The Northampton football team suffered their first loss of the season last Friday against Parkland in the third of the three nonconference games to start the season under the new EPC scheduling format. The Trojans stifled the Kids’ offense for most of the game, taking a 17-0 lead into the fourth quarter and winning 23-14.

Head coach John Toman gave his perspective on the performance, “I thought we did really well against the run tonight against a good Parkland football team. The defense did an amazing job all night long. The offense came up short. Didn’t execute really well. In the second half, I thought we did OK. We were down and had to throw the ball in the second half which led to the interceptions. We have to clean some stuff up offensively so we can compete. I’m proud of the effort. We battled.”

There are plenty of reasons that Northampton should feel optimistic that they could reverse the result if they should happen to get a rematch with the Trojans in districts.

Parkland’s three touchdown drives were for 40, 30, and 27 yards. The only long drive they had was a 76-yarder to open the second half which resulted in a field goal.

In the first half, Gavin Taff and Tymir Williams narrowly missed on a touchdown in the back of the end zone. TV replays confirmed that the refs got the call right on a night where the officiating was not necessarily as crisp as it could have been. The Kids missed a field on that possession as well.

On the Kids’ first drive in the second half, Taff scrambled for 32 yards and got down to the Trojans’ 10-yard line, but a personal foul and ensuing unsportsmanlike penalty negated most of the run and pushed Northampton all the way back to their own 43-yard line.

The first half struggles were real and Parkland’s defense deserves credit for holding the K-Kids to 2 of 14 passing for 19 yards with 15 yards given back on sacks. There was pressure and tight coverage on almost every attempt.

Overall, Parkland outgained Northampton 290 yards to 232.

Taff was 13 of 29 passing for 117 yards and 2 interceptions for the game. He ran for 64 yards and scored the Kids’ first touchdown on a 5-yard keeper.

Billy Stuhldreher rushed 15 times for 69 yards and scored from a yard out with 8 seconds left in the game for the final points of the contest.

Tymir Williams and Cameron Hersch each pulled in 5 receptions. Williams gained 55 yards. Hersch tallied 37.

Up next for Northampton is Liberty. The Hurricanes have finished last in their EPC division each of the last four years, but are off to a 3-0 start with wins over Pennridge (40-14), Central (15-14), and Stroudsburg (31-14).