Expectations are high around the Northampton boys basketball program this season. The squad returns its top six scorers from last year’s EPC champions, who knocked off the 3, 2, and 1 seeds on the way to winning the school’s first league title in over 50 years.

“We know where our holes are. We’ve got to iron those out because no loss is acceptable this year. We want to win them all,” stated head coach Matt Scholl. “That needs to be the goal. I mean the reality is that we’re not going to, but that needs to be the goal. It’s not just get 11 wins and get into districts.”

In order to win them all, the K-Kids needed to take care of business in their opener against Easton Monday night in Pete Scheidner Gymnasium. They scored the final five points of the first quarter to erase an 11-8 deficit and never trailed again, winning 58-43.

Sophomore Jake Raysley paced Northampton with 13 points, including three three-pointers. Raysley hit a buzzer beater to give the Kids a 27-19 halftime lead and also knocked down a trey for the first basket of the final period to extend the K-Kids’ advantage to 11, 41-30.

Despite the low-stress win, Scholl was less than thrilled by the performance. “Just sloppy. For a group that has played together, we’re still figuring things out. Too many turnovers (16 for the Kids). Easton is just getting back in shape from football. The bar is higher for us this year,” he explained.

Northampton is largely running it back with the sextet that brought them the league title last year: Raysley, Noah Walakovits, Brady Simock, Korbin Sollars, and Leo Regec, and Ethan Raphun. However, Marcus Ramos, who was elevated from JV, is poised to be a significant addition.

Scholl praised the junior forward, “We need runners who cut to the block and clear out space. Marcus Ramos, he does it. He played some incredible minutes tonight, because he will consistently go to the block. I wish more of the guys would do that.”

N’ampton 13-14-11-20 - 58

Easton 11- 8-11-13 - 43

Northampton scoring: Raysley 13, Sollars 12, Walakovits 10, Regec 9, Ramos 8, Raphun 4, Logan Walter 2

Team shooting 3 pt: 6/15, 2 pt: 12/26 Free throws: 15/18