He’s a 1-man show

Smith scores 3 touchdowns, grabs 2 interceptions to key Spartans’ win over Bulldogs

Asher Smith put together another stellar performance with more than 100 rushing yards and three touchdowns. He also had two interceptions on defense as Southern Lehigh racked up a four-score cushion over Northern Lehigh.

It was about the time when Smith finished off a 36-yard scoring run with 9 minutes, 37 seconds left in the third quarter that the Spartans took their collective foot off the pedal.

What followed for the rest of Friday night’s game at Bulldog Community Stadium will serve as rallying points for both teams the remainder of the season.

Northern Lehigh showed heart by scoring three times and further proved what head coach Joe Tout already believed about his team.

“A lot to build on from tonight,” he said. “Our goal with four games left is that if we clean up the mistakes, we can beat any team in this league.

“After tonight, I’m more adamant than I would have thought before.”

Southern Lehigh’s John Toman liked that his team left the field disappointed with the way they let their guard down after building a big lead.

He also liked how the Spartans rose to the challenge with a 13-play scoring drive to finally put away the Bulldogs, 35-22.

“I was happy when it went 28-14 that we responded with a drive,” Toman said. “We converted a fourth down, drove down the field and took the momentum back and ate up most of the fourth quarter. That was a positive. “We’ll learn from it.”

Smith, District 11’s leading scorer who earlier in the game reached the 1,000-yard rushing mark for the season, capped that lengthy drive with his fourth touchdown of the game, a 3-yarder from the vaunted Wildcat formation.

The senior two-way standout knows, however, that Southern Lehigh can’t let something like that happen again.

“We got the win,” Smith said. “That’s what matters, but we’ve got to fix these things and be as close to perfect on Friday.”

Southern Lehigh (6-0) hosts Northwestern (5-1) in a showdown of two of the Colonial League’s top teams.

Toman and his staff will be providing reminders next week leading up to that contest about what happened in the second half at Northern Lehigh.

“We put it in cruise control and stopped executing,” Toman said. “We stopped doing the things that got us a 28-0 lead. They threw every trick play in the book at us. That contributed a little bit. … The first thing I said to [our players] was that Northwestern was coming in hungry. We better have our ‘A’ game. If we play like this, we’re not going to win.”

Keep on scoring: Smith’s four scores give him a District 11-high 21 touchdowns and 128 points. His 14-yard run on the second play of the second half put him over 1,000 yards. His 151 for the game gives him 1,114 for the season.

The senior also doubled his interception total with two second-quarter picks. The first one led to his second touchdown. The other one led to a field-goal attempt on the last play of the first half.

Other defensive highlights: Junior defensive back Logan Shorb, who didn’t start because Southern Lehigh used a fifth lineman to counter Northern Lehigh’s versatile running game, had one of the big defensive plays in the first half.

He pounced on a mishandled snap on Northern Lehigh’s second series of the second quarter at the Bulldogs 22-yard line.

Four plays later, Hunter Hughes scored from a yard out to give the Spartans a 14-0 lead.

Michael Bodner, who finished with four catches for 63 yards, also made sure Southern Lehigh wasn’t caught napping on Northern Lehigh’s fake punt. He stopped Trevor Amorim on a reverse for no gain.

Southern Lehigh also stopped Northern Lehigh’s first series of the game on a fourth-down run at the Spartans 12. The Bulldogs converted on fourth down earlier in the nearly eight-minute drive that lasted 14 plays.

Playoff picture: Southern Lehigh figures to stay first in the District 11 Class 5A standings thanks to its win and 6A Northampton’s victory over previously unbeaten 5A No. 2 East Stroudsburg South. Northern Lehigh entered the weekend seventh in the 3A standings.

Up next: Southern Lehigh (6-0) hosts Northwestern (5-1) Friday night. Northern Lehigh (3-3) visits Salisbury (4-2), also Friday.

Morning Call reporter Tom Housenick can be reached at 610-820-6651 or at thousenick@mcall.com