Parkland football head coach Tim Moncman described the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference football league as “very balanced” and “a slugfest every week.”

That has held true as his 2-1 Trojans were knocked off by 3-0 Liberty last Friday night 14-6 in a battle of unbeaten league foes. During the same night, 2-1 Easton dropped previously undefeated Freedom 27-20.

“Every week is a battle in our conference,” Moncman said. “You have to be prepared and ready to play each game, or you could go down. That showed last weekend.”

Although the Trojans offense moved the ball down the field, it struggled to score points, settling for two Brian Hanton field goals. But the defense may not always be able to bail the team out and keep it in the game.

The Red Rovers put up 27 points on a Patriots defense that gave up just eight points in the previous two games combined. Quarterback Scott Poulson threw for 235 yards and three touchdowns, while splitting time with Ben Nimeh under center. Nimeh is more of a rushing threat, as he ran for 45 yards and a score last week.

Wide receivers Jakob Herres (4 catches, 117 yards) and Trey Bailey (4 catches, 87 yards) combined to go over 200 yards receiving and each scored a touchdown.

“They threw a lot of deep balls down the field to taller receivers,” Moncman said. “They run a lot of play-action, which we’ll be working on all week. Then we just need to stop the run the best we can.”

Offensively for Parkland, senior running back Nick Suriel and junior tailback Jahan Worth highlighted the offense again. Suriel went for a game-high 131 yards, and Worth finished with 45 yards. Senior wideout Zach Bross had six catches for 42 yards.

Even with big numbers from some of their players, and the ball moving up and down the field, the red zone has been the issue.

“We have to concentrate on scoring in the red zone,” said Moncman. “We can’t keep settling for field goals when we have it inside the 20-yard line multiple times a game.”

Cottingham Stadium has been good to Parkland the last few years. The Trojans defeated Easton two years ago on that field in the District 11 4A playoffs.