Emmaus football gives fans plenty of treats in 40-25 win over Parkland in Battle of Cedar Crest Boulevard – The Morning Call

It was trick-or-treat night in Emmaus on Friday night, and the Halloween tradition seemed to carry over to East Penn School District Stadium, where visiting Parkland and the host Green Hornets took turns collecting treats in their highly anticipated battle over Cedar Crest Blvd.

Certainly, there were many cheers from both sides of the stadium.

Emmaus’ Dylan Dervill had a pair of 65-yard scores, one on a pass from teammate Jake Fota and the other on an interception.

Parkland’s Luke Spang had a pair of touchdown passes, while Parkland’s Griffin Mitifer and Emmaus’ Owen Garcia hit long field goals and more.

Emmaus scored 23 unanswered points in the second quarter. Parkland dominated the third period and cut a 30-7 halftime deficit to eight.

Eventually, however, the Green Hornets’ defense calmed things down, and Jake Fotta’s 44-yard run with two minutes left led Emmaus to a 40-25 Eastern Pennsylvania Conference victory.

Both will advance to the 11-2-4 sub-regional. Emmaus finished the regular season 9-1, with Parkland falling to 6-4.

The Green Hornets will likely be the No. 1 or No. 2 seed and get a home game when the eight-team tournament begins Friday night. Parkland will be either the fifth or sixth seed and will be on the road in the quarterfinals.

“We had the lead, but Parkland made a couple of plays in the second half, and we knew they were capable,” Emmaus coach Harold Fairkla said. “They came right back, but our guys made a timely play and moved the ball to the ground late. Dylan and Jake made some great plays and in the end it was a great high school football game with a little bit of everything.”

Fairkla said the team will enjoy the win for 24 hours and will find out who it plays after the Freedom-Liberty game concludes Saturday afternoon.

“We’re going to enjoy it, and we’re going to wake up tomorrow and everybody’s going to go back to the tournament at 0-0,” Faircla said. “But we’re in the postseason, and that’s great.”

Parkland coach Tim Monkman wasn’t too upset at the end of the night with the way his team fought back.

“We had too many mistakes in the first half, but I wanted to see what we did and we did a pretty good job in the second half,” he said. “We still made some mistakes and still could have made them in the end. But I’m delighted with how we’ve responded to such a deficit.”

The Western Lehigh Exchange Club is sponsoring the game awards, and Spang and Trey Trembo were honored as Parkland’s offensive and defensive players, while Fota and Dervill were welcomed as the Emmaus honorees.

Parkland entered the game 41-19-2 all-time and had won seven of its last 11. Emmaus had won the first six games of the streak that began in 1959. Parkland won 13 of 14 games during the stretch from 1994-2009.

Some on the Emmaus side called Derville “3-D.” “His initials are DD and he’s also in Division I,” the player said.

Derville is taking on the looks and stature at the FCS level to be a good fit for any program.

The 6-foot-1, 180-pound senior set the school’s single-game receiving record last week against Easton when he had nine receptions for 236 yards and two touchdowns. Matt Salvatore held the old record with 224 yards on eight catches against Dyroof in 1997.

He entered the game with 45 catches for 844 yards and 10 TDs this season, making him the eighth Green Hornet player to have 40 or more catches in a season, according to District 11 statistician Duke Helm. The school record is 48 receptions by Dave Tritt in 1989. Deonte Castro caught 47 passes in 2018. Matt Salvatore caught 46 passes in 1998 and 45 in 1997. Kevin White, now with the New Orleans Saints, caught 46 passes in 2009.

His 844 yards on Friday were the fifth-best in a single season in school history. Salvatore, who played at Lehigh, has a career-high 890 yards in 1998 after collecting 889 yards the year before.

Parkland 7 – 0 – 18- 0 – 25

Emmaus 7 – 23 – 3 – 7 — 40

FIRST QUARTER

E: Dylan Derville 65 pass from Jake Fota (Owen Garcia kick), 5:22

P: Jack Harrison 16 pass from Luke Spang (Griffin Mitifer kick), 1:25

SECOND QUARTER

E: Fotta 2 run (Garcia kick), 8:26

E: Derville 65 interception return (Garcia kick), 6:33

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E: Safety, Parkland fumbles the ball out of the end zone on a punt attempt, 5:15

E: Tylik Jarvis 1 run (Garcia kick) 1:14

The third quarter

P: Nahi Bullock 61 pass from Luke Spang (Griffin Mistifer kick), 10:14

E: Garcia 38 field goal, 6:36

P: Trey Trembo 15 pass from Spang (Mistifer kick), 4:37

P: Mitifer 42 field goal, 2:21