Nazareth Area High School's football team defeats Parkland High School 63-27 in Districts 2-4-11 Class AAAA sub-regional semifinals

FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES

Jordan Gray praised the offensive line. Dan Harding credited his athletic wide receivers. Rob Melosky gave props to his assistant coaches.
Nazareth Area High School's high-powered attack was in full force Friday night.

The Blue Eagles amassed an incredible 668 total yards and went on to post a 63-27 victory over Parkland in the Districts 2-4-11 Class AAAA sub-regional semifinals at Andrew Leh Stadium.

Gray, a freshman running back, shredded Parkland's defense for 230 yards and five touchdowns. He has 1,388 yards on the season and broke the District 11 freshman rushing record previously held by James Mungro of East Stroudsburg South.

"It all starts with the line, really," Gray said inside a joyous Nazareth locker room. "The flow of the game was in their court."

Harding, a senior quarterback, completed 16 of 24 passes for 382 yards. He tossed touchdown passes of 15 yards to Adam Bridgeforth and 61 yards to Andrew Bridgeforth.

Andrew finished with six catches for 134 yards and Adam caught five passes for 125 yards.

"Those guys make plays," Harding said. "They get open and do their job. They do everything you ask them to do."

"We knew we could go deep on them," said Melosky, the Blue Eagles' head coach.

Harding's second touchdown pass was the 48th of his career, breaking the school record of 47 previously held by Ryan Fry.

"I didn't even know what the record was," Harding said. "I just try to perform every week."

Parkland, which finished 9-3, dealt Nazareth (11-1) its only loss of the season, 47-21, on Oct. 21.

"The coaches worked hard, they really did," Melosky said. "We felt we had a good game plan. It was a great effort. We needed that tonight."

Nazareth will host Easton (10-2) in the sub-regional final next Saturday at 7 p.m.

"I didn't want anyone else besides Easton," Harding said. "I was glad when I heard they won."

Parkland grabbed an early lead when speedster Jarel Elder returned the opening kickoff 93 yards for a touchdown. Gray had scoring runs of 3 and 1 yard to give Nazareth a 14-7 lead. The Blue Eagles never trailed again.

Senior two-way lineman Aaron Bradley spearheaded a Nazareth defense that shut out the Trojans in the second half.

"People don't believe in our defense," Bradley said. "We just fly to the ball. We play with enthusiasm and have fun. We're just kids. We just said we're going to have fun out there. We believed in ourselves."

Offensive tackles Nick Tuerk and Bradley, guards David Wilke and Brian Brune, and center Joe Walsh did the work up front.

"Oh, and Travis Pierson, is our backup guard and Josh Johnson is our backup tackle," Bradley said.

"Every single name has to be in there," Gray said.

"We didn't play very well, especially on defense," Parkland coach Jim Morgans said. "Give credit to Nazareth. They played a heck of a football game. I'm not saying we were overconfident. I knew they were capable of beating us, but I didn't think it would be 63-27."


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