All they wanted to do was get back out on the field. Coaches and players alike were pumped up all week leading up to last Friday night’s game.

After losing to Liberty 14-6 the weekend before, not recording a touchdown in their first defeat of the season, the Parkland football team was eager to show that September 9 was just an off night in what the Trojans hope to be another long season.

The motivation was there, and it showed on both sides of the ball at Cottingham Stadium last Friday as the Trojans shut out Easton 28-0 in an Eastern Pennsylvania Conference showdown.

“Coming back after that loss, the one thing that we wanted to do was go out and get a win,” said senior lineman and captain Patrick Ferry, who missed the Liberty game due to an injury. “It was great getting back out there with my teammates. I felt like I let them down last week. But tonight was a good win, and it shows the kind of resilient team that we are each and every year.”

Parkland (3-1) played without junior quarterback Michael Ruisch, who started the first three games, because of an injury suffered the week prior. Senior Ethan Imler stepped in and the offense never skipped a beat.

Imler, who starts on defense at safety, led the Trojans down the field for four scores, and did not commit a turnover while keeping his offense on the field for a majority of the game.

“I found out I was going to be starting the next day (Saturday),” Imler said. “I was ready and prepared for it. Growing up I was always a quarterback first over anything else. I was accustomed to the position and know the ropes of the offense. It helps when you have a running game that is so dominant like it has been all season. Those guys came up big tonight.”

Senior running back Nick Suriel and junior back Jahan Worth carried the load for the Trojans ground attack.

Suriel finished with 64 yards on 17 carries after suffering a slight injury. He also scored the game’s opening touchdown in the second quarter, when he sneaked in through the middle from four yards out.

Worth was a force to be reckoned with all night. He tallied 172 yards on 17 carries, and recorded two second-half touchdowns that put the game out of reach.

“We wanted to establish the run and pound the ball every single down,” said Ferry. “With [Ethan] Imler coming in, he did a heck of a job tonight, but we had the mentality of ground-and-pound, and we showed that tonight. [Sureil and Worth], that’s the best duo you could have. You get the power out of Jahan, and the speed out of Nick. It’s an awesome one-two punch.”

Worth agreed with his captain.

“It’s all about the mentality we had coming into the game,” Worth said. “It was the most physical, most aggressive, most intense game I have ever been a part of. I just love my teammates to death. We just came out ready to play.”

But it was the play of Worth on the other side of the ball that kept this from being a game.

He consistently got into the backfield and disrupted the Red Rover quarterback and running backs all night. Easton (2-2) was held to just 13 yards of total offense, and minus-one yards rushing in the first half. Even after a 35-yard kickoff return out of halftime, the Red Rovers just could not get anything going offensively.

“It was important for us not to look back on last weekend and come out strong against Easton,” said Parkland head coach Tim Moncman. “It was a big win for the program, and I thought we played well on both sides of the ball.

“We turned the game over to the offensive line and they took the game over. We hoped to wear them down, which eventually we did. Defensively, we got a carry-over from last week when we held Liberty to 30 yards in the second half. It was a team effort.”

After Worth’s fourth-quarter burst of 35 yards to paydirt, senior DJ Hohman turned his one carry into a touchdown from 23 yards away giving Parkland a commanding 28-0 lead.

“Coming off that loss, we had the best week of practice we’ve ever had,” said Worth. “We came to the game with the same mentality we had in practice all week. I feel like we played a complete game. We just finished. That was our problem last week. Tonight we finished.”

“It was important for us not to look back on last weekend and come out strong against Easton,” Moncman said. “It was a big win for the program, and I thought we played well on both sides of the ball.

“We turned the game over to the offensive line and they took the game over. We hoped to wear them down, which eventually we did. Defensively, we got a carry-over from last week when we held Liberty to 30 yards in the second half. It was a team effort.”