In Week 4 of the 2025 season, Nazareth traveled to Freedom and the Blue Eagles improved to 4-0 that night with a 56-21 rout of the Patriots.<\/p>\n
In that game, Peyton Falzone looked unstoppable.<\/p>\n
Nazareth scored on its first six possessions and racked up 472 yards of offense and the Blue Eagles took a 42-21 lead. Falzone was 16 of 22 passing for 336 yards and threw two TD passes while running for another.<\/p>\n
But on his last pass just before halftime, he short-armed it into the ground. Something was noticeably wrong. Tests taken later revealed a fractured clavicle on his left side. Falzone\u2019s season was suddenly over and realistically, so was the Blue Eagles\u2019 championship hopes.<\/p>\n
Enter sophomore Cooper Madson, a promising young quarterback who expected to take over at quarterback in 2026 but was forced to do it in Week 5 and while he played admirably, there were growing pains to get through.<\/p>\n
Now 2026 is here and if there was a silver lining to Falzone\u2019s fantastic career coming to a premature end, it was that Madson got a jumpstart on becoming a varsity quarterback. He\u2019s ready to take the reins this season and has a lot of weapons around him as Nazareth looks to improve on last year\u2019s 8-4 record and make a run at the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference\u2019s Northampton Division title.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was very unfortunate what happened last year losing Peyton like we did, but with that happening it was a blessing in disguise because Cooper got the chance to take the reins early,\u201d coach Tom Falzone said. \u201cLast year he was just a young pup thrown into the fire with a bunch of seniors and trying to rally everybody around him. This year, he\u2019s a different kid. He comes into the season knowing he\u2019s the guy and this is his team. He worked like crazy and his confidence level is through the roof right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Madson finished the year with 1,523 passing yards and 13 touchdowns. He threw just three interceptions in 176 attempts.<\/p>\n
While Nazareth graduated star running back Marquez Wimberly, who ran for 1,723 yards and 23 TDs, the Blue Eagles do return their top receivers from last year. Matt Leluga (34 catches for 546 yards, 8 TDs), Luke DiPietro (53 catches for 843 yards, 8 TDs) and Lance Zuercher (13 catches for 231 yards and a TD) are all playmakers. Mason Marinelli is a quality tight end. Austin Christine and Marques Taveras return on the offensive line.<\/p>\n
Both Zuercher and Marinelli have received college offers from FCS programs.<\/p>\n
\u201cWimberly is a huge one to replace and we\u2019re going to do that by committee at the start of the season,\u201d Falzone said. \u201cSeveral guys are taking snaps at running back right now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Middle linebacker Cooper Wenrich, who led the league with 148 tackles last season, is one of the running backs in the mix along with Will Bacolo.<\/p>\n
Meanwhile, Wenrich heads an inexperienced defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a complete overhaul on the defensive side and that\u2019s where we have a lot of new faces,\u201d Falzone said. \u201cWe have just three returners and pound-for-pound, Wenrich at 145 pounds is the toughest guy on the team. He had an option to move back and play in the secondary, which is what he\u2019s going to do in college, but he said, that he wanted to remain at middle linebacker so that\u2019s where he will stay. Zuercher played safety for us last year and he got hurt at the end of last season, but he\u2019s back and we should be solid up the middle. But the outside linebackers, the ends, the corners, everyone else is new. We\u2019re a work in progress. It may take time for everything to settle in.\u201d<\/p>\n
As usual, Falzone said the key is to stay healthy.<\/p>\n
\u201cLast year, when we started losing guys, it became very difficult,\u201d Falzone said. \u201cIt could have been a very special year last year, but we lost some major guys. Now, we just have to move forward and go through this thing the best we can.\u201d<\/p>\n
3 tidbits on the Blue Eagles<\/p>\n
(1) A new DC<\/p>\n
Longtime Catasauqua and Nazareth assistant Jim Schaffer has retired, meaning Falzone needed a new defensive coordinator. But Schaffer\u2019s right-hand man, Jeremy Eberhardt, stepped into the role.<\/p>\n
\u201cJeremy slid right in and has done a great job with them,\u201d Falzone said. \u201cHe is a lot like Jim and is very analytical and is putting tons of time with it and brings the energy and intensity. We\u2019re very young on defense and you\u2019re going to see a lot of two-way players. And a lot of those guys are actually three-way players because they stay out there for special teams, too. I don\u2019t think Mason Marinelli comes off the field.\u201d<\/p>\n
New coaches include Chris Shannon, a former Easton and Wilkes player, and Tim Hutchison, who played at Nazareth and Rowan. Both of them will coach the outside linebackers. Andy Millen, who has been at a variety of schools over the years and most recently at Parkland, has joined the staff on the offensive side.<\/p>\n
(2) Triple trouble<\/p>\n
Falzone, who is 87-49 in 12 previous seasons at Nazareth after going 47-18 in five years at Catty, has been vocal from the start about the league structure. Even though this is the third year of the format, he hasn\u2019t changed his mind about the three open dates at the start of the season. He doesn\u2019t like having his school being forced to find opponents in the first three weeks.<\/p>\n
In that vein, the program reached out and scheduled Garnet Valley from District 1 for Friday\u2019s opener. Garnet Valley is coming off an 8-4 season.<\/p>\n
The Jaguars run the triple-option on offense which makes Game 1 even more of a challenge for Nazareth\u2019s young defense.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow we have to bang our heads about 500 times right away just preparing for them and that offense,\u201d Falzone said. \u201cIt\u2019s mind-numbing getting ready for it. It\u2019s repetition after repetition and it\u2019s all assignment football. Add in about two-hour going toward Philly and it\u2019s going to be a challenge for us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Falzone likes playing other former EPC South teams and he\u2019s got two of them lined up for weeks 2 and 3 with Whitehall on the road and Allentown Central Catholic at home. The team\u2019s cross-division games are not easy \u2014 against Emmaus and Stroudsburg.<\/p>\n
(3) The numbers game<\/p>\n
Falzone said he has about 68 kids out in grades 10-12 and those numbers are bolstered by a large freshman group of 40 kids. The middle school program has about 60 kids.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey all want to play, but maybe they\u2019re not all players,\u201d Falzone said, laughing. \u201cI\u2019ve spent my entire life coaching at smaller schools, Catty and here. We don\u2019t have what the big dogs have, but you find ways to compete with what you have and be competitive. We try to put our kids in a position to have success. That\u2019s all we can do. I always feel like we have to find a way to outcoach people because we don\u2019t have the same numbers others do. We\u2019re always trying to find new things we can do \u2026 new schemes, new wrinkles, new things. If you stay stale, they can figure it out and you\u2019re not going anywhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Schedule<\/p>\n
(All games at 7 p.m.)<\/p>\n
Friday: at Garnet Valley<\/p>\n
Sept 4: at Whitehall<\/p>\n
Sept. 11 host Allentown Central Catholic<\/p>\n
Sept. 18: host Freedom<\/p>\n
Sept. 25: host Emmaus<\/p>\n
Oct. 2: at Stroudsburg<\/p>\n
Oct. 9: host Liberty<\/p>\n
Oct. 17: at Bethlehem Catholic<\/p>\n
Oct. 23: host Northampton<\/p>\n
Oct. 30: at Easton<\/p>\n
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