Conference (EPC) South team, and the Blue Eagles are the second best behind Parkland ... Something tells me that I should be meaning toward Nazareth here, especially at home, but something else tells me that Northampton will be there at the end ... This should be a tight game until the final play, and the Kids finally get to the title tilt ... Coach Ronalds, I’ll settle for a Sicilian pie from Pizza Joe’s, or cheesesteak from Carl’s in Nazareth ... K-KIDS, 21-18.