‘Dogs pound Warriors for win
Bulldogs come back as underdogs against Warriors
Joe Tout did his best to fire up the troops before Northern Lehigh’s game Saturday afternoon at Wilson.
What followed: The Warriors led 14-7 after two quarters and the Bulldogs had 36 rushing yards.
So Tout changed things up at halftime. “That was them,” he said of his players. “I said, ‘I’m not saying anything more.’
“We told them, ‘that’s enough of us.’ I went ballistic before the game trying to get them fired up. You have to give it to them.”
Judging from the results after senior center J.D Hunter did the bulk of the halftime speech, it may be a permanent change.
Northern Lehigh pounded out 198 yards on the ground and scored on all four second-half possessions in a 37-20 comeback victory.
The Bulldogs wore out the shorthanded Warriors with its versatile running game with a variety of weapons.
There also was a coaching decision that played a hand in the second-half success.
“We did a lot of double-tight, power-I sets and we were getting the edge with the toss,” Tout said, “That toss set up everything else.”
After Wilson punted on the first series of the second half, Northern Lehigh drove 68 yards and 11 plays — 10 on the ground. Joe Abidelli gave the Bulldogs the lead for good (15-14) with a 2-yard TD run and the two-point conversion run with 3 minutes, 45 seconds left in the third quarter.
“We put in our goal-line set with me, Matt [Frame] and A.J. Jimenez, our other fullback and it worked really
well,” Abidelli said. “Our blocking schemes worked well. The holes opened up and we just kept feeding Matt the ball with dive.
“In the red zone, they gave it to me, I got TD and from that we had the momentum and just fed off of it.”
Frame ran for 101 yards and two touchdowns, but he also produced one the game’s biggest plays on the ensuing kickoff. He stripped the Wilson returner and Jimenez recovered.
Onthe next play, Mike Repsher ran for a 29-yard score.
Wilson responded with a score to get within 23-20, but Northern Lehigh punched it in the next two times it had the ball.
“I saw [Wilson’s returner] was holding the ball loose and two guys were on him,” Frame recalled, “so I just went in to strip him.
“It was big momentum for us.” Wilson got a rare 200-100 game from quarterback Cayden Stem. He completed 19 of 37 passes for 228 yards and three scores. The junior also ran for a career-high 101 yards.
Damon Simpson caught five passes for 126 yards and a score. Zakai Hendricks’ first career
catch was memorable. It was an 8-yarder to give the Warriors a 7-0 lead.
It was a touchdown pass from Dylan Smoyer to Chase Misera on fourth down in the fourth quarter than sealed Northern Lehigh’s first win of the season.
“I thought we played well but made some mistakes,” Warriors coach Chris Labatch said. “They are teenagers. We made some changes with our formations. We played hard. I liked our effort, but we threw a lot at them and that’s on me.”
Short-handed
Wilson was without tail back C. J. Faz io plus receivers Dam ian Simpson and Zack Gill en for undisclosed reasons. Fazi ole ads the Warriors with 324 rushing yards and two scores. Gillen was tops with 15 catches and 141 receiving yards entering Saturday’s game.
Up next
Northern Lehigh visits Pen Argyl at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 17. Wilson visits Bangor at 7 p.m. Friday.