Northampton head coach John Toman was proud of his team’s effort despite a 42-14 loss to Easton last week.

“I thought our kids fought throughout the night,” said Toman. “We did some really good things on offenses against a very good team.”

Konkrete Kids’ quarterback Gavin Taff completed 9 of 21 passes for 176 yards, and he connected on touchdown passes of 72 yards to Joey High and a 28-yarder to Sincere Wadington.

Taff didn’t see the Easton game as a total loss, and he expects a tussle Friday night.

“The loss last Friday had positives and negatives,” said Taff. “Our offense was moving the ball better than it has all season. We just have to execute in order to win games.

“We have a lot of energy toward this game on Friday.”

Unfortunately, the Kids couldn’t stop the Easton running game led by William Day and Dorian Thomas that helped accumulate 276 yards. Day ran for 114 yards on 14 carries with three touchdowns, and Thomas accounted for 119 yards on 28 carries with two touchdowns.

Both scored a pair of touchdowns in the opening half that aided Easton to storm out to a 28-0 halftime lead.

Northampton battled back, but the Kids needed to shut the door early. It was their second consecutive defeat and left them with a 4-4 mark for the season.

“Defensively, we need to shore up the pass defense,” said Toman. “We also need to continue to improve on our tackling.”

Life doesn’t get any easier for the Kids this Friday, as they will travel to Andrew S. Leh Stadium to meet Nazareth (6-2), a 36-7 winner over Bethlehem Catholic last week.

Toman knows it will be a matter of controlling the tempo.

“We have to control the big plays,” said Toman about his next opponent. “They will push the ball down field. We need to control the line of scrimmage and time of position.”

PREDICTION (season record 4-4): Nazareth won last year’s game, 21-7 … Nazareth quarterback and Virginia Tech commit Peyton Falzone completed 13 of 19 passes for 200 yards with three touchdowns against Becahi last week. Blue Eagles’ running back Marquez Wimberly ran for 139 yards with a pair of touchdowns. Nazareth bounced back after losses to Freedom (38-10) and Parkland (31-6) with win over Pleasant Valley (60-7) and Liberty (34-14) ... Kids running back Billy Stuhldreher ran for 44 yards, but the team was held to 59 yards rushing overall. Stuhldreher has 666 yards with seven touchdowns for the season. Taff has completed 63 of 110 attempts for 818 yards with seven touchdowns and three interceptions. Tymir Williams has 23 receptions for 383 yards with three touchdowns. Defensively, Owen Stonchock had 10 tackles and Devlin Chevere had nine against Easton. For the season, Stonchock has 71 tackles and Chevere had 67 ... This is another tough assignment for the Kids considering Nazareth appears to be back on track after being derailed for two games. Blue Eagles can make this difficult with Falzone and Wimberly ... If Kids were home, I would call it a very tight one, but Nazareth is a tough place to play and it should be a good crowd. Kids has trouble with physical and quick Easton team, and same script could be here. Kids will hang, but this time I will owe assistant head coach Kevin Ronalds a tomato pie from Roseto ... NAZARETH 27-24.