Northampton head football coach John Toman was glad to see his team walk away with a 35-10 victory in their season opener against Martin Luther King in Philadelphia last week.

He just wasn’t happy with how they achieved their victory.

“It was an experience,” exclaimed Toman. “Offensively, we shot ourselves in the foot with several bad quarterback/center exchanges. We need to clean that up. We only punted one time at the end of the game so it was us not them stopping us.”

However, he was pleased with some phases of his team’s game.

“We controlled the line of scrimmage on both sides, which is good,” reflected Toman. “Defensively, our number-one goal was to stop their talented tailback. We accomplished that, but we blew several coverages that extended their drives and their only score.

“We need to clean up our coverages. This was the first varsity game for many of the starters, so coming out on top was the most important thing.”

Senior Zion McKinney made his first varsity start. He completed 2 of 3 attempts for 27 yards, and he also ran for 29 yards.

Toman saw some positives in McKinney’s start.

“He did some nice things,” said Toman of his quarterback. “Snaps were an issue, so he had to be a backstop first.”

Toman did credit McKinney, Chase Williams, and Tyree Williams for their defensive play.

The Konkrete Kids are back in action Friday when they host Delaware Valley, who suffered a 21-20 defeat to Bethlehem Catholic in their opener.

Toman knows his team will need to be locked in this week.

“They had an opportunity to beat Beca,” offered Toman. “They are big and physical and want to establish the run and use play action for big plays. Defensively, they play a 3-4 and are sound in everything they do. It will be a great challenge this week.”

KIDS’ KUDOS: Kids’ junior running back Chase Kessler ran for 210 yards and scored a pair of touchdowns ... Senior Trevor Messer scored on a 3-yard run, and junior Domoniquee Mosley ran for 16 yards on four carries ... Defensively, junior DJ McDonald led the Kids in tackles with nine, Williams had seven and seniors Robert Wambold and Chase Czarnecki each recorded five. Junior Colby Brearman had three tackles, and he returned an interception 100 yards for a score ... Delaware Valley finished 7-6 last year and advanced to the Lackawanna Conference semifinals. In the opener against Bethlehem Catholic, senior running back Devin Estevez ran for 121 yards and a touchdown. Senior quarterback Lucas Petershim completed 7 of 9 attempts for 96 yards, and senior wide receiver James Dabney caught three passes for 22 yards ... Delaware Valley’s defense was victimized for 279 yards passing, but they allowed just 30 yards rushing.

PREDICTION (Season record 1-0): The Kids had a focused effort against Martin Luther King after a long bus ride there. With plenty of new faces, the Kids were expected to have some slip-ups, but they hung tough ... Toman will clean up the mistakes, and the team should have had some tight practices this week ... Like Martin Luther King, Delaware Valley is new opponent for the Kids ... Northampton will need a concerted effort her before they begin EPC play next week in their Cement Bowl rivalry game against Whitehall ... The Kids won’t be looking ahead, but they will be thoroughly tested. Their defense has to tighten up, and being at home will help ... Assistant head coach Kevin Ronalds can pick me up a cheesesteak from Sal’s in Wind Gap ... KIDS, 24-22.