In the first road game for the 2016 Parkland football team, the young Trojans were tested. A feisty Nazareth team that lost its opener was looking to pull off a big upset. And the Blue Eagles came close.

The Eagles (0-2) were right there with the Trojans (2-0) for 36 minutes, but over the final 12 minutes Parkland got it together and scored 21 straight points to leave Andrew Leh stadium last Friday night with a 38-13 win.

“It was a big win for us, especially for the younger guys,” said senior wide receiver/defensive back Zach Bross (3 receptions for 56 yards). “It was a struggle at first, but we pulled it together there at the end. This gives us a lot of confidence now knowing we can come back through adversity on the road and win a game.”

The Trojans actually trailed in the game. Blue Eagles do-it-all quarterback Travis Stefanik found Julian Liacci for 21 yards to put the Eagles out in front 7-0 on their first series of the second quarter. This came after a 64-yard interception return by the Nazareth defense.

Junior Juan Salas returned the ensuing kickoff to the Nazareth 42-yard line. And although the 11-play drive stalled at the end, Parkland finally got on the board thanks to a 35-yard field goal by junior Brian Hanton with 3:13 left until halftime.

It took the two teams a little over 15 minutes to get on the scoreboard, then, in a span of 3:13 they combined to score 13 points.

After a Nazareth punt, Nick Suriel rushed into the end zone from nine yards out to give the Trojans their first lead of the game with 1:05 left on the first-half clock.

Parkland could have had the ball back before haltime, but the Trojans muffed a punt and gave the ball away. Nazareth capitalized as kicker Avery Petrozelli connected from 27-yards away, and the teams went into the locker rooms tied 10-10.

“I think that speech at halftime really fired everybody up,” said junior Jahan Worth. “All of the guys just came together, and everyone stepped up as a whole. We eliminated a lot of the mistakes that we made early on, and just played an all-around better game in the second half.”

The Trojans looked like a different team in the second half. They opened up the third quarter with an eight play, 61-yard drive capped by a DJ Hohman four-yard touchdown run.

Suriel did all of the heavy lifting, getting the team down into the red zone. The senior running back finished with 24 carries for 159 yards and a touchdown. He was running behind an offensive line that was missing two starters because of injury and lost senior captain Patrick Ferry to injury during the second quarter.

“The loss of Patrick really motivated us to go out and win for him,” Suriel said. “He’s a captain and a leader, and I knew as another captain I had to step up and lead. I’m proud of the way the linemen played and everyone else that really took a step up.”

The Blue Eagles did not back down, however. After the Hohman score, Nazareth had a 12-play drive result in another Petrozelli 27-yard field goal to put the score at 17-13.

Heading into the fourth quarter, the Trojans needed a spark. And that spark came from Suriel, who intercepted a pass from Stefanik and took it to pay dirt.

The wheels fell off for the Blue Eagles from that point, as Justin Lessel recovered a fumble, followed by two touchdown runs from Worth, a three-yarder and a 71-yarder.

“When I know I’m getting the ball, my mentality is that I want to score on every touch,” said Worth. “The runs were big, but our defense locked in and played a much better second half. We were able to key in on their quarterback and slow him down.”