It was another tough outing for the Northampton football team last week, as Parkland ran their way to a 42-0 mercy-rule victory at home.

The Trojans (7-2) got four touchdowns on the ground from three different rushers and outgained the Kids 358-to-30 in total yards.

It continued a tough year for Northampton (0-9) as they head into a rivalry contest with Whitehall (5-4) this Friday night at home in their regular season finale.

With the Zephyrs (5-4) playing for home field in the District 11 5A playoffs, the Kids will have their hands full again trying to slow down a high-powered offense.

“[Zach] Gilbert (QB) does a nice job leading their no huddle offense and obviously [Dez] Boykin (WR) is one of the best players in the league,” said Northampton head coach Mark Scisly about Whitehall’s top skill players. “Pre-snap we need to locate where Boykin is. Is he in the backfield? Is he split out? Then we need to make sure we get pressure on the quarterback when they do throw the ball.”

Whitehall defeated Stroudsburg 29-7 last week in a game that Boykin only caught two balls for 14 yards, but found the end zone on the ground with 43 yards on five carries.

Heading into week 10 winless isn’t what Northampton envisioned, but the tough experience is something that Scisly hopes his team can learn from.

“Coming into the season we knew it was going to be a challenge without Austin Britton and Jovani Datis-Cordero, who were two or our top returning seniors,” he said. “We currently have four other senior starters out for the year (Logan Hammer, Owen Thomas, Robert Ellersick, and Colin Gerancher) and several other starters that are injured at the moment.

“That being said, I think our underclassmen gained some valuable experience that will pay dividends during the next two years. We start several juniors, sophomores, and a freshman at the present time.

“Losing is not an easy thing for anyone. Our emphasis is getting better each week and playing as hard we can on Friday night. We have shown improvement, but there is still a lot of work to be done.”