With Whitehall’s win over Northampton last Friday night, the Zephyrs completed another winning football season, their fifth of the Brian Gilbert-led era.

That’s pretty impressive considering that Gilbert has been the head coach for six years, their only losing campaign coming in 2015. With that final regular season win in their pocket, the Zephs remain as the top seed in the District 11 5A playoffs and will host East Stroudsburg North this Friday.

Friday’s game started with a bang as Dez Boykin took the opening kickoff and ran 91 yards for the score. Boykin’s now scored at least one touchdown in every game this season, a streak that dates back to their Oct. 21 win over Stroudsburg last season. That was the first of seven TDs for the Zephyrs who won 35-0, retaining possession of the Cement Bowl trophy for another year.

Boykin’s early TD jaunt was a matter of finding a hole and then exploding through the opening as the Northampton defenders tried to catch No. 3, something opposing players have been doing a lot of this season without a lot of success.

“I found the seam and hit it,” said Boykin. “It was a great feeling.”

Boykin said that it was important not to underestimate Northampton coming into the game. They were a hungry team who could pose problems for any team in the league.

“We had to know that they have the ability to win, and they’re actually a powerful team with a lot of weapons,” said Boykin. “We just couldn’t overlook them, and just came out and did what we had to do.”

Perhaps one of those things Boykin had on his “to-do” list was score the first time he touched the ball, staking the Zephs to that early lead. He followed that TD with a second-quarter touchdown scamper that covered 41 yards. The senior finished the regular season with 15 touchdowns.

Running back Braxton Marrero was also effective on the ground. He rushed for 77 yards in the game, helping the Zephs maintain a successful run/pass balance that helped them notch their seventh win of the season.

The pass portion of that scenario was provided by Ehan Parvel who threw for 145 yards, including two TDs. He connected with Allen Negrete for a 39-yard TD strike in the second quarter, and later found Joe Herman III who was left all alone in the corner of the end zone for a 22-yard TD as the Zephs opened a 28-0 lead heading into the break.

Head coach Brian Gilbert said that it was important for them to start fast and play a sound game on both sides of the ball.

“We wanted to come out and set the tone early,” said Gilbert. “We were a little off in the first quarter, but I give Northampton a lot of credit, they came into this game believing they were going to and they had a good game plan and they have good coaches so for anybody to think that they were going to roll over for us is not true.”

Gilbert said that once Northampton was able to move the ball, they made some defensive adjustments just as they did last week against Stroudsburg. He also said that their in-game adjustments are such better at this juncture than they were earlier in the season.

“Once we made them, I thought we really did a good job defensively,” said Gilbert.

It worked because for most of the game the Zephyrs. Their defense was hitting on all cylinders, registering 10 tackles for losses, with Jacob Hudak leading the way with four of those hits. They also forced two turnovers as Roberto Rivera Colon and Joshua Novak recovered fumbles.

Gilbert said that while they have an explosive offense, they weren’t quite as sharp as they have been in some games, but they really didn’t need those home run plays against the Kids since they were ahead the whole game.

The Zephyrs final touchdown came on a Darwin Cofield run as he bolted up the middle for a 10-yard score.

The Kids were led on the ground by Alden Jones who finished with 45 yards. As a team the Kids gained 173 rushing yards.

As they head into district tournament this week, Gilbert said it’s imperative that they have good practices. He said if they don’t put the work in, a loss now means the end of their season.

“These guys know there’s a sense of urgency with every day that we have,” said Gilbert.

Boykin echoed that sentiment.

“It’s do or die now, we’re in the district playoffs so we either win or go home,” said Boykin. “We don’t plan on going home anytime soon.”