MOSCOW, Pa. — The North Pocono football team was ready. The Trojans trounced the Scranton Knights 27-0 - the first of what will be just a five game schedule. So that fast start to the season was crucial.
"Everything gets magnified because of the short season, right?" North Pocono Football Coach Greg Dohlon asked rhetorically. "It’s obviously down to five games and we’re hoping with playoffs and power ratings, we’re hoping to go more. Obviously, that’s always the hope, but we have five games that are promised right now and are they really promised right now I guess is the question."
"Especially since it’s only a five game schedule, we’ve got to take everything seriously, every single drill, every single practice because we only have five weeks," North Pocono senior lineman Chris Kryeski added. "Especially for the seniors. These might be our last five games of our career, if the plug doesn’t get pulled because of the virus and the pandemic and everything. So, again, we’ve got to take every opportunity."
That’s just extra fuel for this team’s fire. The Trojans are motivated after going one-and-done in each of the last two district tournaments.
"We’ve been in the playoffs four straight years and four years ago we win a district title and the following year, we get to the semis," Dohlon explained. "Last couple years, yeah, we’ve been out of the playoffs first round and that stinks. Very sour taste up at Crestwood. Give them credit. They beat us up pretty good, but that’s something that’s in the back of our mind and we’d like to get back to the playoffs and prove that’s not who we are as a program."
”It fuels us in a way that we want to owe it to the people that haven’t made it and so we’re going to play for them," Kryeski said. "If we come up short, we know we left it all out on the field for the people who came before us.”