Former teammates face off on gridiron

Notre Dame football team boasts numerous players from Allentown Pop Warner program.

By: Kyle Moylan
   Joe Murphy and Greg Mordas have a rare kind of color blindness.
   The two Allentown High School assistant football coaches can not make out the colors baby blue and white when they are put on certain uniforms — such as on the bodies of Gary Taylor, Jay Graber, Justin Ventola, Chris Maxwell, Joe Amatrudo, etc.
   "When I look at them, I still see them in the red and black jerseys," noted Joe Murphy after Notre Dame’s 30-0 win. "They can put whatever helmets or uniforms they want on, but those guys are still Redbirds. If I see one of those young guys and they don’t say ‘hello’ to me, I’ll go over and say ‘hi’ to them. That’s because they probably didn’t recognize me because I’ve lost so much weight (laughs). They’ll always have a special part in my heart."
   This past Saturday, Murphy and Mordas were lined up against the above mentioned players and about half a dozen other kids they coached in the Allentown Pop Warner football program.
   "We want them to do well," Mordas said. "We want them to do well in school, in football and to be healthy. We care about them, but we’re Allentown. We want to beat them."
   Unfortunately, this is a catch-22. In order for the Allentown coaches and players to have a chance to beat all their friends on Notre Dame, they would need the depth their friends on Notre Dame would provide.
   Allentown was playing very well for the first half, trailing just 9-0 (Graber ran in one score and Notre Dame added a safety on punt). Eventually, the smaller Allentown squad got worn down, though.
   "Look at our losses this season," Allentown Coach Greg LaCava noted. "Notre Dame is a team with 80 players on its roster. We’ve been up against squads with 70 and 65 players. We’re a team with 35. Even if the talent level is equal, the team that is fresher is the one that will pull away in the second half."
   That’s exactly what Notre Dame did. It just so happens that Taylor scored two of those touchdowns (one on a 27-yard run and one on a 45-yard punt return.) Graber, of course, threw for the other score. In fact, Taylor and Graber had a hand in all four of Notre Dame’s touchdowns.
   "I’m just glad that we won," noted Graber. "I still have a lot of friends on Allentown. I have a lot of former teammates over there. They are good kids. I like them a lot."
   Taylor felt the same way — even if a roughing the passer penalty resulted in a pair of Allentown players being ejected.
   "It’s a shame stuff like that happened," Taylor said. "We just came here to play well. We always look forward to this game."
   While both Taylor and Graber have friends on Allentown, they considered going to Notre Dame an easy choice. The same is probably true of the other players faced with this decision. If anyone made that choice because of football, however, they created a self-fulfilling prophecy.
   Notre Dame is almost always an elite team and last year’s 4-6 record was the best in 30 years at Allentown. The talent from Allentown that is playing on Notre Dame — added to what the Redbirds already have — probably would have been enough to swing the two teams in the opposite direction, though.
   "I don’t care about that," LaCava said. "I only care about Allentown High School. The kids that play for me are the only ones that I care about."
   LaCava is a coach that has come from outside of the area, though. He doesn’t understand — or accept — the failures of the past having anything to do with what Allentown does in the future. He’s determined to build — and succeed — with whatever players that show up for practice. Mordas and Murphy are from the area. What’s remarkable about them as coaches is the fact they didn’t fail. They won. When Mordas coached, Murphy was his defensive coordinator. When Murphy coached, Mordas was his offensive coordinator. Go back six years ago and this pair had arguably the second best Pop Warner Jr. Pee Wee team in the country. Yes, the entire country. They followed this up with playoff appearances on the other Pop Warner levels. And that’s from a town that hasn’t had a winning high school team in the lifetime of any of its players and most of its coaches.
   "Joe Amatrudo and Chris Maxwell, Notre Dame’s starting corners, were on that team," Mordas noted. "Justin Ventola and Joe Leva were also our boys. That’s not going to change. They will always be our boys. We (Murphy and Mordas) went to both of Notre Dame’s playoff games last year. We’ll go to them again this year."
   And when Mordas and Murphy stare out at the baby blue and white uniforms of "their boys" playing on Notre Dame, they’ll see only black and red. But if anyone wants to ever change that, consult a cardiologist rather than an optometrist. This color blindness has nothing to do with their eyes. This is all about their hearts.
   "They’ll always be our boys," Murphy said, echoing the sentiments of Mordas. "We care about them. There’s a bond that will never be broken. They will always be our boys. Nothing can change that."