With just seven seniors on the roster and only four listed as starters, there were plenty of excuses for why Saucon Valley started the season 1-3.
That didn’t mean coach Anthony Brinkley was going to make any.
Instead, Brinkley challenged his young team and is now reaping the rewards as the Panthers leaned on their underclassmen in a 24-7 victory over Pen Argyl on Saturday afternoon to extend the team’s winning streak to four.
“I can’t say enough about the guys in that locker room,” Brinkley said. “After that Palmerton game [in week 3], it was kind of a decisive moment for them saying, ‘Are we going to let youth and inexperience drive our season or are we going to work together as coaches and players? And as a program, are we going to kind of attack whatever we have left of the season and say all right, we’re not going to let those weeks define us?’
“And they did not,” Brinkley said. “It’s really a credit to all of them.”
Freshman running back Taylor Rohn is the most noteworthy of a handful of freshmen starters and put together what Brinkley considered to be the best game of his young career so far against the Green Knights.
“He was really patient running the ball today. Our O-line did a great job up front as well, but Taylor played really well,” Brinkley said. “We’re trying to move him around in different spots and try to get some of these freshmen in really good positions to be successful.”
After a sluggish opening 20 minutes, the 5-10, 165-pound running back opened the scoring with a brilliant bounce-out to the right sideline on a 10-yard touchdown run with 3:13 remaining in the first half.
The touchdown came just three plays after an offensive pass interference call backed the Panthers up into a first-and-25 that put an already struggling offense into a precarious situation. Instead of playing it safe, Brinkley opted to put the ball in the hands of his star quarterback, Taylor’s brother, Braden, which worked to perfection.
Rohn escaped pressure to his right and threw a bullet downfield to Isaiah McNally, who turned up the sideline and picked up 45 yards on a catch-and-run that energized the offense for the rest of the game.
“It was sprint out smash. We run that play a ton. We ran it earlier in the game, and we felt like we had McNally on that corner route and Braden delivered it,” Brinkley said. “I have a lot of trust in Braden. He’s grown so much since last year as the sophomore with seniors around him to now the junior leader who we can lean on.
“When I’m looking at this [playsheet], there’s things that him and I talk about at halftime. Like, what do you think? What do you like? And he’s a student of the game. He watches a lot of film. I’m really proud of him.”
Pen Argyl responded with a seven-yard touchdown pass from Mason Soos to Christopher Crespo in the final seconds of the first half, but Saucon Valley capitalized on having the first possession out of halftime with a clinical six-play, 73-yard touchdown drive to retake the lead.
It was Taylor Rohn again, who found space to the outside on a handoff up the middle, and escaped for a 37-yard touchdown run to put the Panthers ahead 14-7.
The defense, with a little help from a steady rainfall for the rest of the game, didn’t allow the Green Knights to get more than 10 yards into Saucon Valley territory for the rest of the contest.
The self-proclaimed “Gladiators” — the linebacking core of Rohn, Sahahlay Hernandez, Hunter Hill and Eli Szlachtianshyn — had a major part to play in making that happen. Hernandez forced and recovered a fumble in the first half while Hill came up with a huge interception on a dropped pass to end any chance of a Pen Argyl rally with the score at 17-7 with just 6:44 remaining in the game.
Those were two of the four turnovers forced on the day by the Saucon Valley defense, not including a pair of turnovers on downs, to suffocate a Pen Argyl attack that mustered just 197 total yards.
“Our defense did great today,” senior cornerback Zak Ziegler said. “I was saying before the game that it was going to be a defensive game, so whoever’s defense stays the strongest, keeps going the hardest, is going to come out with the dub.”
Ziegler, one of the few senior starters on the roster, came up with a 24-yard interception return for a touchdown with just 10 seconds on the clock to punctuate a dominant defensive performance that helped his team improve to 5-3 on the season.
Although it’s his final season, he’s excited not just for this year but for the years to come by the young stars emerging around him.
“The younger kids, in the future, they’re going to be some dogs,” Ziegler said. “It’s honestly great. They step up as leaders too, sometimes.”
While the future certainly looks bright, a four game winning streak has both confidence and momentum through the roof in Hellertown as the Panthers enter the final two games of the season against tough opponents in Southern Lehigh and Northern Lehigh.
They have no intention of slowing down now.
“We have a lot of momentum,” Taylor Rohn said. “And we’re not planning on stopping.”
Saucon Valley (5-3) will have a short week before travelling to Southern Lehigh to take on the undefeated Spartans (8-0) on Friday night at 7 p.m.
Pen Argyl (5-3) will celebrate its seniors before hosting Catasauqua (3-5) in its final home game of the regular season at 1:30 p.m. Saturday.
Derek Bast is a freelance writer who can be found on Twitter/X at @derek_bast. He can be reached by email at [email protected].
SAUCON VALLEY 24, PEN ARGYL 7
Saucon Valley: 0; 7; 7; 10 — 24
Pen Argyl: 0; 7; 0; 0 — 7
ORDER OF SCORING
Second quarter
SV: Taylor Rohn 10 run (AJ Sanders kick); 3:13
PA: Christopher Crespo 7 pass from Mason Soos (Reid Kotulka kick); 0:11
Third quarter
SV: Rohn 37 run (Sanders kick); 9:28
Fourth quarter
SV: Sanders 22 field goal; 8:42
SV: Zak Ziegler 24 interception return; 0:10
TEAM STATISTICS
SV; PA
First downs; 11; 13
Rushes-yards; 32-96; 25-64
Passing yards; 123; 133
Comp-Att-INTs; 10-15-0; 17-33-3
Punts; 5-31.8; 3-32
Fumbles-lost; 2-0; 3-2
Penalties-yards; 8-91; 5-39
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS
Rushing: (SV) Taylor Rohn 13-89, 2 TDs; Elijah Szlachtianshyn 4-8; Braden Rohn 15-(-1); (PA) Zachary Metzgar 1-37; Mason Soos 8-14; Caiden Faust 16-13.
Passing: (SV) B. Rohn 10-15-0, 123 yards; (PA) Soos 17-33-3, 133 yards, TD.
Receiving: (SV) Isaiah McNally 2-51; T. Rohn 3-32; Thomas Cahill 4-27; Mickie McClarin 1-13; (PA) Anthony Beltran 6-46; Metzgar 3-37; Terrell Estes 4-22; Christopher Crespo 3-20, TD; Caiden Faust 1-8.
Saucon Valley interceptions: Hunter Hill; Parker Skoda; Zak Ziegler.
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