Running game carries Spartans
Southern Lehigh racks up 451 yards on ground against defending league champions
Unbeaten Southern Lehigh’s strategy was clear before kickoff Friday night.
Spartans coach John Toman said his team wouldn’t pass against Notre Dame-Green Pond, also unbeaten in the Colonial League, if it didn’t have to.
The Spartans didn’t have to. Southern Lehigh ran for 451 yards and had three different 100-yard performers in a stunningly dominant 62-27 win at Quakertown’s Alumni Field.
Fullback Hunter Hughes led the way with 148 yards and two scores. Cam Fisher had 130 yards and two rushing TDs. He also had a TD reception on the lone Southern Lehigh pass that wasn’t a spike to kill the clock.
Asher Smith, who entered the night as the league’s leading rusher with 376 yards and nine yards per carry, had 124 yards on 14 carries and added two scores.
Even backup Jacob Fauzio made his presence felt with a kickoff return for a score and another TD from the line of scrimmage.
Southern Lehigh averaged 10.7 yards per carry and took a liking to the synthetic surface
in Quakertown. The game was played there because Southern Lehigh’s field was unplayable because of a turf problem. After the game, Southern Lehigh athletics tweeted out that the Sept. 20 game with Palisades will be at played at Southern Lehigh.
“I was told that we’ll probably be back at home for our next scheduled home game in two weeks against Palisades, but I kind of like it here,” Toman said.
The game plan was simple.
“I don’t think we ran more than five or six different plays all night,” Toman said. “We had the same formation. Coach [Jim] Morgans would be proud of what we did tonight. That was old-school Wing-T football. It was ‘Here we come right at you’ and the line played great. They were making holes I could have ran through.”
Southern Lehigh had to punt just once and was in control from the outset.
Fast start
Southern Lehigh won the coin toss and deferred. That’s often a risky move against Notre Dame considering the Crusaders started fast in wins over Northwestern Lehigh and Bangor.
However, the Spartans defense got a three-and-out on the Crusaders’ first possession. Fisher then returned the Notre Dame punt 40 yards to the Notre Dame 4.
On the next play, Smith scored and Southern Lehigh was on its way.
Notre Dame’s second possession ended in a Smith interception and a long return to the Crusaders 24. Two players later, Noah Vogeler threw his only pass of the night and completed it for a 23-yard touchdown to Fisher.
“We had a punt return, a pick and the pass play we hit for the touchdown we were going to use on our first time but we had the punt return to inside the 5, so we didn’t use it but we went right back to it,” Toman said. “Our kids were just really physical tonight. We knew we had a good line and those guys were strong tonight.”
QB goes down
Notre Dame’s rough start got worse when sophomore quarterback Collin Quintano, who played exceptionally well in the team’s 2-0 start, was injured when hitting the ground on a Southern Lehigh sack. He stayed in the game for one play, threw an incompletion and spent the rest of the night on the sidelines.
Andrew Darno and Nick Oligino played most of the rest of the night at quarterback and both threw TD passes.
Oligino also was injured late in the game.
“Losing our starting quarterback early obviously changed our game plan and then losing our backup late was tough,” Notre Dame coach Phil Stambaugh said. “Hopefully, neither of those injuries are extremely serious. We just have to have a better attitude in those moments. If you can’t stop people on the ground you’re not going to win in high school football.”
What’s next
Notre Dame hosts Palmerton (1-2). Southern Lehigh will play on the road for the fourth straight week when it travels to Bangor (2-1).