On August 23, The Parkland Trojans hosted an out-of-conference opponent, the George Washington Eagles in their season opener. The Trojans have high expectations after going 10-1 last season, only losing to the Nazareth Blue Eagles in the District Championship. Parkland graduated 28 seniors last year. Two of them are starting quarterback Luke Spang and running back Trey Tremba, who scored 30 touchdowns last season. Senior captain, Leo Duaberman said, “I think that every year our team has pressure to win simply because we are Parkland so we are no stranger to pressure. I feel the consensus in the league this year is that we are going to be down, so I feel like there is excitement to be able to go out and shock some of these team who are predicted to be better than us.”
The Parkland Trojans answered the questions about their talent early. Sophomore running back, TJ Lawrence started the scoring early powering his way in for a touchdowns in the first and second quarters. Dauberman showed leadership by catching a ten-yard touchdown pass from senior quarterback, Osmany Guzman. George Washinton then took a deep shot downfield for a 51-yard touchdown pass. Parkland didn’t let the excitement last for the Eagles and responded quickly with senior Reid Andrush driving his way into the endzone. That was followed with Guzman throwing a 63-yard touchdown pass to Lawrence. The defensive line for the Trojans was steller. They eliminated the run game for the Eagles and made it difficult for them to get first downs. In the third quarter, Andrush scored his second touchdown of the night, and junior Caleb Corsa was added to the list of Trojans who scored. Parkland led 49-6 going into the fourth quarter. In the final quarter, Parkland scored two more touchdowns, one of them being a pick-six by Greyson Dancsecs. In the final minutes of the game, the Eagles scored a touchdown to make the final score 62-12.
Parkland showed their dominance, but they will be challenged next week against the Freedom Patriots. Dauberman stated, “We understand that Freedom is a very good team and in order to beat them we are going to have to play near to perfect football. This means that all 11 players executing their jobs on every play to their best ability and everyone on every play giving one hundred percent effort. I think Freedom is a serious competitor this year, but I think we are too. We are prepared for a four-quarter dog fight and nothing less in what should be a great game.”
