E.S. South football blanks rival Stroudsburg to keep Jug and 1st-place spot in division

The East Stroudsburg South football team went off script Friday night to hit the trifecta with its 20-0 victory over archrival Stroudsburg in the 80th meeting for the Little Brown Jug before an enthusiastic crowd at Ed Christian Jr.

Alumni Memorial Stadium.

Instead of ringing up their usual ridiculous offensive statistics, the Cavaliers stymied visiting Stroudsburg with a punishing defensive effort to register the victory that secured the following for Matt Walters team: The Eastern Pennsylvania Conferences first Monroe Country Division championship assuming the Cavaliers (7-2) defeat East Stroudsburg North next week.

The top seed in the upcoming District 11 Class 5A playoffs.

And, of course, the coveted Little Brown Jug trophy, which is probably the oldest piece of high school sports hardware in the lehighvalleylive.com region.

Both teams came into the game with 3-0 divisional records and figured to win their regular-season finales next week, so this really was a winner-take-all scenario.

Winning this game means everything, said East Stroudsburg South senior co-captain and two-way lineman Chris Perez.

Coming into this game, we knew we were playing for a championship.

We played like dawgs all night because we didnt want to give up the Little Brown Jug.

This was a grind-it-out type of game for us, Walters said.

I was proud of our toughness and how we battled for all 48 minutes.

We controlled the line of scrimmage and began to lean on them in the second half, and thats a good sign going into the (district) playoffs.

E.S.

South, ranked 11th this week in the lehighvalleylive.com Top 12, has won five of the last six meetings against Stroudsburg (5-4), including last years 40-7 victory in which Charles Capers scored four touchdowns.

Capers, a senior who came into the game as the EPCs leading rusher with 1,175 yards, again had his fingerprints all over this win in every phase of the game.

He started on defense; he punted twice for a 38-yard average; he returned punts and kickoffs; he even completed a 12-yard pass on a fake punt.

And Capers, a nephew of former ESS and Virginia Tech great and NFL player Kyshoen Jarrett, delivered where hes most dangerous in the backfield.

He unofficially rushed for 168 yards on 25 carries and scored on touchdown runs of 3 yards in the first quarter and 1 yard in the third quarter.

And I shouldve had a third one, too, said Capers referring to a 57-yard scoring dash around left end earlier in the third quarter that was called back because of a holding penalty.

Capers, who moved to East Stroudsburg from New York as a sophomore, set up his 3-yard TD with a 46-yard cutback run to Stroudsburgs 5.

The Cavaliers defense gave the offense a short field to work with and the 40-yard drive late in the third quarter featured Capers runs of 20 and 11 yards before he scored from the 1 with 1:55 to go.

Charles has skills you cant coach, Walters said.

East Stroudsburg South added an insurance touchdown early in the fourth quarter.

Facing third-and-16 from his 39, quarterback Ivan Laubach showed some deft footwork to avoid the rush.

The junior then stepped up in the pocket and found sophomore Harrison Aillet all alone down the left sideline for the 61-yard score.

And that was more than enough offense with the way the ESS defense performed.

Stroudsburgs long, opening drive in the first quarter reached the Cavaliers 14 where the Mounties enjoyed first down.

A 5-yard penalty, a 2-yard loss on a run and three incomplete passes halted the effort at the 21.

Then, the Mounties got the ball back with 58 seconds left in the half.

They advanced from their 48 to the hosts 5.

An illegal procedure penalty pushed them back 5 yards.

Two passes by sophomore Jack Mitchell were incomplete.

Mitchell was then tackled for no gain and the clock ran out on Stroudsburg.

Hats off to Coach (Dan) Burns and our defensive coaches, Walters said.

I thought that stop right before halftime when they were out of timeouts was a big difference in the game.

After Capers second score gave the Cavaliers a 14-0 lead, Stroudsburg responded and moved to ESSs 33.

But on fourth-and-1, Mitchell went under center to try and sneak for the first down.

Instead, he ran into 5-foot-10, 250-pound defensive lineman Yael Fernandez and a gang of his teammates who stoned Mitchell for a 1-yard loss.

Stroudsburg starting quarterback Ben Pilcher was sacked by Kaden Zerfoss and Jonathan Adjin-Tettey in the proceeding possession.

Adjin-Tettey added two more sacks in the final minute.

In addressing his team after the game at midfield, Walters praised his 16 seniors who were recognized before the game for building a championship culture so they could enjoy moments like Friday night.

You guys gave every ounce of energy you had tonight, Walters said.

And every ounce was required to shut out their rival.

East Stroudsburg South senior wide receiver Xzavier Pusateri finished with 4 catches for 25 yards, and his last one, a 3-yarder, was the 100th of his career.

Stroudsburgs Ethan Dudsak, who came in with an EPC-leading 48 receptions, topped the Mounties with 6 catches for 49 yards.

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