Nazareth Area High School football team clinches at least a share of LVC title

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

The veteran starting lineups for the Nazareth Area High School football team knew they had an opportunity to make school history tonight, but senior-laden Blue Eagles had no argument turning things over to the rookie to make it happen.

Freshman running back Jordan Gray carried 34 times for 245 yards and a touchdown to back up a stellar effort by the Nazareth defense to dial up a hard-fought 21-20 victory over Whitehall in a battle for first place in the Lehigh Valley Conference at Andrew Leh Stadium.

The Blue Eagles (8-1 overall, 7-1 LVC) bounced back from last week's ugly loss to Parkland to secure at least a share of the LVC title -- the first in school history.

"I challenged the line this week and they did the job blocking," Gray said. "I just took what they gave me and we got the win."

Nazareth, ranked No. 3 in The Express-Times region, can clinch the conference championship outright with a win in next week's regular-season finale against Northampton.

"That's a ninth-grader (Gray) and we asked him to carry the load tonight in a tough situation," Nazareth coach Rob Melosky said. "But he's come up in our system. He understands why we need to run the ball in this offense. We needed that balance in our offense tonight. We didn't have that last week and we wanted to get back to that this week."

Gray's legs and some impressive second-half defense gave the Blue Eagles their fifth fourth-quarter, comeback win of the season.

"We came out with a chip on our shoulder after last week," senior defensive end Nick Tuerk said. "We knew we had to step up to win this game."

The defense held Whitehall to 84 yards of offense in the second half.

Zephyrs running back Andrew Harris rushed for 112 yards and two TDs on 17 attempts, but was held to just 7 yards after halftime.

Tuerk had a pair of second-half sacks and recovered a fumble by Whitehall quarterback Nick Shafnisky with 11:23 left in the fourth quarter that the offense turned into the game-tying TD - a 1-yard keeper by quarterback Dan Harding with 6:37 left.

Placekicker Jack Portnoy's extra point made it 21-20.

"I asked Tuerk and the rest of the seniors on defense how many championships they won playing football in Nazareth," Melosky said. "Whether it was knee-high football or whatever. Not one kid could put their hand up. Do you know what that does for a senior and how it eats at them? We were playing for a championship."

The key play of the drive came on fourth-and-2 from midfield with 10 minutes left.

The Zephyrs defense was about to force Nazareth into a fourth-straight three-and-out, when up-back T.J. Bray took the direct snap from punt formation and plunged straight forward for 4 yards and a first down.

"The fake punt was something we saw with (Whitehall's) punt return," said Melosky, who's Blue Eagles held firm their No. 1 spot in the Districts 2-4-11 Class AAAA sub-regional rankings with the win. "T.J. Bray tucked it up in there with a great effort and got a huge first down. We didn't want to give them the ball back right there."

Nazareth's first score came off another Zephyr fumble - recovered by linebacker Frank Sharo on the third play of the game - when Gray dashed 33 yards just 1:30 into the contest.

Top-ranked Whitehall (7-2, 6-2) bounced right back driving 64 yards on 13 plays to pull within a point on Harris' first TD of the game - a 4-yarder midway through the first.

Senior defensive back Adam Bridgeforth preserved the lead, coming off right end and blocking the extra point; a played that ultimately turned out to be the difference in the game.

"That was a huge play right there," Melosky said. "We schemed that kick block hard in practice. Credit Adam, he came off the end hard and made a great play."

Harding was held to his lowest passing totals of the game, completing 12 of 26 attempts for 135 yards a touchdown.

His 3-yard touchdown pass to Dan Shepherd in the second quarter was his 21 TD pass of the season, breaking his own school record of 20 set last season.

"We still have one more game to play," Melosky said. "It our final game and it's a new season. These kids deserve a lot of credit to put themselves in this position."

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/sports/index.ssf/2011/10/nazareth_area_high_school_foot_9.html