Trojans Sprint to Early Lead and 35-21 Victory

The Parkland Trojans sprinted out to a three-touchdown lead in the first 10 minutes en route to a 35-21 first-round playoff victory over the Stroudsburg Mountaineers on Friday night.

The run-first Trojans broke out on top of Stroudsburg just a minute-and-a-half into the game. On Parkland’s third play from scrimmage, Devante Cross found Jarey Elder behind the Mounties defense for a 66-yard touchdown pass.

For receiver Elder, who had been hurt for most of the season, it was his first touchdown catch of the year.

The Trojans then capitalized on early mistakes by the Mounties—a fumble that ended their first drive and a 6-yard punt that capped their second.

A gritty Stroudsburg team was able to hold Parkland scoreless—and keep the game relatively close—through the second and third quarters. But a 15-yard run by Parkland’s Kareem Williams early in the fourth quarter put the game out of reach for the Mounties, who end their season 8-3.

The Trojans now go on to a second round Quad-A sub-regional playoff game against the Whitehall Zephyrs, who defeated Pleasant Valley, 56-28, Friday night. Parkland and Whitehall—the co-champions of the Lehigh Valley Conference—are both 10-1.

The Zephyrs’ only loss was to the Trojans in Orefield—a 21-12 final on Sept. 27. But this game will be in Whitehall and have much more on the line.

Stroudsburg appeared to be moving the football well on its first drive of the game when quarterback Mike Nikorak made an errant flip on an option play that led to a fumble recovery by Parkland’s’ Omar Haddad inside the Trojans’ 40, just four minutes into the game.

A minute later, Parkland was in the end zone again on a 36-yard swing pass from Cross to Eli Redmond, who ended the game with more than 140 all-purpose yards.

Williams capped off the first-quarter scoring barrage with a 29-yard run. He would end the game with 87 yards on 17 carries and three touchdowns.

Stroudsburg was finally able to slow the Parkland’s scoring down by keeping the ball out of its hands in the second quarter: Nikorak engineered a 17-play drive that included conversions on third-and-11 and third-and-16 and was capped with a fourth-down 5-yard touchdown pass to Joel Ozoemena.

But for that, Parkland’s defense was mostly in control, sacking Nikorak five times and keeping the Mounties out of the end-zone until late in the fourth quarter, with the issue already settled.