North Schuylkill blanks Notre Dame-GP 36-0

Spartans smothering defensive effort keeps Crusaders bottled up.

For three consecutive years, North Schuylkill had its season end with losses to Notre DameGreen Pond in the District 11 playoffs.

The Spartans unleashed three years worth of frustration on the Crusaders Saturday afternoon at Lehighton Area High School.

Dominating in every way, North Schuylkill overpowered Notre Dame 36-0 to win the District 11 3A championship.

The Colonial League champs, who had won 10 straight since a season-opening loss in overtime to Northwestern Lehigh, were overwhelmed by a swarming Spartans defense and overpowered by a strong offensive line and running attack.

A strong wind hindered the Crusaders passing attack, but more credit belonged to the Spartans who seemed determined to give the school its first district title since 2009.

“I’m sure the wind was a bit of a factor, but I’m not going to make excuses,” Notre Dame coach Phil Stambaugh said. “It was either rain [Friday] night or wind today, but you’ve got to be able to play in the elements. It didn’t seem to bother North Schuylkill too much. They wanted it and went after it. It didn’t even feel like a district title game for us. We didn’t play well enough.”

North Schuylkill didn’t complete a pass. The Spartans didn’t have to.

Their running game was nearly unstoppable, producing 306 yards and all five touchdowns.

Both junior quarterback Jaden Leiby and tailback Mitchell Wagner had big days, combining for 251 yards rushing.

Wagner and Tyler Elsdon had two touchdown runs apiece and Jake Green added a late score. One of the TDs was set up by a blocked punt, but the rest weren’t necessarily created by short fields.

“Being physical is always stressed; that’s our game,” North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall said. “We always want to be a physical football team.”

But as good as his team’s offense was, the story of the game was North Schuylkill’s defense.

Notre Dame was averaging 447.4 yards on offense and nearly 42 points per game.

The Crusaders totaled just 53 yards and 30 of them came on the second play from scrimmage — a 30-yard pass from Cole DeFranco to David Sanders.

With DeFranco sacked four times, Notre Dame’s net rushing total was minus-4.

DeFranco, who had thrown for 3,382 yards and 43 touchdowns, completed just nine of 28 passes for 57 yards. Notre Dame had receivers open, but DeFranco didn’t have time to find them.

“We played these guys for three years and we know they have athletes and the ability to throw the football,” Hall said. “We changed it up obviously and we went to man-to-man coverage and put a lot of guys inside the box. At this time of year, you’re going to win the game on the offensive and defensive lines and we did.”

DeFranco entered the game with 9,845 career passing yards and 99 touchdown passes, but one of the best careers in District 11 ended without a celebration.

“Cole was under a lot of pressure,” Stambaugh said. “He wasn’t under that kind of duress all season. The bottom line is they played well enough to win, and we didn’t.”

Stambaugh admitted his team fell short of its goal.

“We won 10 games, but that’s not the mark of our program,” Stambaugh said. “We want to win district championships and eventually state championships and to do that you have to win in these conditions.”

Notre Dame still felt as though it was in the game down 14-0 at halftime.

But the Crusaders didn’t manage a first down on any of their first five possessions in the second half and didn’t move the chains until the final minutes when the mercy rule was in effect.

Notre Dame produced a net five yards after intermission.

North Schuylkill will need a similar defensive effort when it meets Philadelphia Catholic League power Conwell Egan Catholic in the first round of the state tournament. The game is expected to be played Friday night at Lehighton.

The North Schuylkill celebration was going to last for a while before the team turned its attention to Egan.

“We’ve got great kids and hard workers,” Hall said. “One of our goals was accomplished today, but we’re not done yet.”