It didn’t take much for the Parkland football team to get motivated for its first game in the district tournament. Falling to rival Emmaus on the final play of what served as the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference South Division championship game the week prior, the Trojans worked all week at practice, preparing to not have that same feeling again.

After a goal-line stand prevented them from beating the Green Hornets in the season finale, head coach Parkland Tim Moncman went right back to the ground game in the first round of the playoffs.

The Parkland offensive line had big a night as it paved the way for its running backs to run for 281 yards on 48 carries in leading the number three seed Trojans (8-3) to a 38-7 victory against Nazareth (5-6) in the District 11 Class 6A quarterfinal round game last Friday night at Parkland School District Stadium.

The five on the line: seniors Palmer Kerch, Patrick Ferry, Alex Van Woert, Andrew Parry and junior Kobe Thomas paved the way for three different backs to go over 60 yards, and junior quarterback Michael Ruisch found holes to tally 61 yards rushing.

Senior Nick Suriel was the leader on the night, going for 132 yards and two touchdowns on 20 carries, while battling an injury that has lingered for a couple of weeks.

“He’s almost there,” Moncman said. “He’s not totally [back], but I wanted to challenge him a little this week and get him back in there, and he did a heck of a job.”

Fellow senior Frank Guida ran for 70 yards and a touchdown on 10 carries, and junior Jahan Worth totaled 60 yards and a score on nine attempts.

“We figured we could out-physical them,” Kerch said. “We did it before, we could do it again. We just like to stick to the mentality of being physical and getting the job done. Our running backs do a great job running, especially Nick [Suriel] and Jahan [Worth] and Frankie [Guida]. We make the holes. They run.”

The opening drive was all about establishing the run, and Suriel stepped up and did just that. He saw the ball eight times and ran for 44 yards on that possession, capping it with a 1-yard touchdown.

The second drive was more of the same. Five carries by Suriel that totaled 57 yards. The drive ended in a 23-yard field goal by Brian Hanton.

Parkland scored on its third drive as well, but this time Worth was the runner of choice. He had seven carries for 46 yards, including a 3-yard touchdown.

“We just had to get off the ball,” Van Woert said. “We always talk about the game is on the line of scrimmage. We got off the ball fast, got physical and that’s what we had to do.”

The Trojans raced out to a 24-0 lead when Rick Panella picked up a bouncing punt and took it to the house from 50 yards out, and the momentum was all on their side heading into the locker room.

“We just worked as a team,” Kerch said. “We did it for our brother Brody (Boyer) who couldn’t be here, playing our butts off. We just dominated the line of scrimmage, coached up, just did everything we could.”

Boyer is battling cancer.

Suriel scored on the opening drive of the second half, and all that was left for Parkland was to take the game into the mercy rule.

That mission was accomplished on the next possession early in the fourth quarter when Guida found pay dirt from five yards away.

The Trojan defense gave up just one touchdown late in the game and held the Blue Eagles to 172 yards of offense, with 48 yards coming on the touchdown pass from Travis Stefanik to Zack Keifer.

Guida, Kerch, DJ Hohman and Xavier Huff all recorded sacks.

“Our defensive line came out and set the tone,” said Moncman. “We knew [Stefanik] would get yards scrambling, but our secondary did a heck of a job. Then our offensive line just took over the game.”

Parkland hosts Easton in a District 11 semifinal Friday night in the semifinals at Parkland School District Stadium. The winner will face No. 1 Emmaus or No. 5 Freedom in the district title game.