Colonial League football: Confident Catasauqua rallies past Wilson<\/a><\/p>\nNeshaminy 20, Emmaus 13<\/p>\n
It\u2019s easy to forget the high expectations that Emmaus entered last season with. A 30-0 season-opening shutout loss put a damper on that momentum and led to a disappointing 4-7 season that ended with a quarterfinal loss to Easton in the district playoffs. Coach Harold Fairclough recapped that humbling night against the Indians by confessing he didn\u2019t have his guys ready to play.<\/p>\n
He had the opportunity to fix that mistake as he took his team to Langhorne to avenge that loss and kickstart something special in 2026. After the first half looked eerily similar offensively, Legend Vasquez started the second half with an incredible kickoff return that set his team up in Neshaminy territory. Anthony Attar paid off the big return with a tremendous run of his own, getting the Green Hornets on the board with a 13-yard touchdown run early in the third quarter.<\/p>\n
After a defensive stop and a clutch third-down conversion, Attar raced for the pylon and secured his second touchdown of the night to give Emmaus a 13-7 lead midway through the third. The momentum flipped as Tom Schoepfer took the ensuing kickoff 92 yards for a touchdown to reestablish Neshaminy\u2019s lead.<\/p>\n
Kevin Mullens hauled in an interception to end Emmaus\u2019 final drive and while that sealed a season-opening loss once again, Fairclough\u2019s group will feel much better about its effort against the Indians ahead of a showdown with Phillipsburg next week.<\/p>\n
Notre Dame-Green Pond 48, Berks Catholic 14<\/p>\n
The Colonial League has crowned a state champion each of the last two seasons. The Crusaders are 21-3 across those two seasons and feel like this is the year they can break through with a memorable season of their own.<\/p>\n
That started with a resounding 48-14 win over Berks Catholic at Lafayette College on Friday night. Still without a home stadium, the Crusaders made themselves at home as their stars shined on the big stage in the season opener. Jonathan Striba took a swing pass 71 yards to the house within a minute of the season starting, Drew Boyd returned an interception 64 yards for a touchdown \u2013 and took a screen for an even longer touchdown later on \u2013 and Aaron Gordon scored a pair of touchdowns on the ground.<\/p>\n
Berks Catholic stayed close in the first half, keeping the deficit within seven, but Notre Dame solidified its status as a Colonial\/Schuylkill League contender with an emphatic second half at Fisher Stadium. Coach Phil Stambaugh\u2019s group will aim to carry that momentum into a trip against another league championship contender in North Schuylkill next Friday night.<\/p>\n
Northwestern Lehigh 28, Valley View 16<\/p>\n
The Tigers began their pursuit of a fourth consecutive state championship-game appearance on the road against District 2 Garnet Valley. It wasn\u2019t an ideal start for Josh Snyder\u2019s group who ended the first half tied at 14 on a pair of touchdown receptions by do-it-all standout Brady Zimmerman.<\/p>\n
Mike Lagowy hauled in an unbelievable jump ball with 6:07 left in the third quarter to put the Tigers on top, but the PIAA 3A power couldn\u2019t pull away. A goal-line stand saved five points for the Tigers as the fourth-down stop led to a safety and a 21-16 score in the final quarter.<\/p>\n
Lagowy\u2019s heroics weren\u2019t done. The safety drifted to the sideline for an acrobatic interception with nine minutes remaining before a fourth-down conversion by Zimmerman prefaced his third touchdown of the night and a decisive blow to Valley View\u2019s upset hopes.<\/p>\n
Other notable local scores<\/p>\n
\u2013 Southern Lehigh, the defending state champions, cruised past Quakertown in a 55-0 win that the Spartans hope will be the start of another incredible season in Center Valley. Colton Sams looked sharp under center, but a bigger challenge awaits in a matchup with Blue Mountain next Friday. The Eagles looked just as comfortable on opening night, defeating Jim Thorpe 48-0 in Week 1.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Bethlehem Catholic held off Delaware Valley for a 21-20 victory that marked the fifth consecutive season-opening win for the Golden Hawks. The Holy War rivalry with Allentown Central Catholic continues next week with a pair of undefeated teams after the Vikings prevailed 10-3 against Abington Heights.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Nazareth\u2019s passing attack still looked strong with Cooper Madson officially taking over for Peyton Falzone, but the Blue Eagles couldn\u2019t stop Garnet Valley in a 63-34 loss on opening night.<\/p>\n
Derek Bast is a freelance reporter who can be found on Twitter\/X at @derek_bast or reached by email at derekbast11@gmail.com.<\/p>\n
Pennsylvania high school football scores from Friday, Aug. 28<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Friday night lights were back on across the Lehigh Valley, and beyond, as many local teams traveled for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274909,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,304,305,726,432],"class_list":["post-274908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-high-school-football","tag-high-school-sports","tag-sports","tag-top-stories-tmc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274908\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274909"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}