It was not the start that Northampton’s football team was looking for when East Stroudsburg North made the trek down south last Friday night.

The Kids fell to the Timberwolves 48-42 in a contest that featured 950 yards of offense.

Colin Schucker threw for 100 yards and two scores and added 70 yards on the ground and two touchdowns to highlight the Kids offense, which also saw running back Jared Stauffer run for 148 yards and a TD, but it wasn’t enough to hold off ESN’s flexbone offense.

“Their [ESN] quarterback does a great job running the option,” said head coach Mark Scisly. “He’s a four-year starter. For us, we had nine new starters on defense and we were playing an offense that our kids have never played against in a game, which made it difficult. That being said, we should of played much better and we must improve for next week.”

The quarterback Scisly eluded to was senior Thomas Melchiorre, who ran for 182 yards and four touchdowns on 31 carries last week. He also threw for 158 yards and two touchdowns on four completions against the Kids.

Don’t expect Bethlehem Catholic’s current QB saga between Liam Nixon and Javon Clements to equal that performance when Northampton travels to BASD Stadium Saturday night.

The Hawks trounced Pocono Mountain West 59-15 last week. The Hawks rushing attack collected 390 yards on the ground, led by Randy Terry’s 216 yards. Terry scored one TD on the day, but Damian Diaz piled in for three scores within five yards out, as the Hawks had little trouble dispatching West to open the season.

Diaz, however, is lost for the season after suffering an injury in the opener, leaving the diminutive Terry with a bigger role.

The bigger question is at the QB position, where Clements appears to have an edge on Nixon heading into this week.

Nixon was 2-of-6 for 25 yards with a touchdown and an interception last week, while Clements went 2-of-3 for 16 yards and a TD pass.

Heading into this Saturday’s home tilt, Hawks head coach Kyle Haas has made it clear that both quarterbacks are still battling to grab the number one spot.

“Javon took a big step forward last week,” Haas said. “We’ll make a decision about who will start the game midweek, but we’re still looking at both of them.”

For Northampton, it’s just about improvement, which should be smoother this week playing against an opponent with a similar style.

“Becahi runs an offense similar to what we see on a week-to-week basis,” said Scisly. “It will be much easier for our scout teams to run it in practice. We need to play better in all facets of our defense.

“We just need to play sound defense and force them [Becahi] into third and long situations. On offense, we need to remain balanced and pick up the blitz from their 3-5 defense.”