No. 1 Phillipsburg football’s patient offense chops down Emmaus

Phillipsburg High School football coach Frank Duffy’s lumberjack analogy perfectly summarized the Stateliners’ offensive approach in their 24-10 win over host Emmaus on Friday night at East Penn School District Stadium.

“We have a system and a belief in terms of establishing the run,” Duffy said. “It’s like a tree ... chop, chop, chop and eventually it falls over. Even when there were times when it was a little rough for us, we knew if we stuck with it, eventually we will get some momentum and positive yards, and that’s what we were able to see tonight.”

Phillipsburg, which vaulted to No. 1 in the lehighvalleylive.com Top 12 this week after toppling preseason No. 1 Parkland 28-21 last Friday, controlled both sides of the ball for most of the first half but had nothing to show for it.

Emmaus, coming off a 20-13 loss at Neshaminy, was more than up to the task of going toe-to-toe in its first meeting with the Stateliners since 1994.

“I thought we were physical and matched their physicality,” veteran Emmaus coach Harold Fairclough said. “We slowed them down in the run game and forced them to pass a little more than they wanted to.”

Phillipsburg’s best drive of the opening half ended at Emmaus’ 21 when running back Shane Moore had the ball knocked loose and was recovered by Green Hornets senior outside linebacker Tyler Carmosky.

Emmaus managed just three yards and was forced to punt for the fourth time. The Stateliners went back on offense at their 36 with 3:39 remaining until intermission.

Junior quarterback Dom Bracco loosened the defense with a 13-yard gain around left end. Moore followed with a redemptive 11-yard angry blast through right guard. Xavier Campbell-Graham and Vincent Berger took turns gaining tough, inside yards before Moore’s 4-yard carry made it second-and-6 at the 24 when Philipsburg called its first timeout with 1:52 showing.

Bracco found wide receiver David Pacewicz for 14 yards on a quick slant pattern to the 5. Phillipsburg went to its full-house backfield with burly 6-foot-3, 265-pound defensive lineman Elijah Montgomery at fullback.

Vincent Berger gained 3 and Montgomery added another yard. Campbell-Graham finally got Phillipsburg on the scoreboard when he went airborne and flipped into the end zone with 1:10 to go. Hunter Garrison added the extra point for the 7-0 lead.

“That’s not what we’re coached to do so I’m not really proud of myself for it because we’re more of a disciplined team,” Campbell-Graham said of his gymnastics-like move over the goal line. “In the moment when you got to make a play, you have to put your team first and that’s what I had to do. Elijah Montgomery was my fullback and he led my way. I trusted him no matter what.”

“It was really good to get that touchdown because I didn’t think we played a great first half offensively,” Duffy said. “We missed on some passes; we fumbled the football driving, so it was sloppy in that aspect. Our defense played really hard, but offensively we weren’t clicking.”

Legend Vasquez’s 47-yard kickoff return to Phillipsburg’s 47 invigorated the Green Hornets. A Stateliners’ facemask penalty on the first play advanced the ball to the 32. Phillipsburg forced three straight incompletions before defensive end Donovan Samson sniffed out a throwback pass from Kellen Hafner to running back Anthony Attar and made the tackle well short of the first down.

Emmaus managed just one first down after receiving the second-half kickoff. The Stateliners advanced from their 29 to the Hornets’ 29 before encountering fourth-and-7.

Bracco went for it all, and senior wide receiver Amir Heath rewarded him by making the play of the game. Heath ran straight toward the goal line near the left sideline. Bracco’s pass was slightly underthrown, but Heath came back for it and reached out and caught it while sitting on the goal line and the Emmaus defender face-guarding him.

After a 30-second discussion among the officials to determine the ultimate outcome of the play, referee Jim Haney signaled touchdown for a 14-0 lead with 2:25 left in the third quarter.

“We had to come out and play hard, play strong,” Bracco said. “Obviously, we didn’t, but we picked it up. Amir Heath’s touchdown ... that got us going.”

“That was an unbelievable catch, and he’s a first-year starter for us,” Duffy said.

Hafner connected for completions of 46 yards to Jamaad Sanders on a go route and 15 yards to Attar on a screen to set up the Hornets with first-and-goal from the 6.

Again, Phillipsburg’s defense stiffened with Montgomery and Berger turning in big plays. Fairclough opted for a field goal try, and George Marmaros delivered with a 27-yarder to make it 14-3 with 11:01 left.

Marmarmos’ kickoff found Berger on the right side at the 21. The junior initially headed straight up field. He cut to the outside and dashed 43 yards before being tackled at Emmaus’ 26.

The Stateliners went for the knockout. Bracco rolled slightly to his right to buy some time. Pacewicz came free on an intermediate crossing pattern, Bracco hit him in stride at the 10, and Pacewidz ran free into the end zone.

“I was wide open thanks to Amir opening it with a (deep) zag route,” said Pacewicz, whose teammates call him “White Chocolate.”

Pacewicz caught four passes for 75 yards. He believed he would be a bigger factor in the passing game after catching one pass for 18 yards against Parkland.

“I had all the confidence in myself all week even though I had a pretty bad week of practice ... just a couple of drops here and there,” Pacewicz said.

Obviously, Pacewicz got the drops out of his system prior to heading west to Emmaus.

Bracco was 0-for-3 before completing his final five pass attempts for 104 yards and two scores.

“After those first three (incompletions) I kind of got in my head, but after that Coach Stags (QB coach Jack Stagaard), he knows the game better than anyone else, he got me out of my head,” Bracco said. “He’s great to have around.”

“I saw a kid who started all year (in 2025) and has been through the trials and tribulations and a kid who’s just matured now and understands, ‘OK, I missed a couple passes in the game, but that doesn’t mean the game’s over,’” Duffy said of his quarterback. “It’s leadership and maturity. That’s Year 1 to Year 2. Knowing when to run, when to pass, don’t force it and knowing where you’re at on the field, things of that nature.”

Two plays after the kickoff, Hafner stepped up in the pocket and found 6-foot-4 junior tight end Ty Laird behind the secondary for a 76-yard touchdown reception.

Phillipsburg then bled nearly five minutes off the clock and extended its lead to 24-10 on Garrison’s 27-yard field goal.

Campbell-Graham squelched Emmaus’ final threat from his inside linebacker position with an interception at midfield.

“In practice all week we saw the quarterback was inaccurate,” Campbell-Graham said. “Watching film, their receivers ran deep curls, and I knew when they faked the run I had to get to my drop and that’s what I did.”

After going 2-0 against the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference’s Lehigh Division, the Stateliners travel to Bethlehem Area School District Stadium next Friday to face Freedom in the first of two meetings against EPC Northampton Division programs. The other, of course, will be against Easton on Thanksgiving Day.

Emmaus will remain home next Friday and oppose Scranton.

“The guys got to keep their heads up,” Fairclough said. “We left a lot of plays out there again, but we made some improvement from last week so we got to keep building.”