A lot of things went wrong for Northampton in last week's 42-12 home loss to Central Catholic and head coach Jeff Brosky hopes a lot of things go right for the K-Kids this week against Emmaus.

The Kids got themselves a wake-up call in the loss to Central, which saw them get man-handled up front, had them turn the ball over inside their own red zone and allow Central running back Colin McDermott to go off with a star-studded performance by scoring all six of the Vikings touchdowns during a 374-yard ground performance.

"Never thought I'd see a kid have a game like McDermott did," Brosky said. "I remember Rob Houch from Northampton and he scored seven touchdowns in a game back in 2002 or 2003. McDermott had a great game against us. We had him on some plays, but just didn't tackle him. You gotta give him credit for that."

The loss pushes Northampton (2-3, 1-3) back under .500 a week after their victory over Bethlehem Catholic, which Brosky hoped would be a momentum push for his squad. Now, they'll face one of the toughest defenses in the league this weekend at Emmaus (3-2, 2-2).

The Hornets are coming off a difficult 15-14 double overtime loss at Easton last week, in a game that featured Easton sit seven of their offensive starters in the first half due to suspension.

Now both teams need to regroup for an affair that pits Northampton's quick strike offense against Emmaus head-strong defense.

"Emmaus has one of the best defenses we'll see this year outside of Parkland," Brosky said. "We need to establish the run game to take some pressure off Nick [Cook] and Kyle [George]."

Northampton's tag-team passing duo connected seven times last week for 151 yards and two scores, as Cook threw for 233 in total yardage, but Brosky understands the importance of keeping defenses honest by getting a ground game going this year.

"Central did a good job disguising some of their coverages that made Nick hold on to the ball a little bit longer than usual," he said in reference to the four sacks the Vikings were able to obtain last week. "We're going to make some adjustments with the run this week to see if we can get that going."

Brosky also knows it's time for his team to make a move in the standings. With five games left in the regular season, the room for error is slim to none, but thinking about playoff aspirations isn't the onus as of yet.

"We just have to focus on beating Emmaus," Brosky said. "We take things one game at a time."