Northwestern Lehigh outlasts Notre Dame
Here is a roundup of the top Lehigh Valley high school football games Thursday night in Week 12.
District 1 1 3 A semifinals
Northwestern Lehigh 35, Notre
Dame-Green Pond 34: Northwestern Lehigh stuck first when Cade Christopher scored on a 38-yard touchdown run. The Crusaders answered in a big way on their second possession after Danny Darno completed a 72-yard TD pass to Alex Clark and the score was tied at 7-7 after one quarter. The Crusaders took the lead when Josh Ludlow ran it in to go up 14-7. The Tigers’ Dalton Clymer punched it in from a yard out, but the Crusaders still led at the half 14-13 because Northwestern failed on a 2-point conversion following a Notre Dame penalty. The Crusaders struck first in the second half on a one-yard sneak by Darno to go up 21-13 with 7:20 left in the third quarter. But Christopher made another play, this time a 90-yard kickoff return, and the game was tied 21-21. Darno then took it in from 20 yards out, and Notre Dame retook the lead 28-21. The back-and-forth game continued, as Northwestern Lehigh scored and got the two-point conversion, but Notre Dame answered right away again and led 34-29 at the end of the third. Christopher once again was the man for Northwestern Lehigh, scoring on a nine-yard run to retake the lead 35-34.
North Schuylkill 51, Palmerton 21:
North Schuylkill got on the board first with an eight-yard run by Jared Tinari, capping off a 14-play, 59-yard drive. Palmerton answered with a 60-yard rushing touchdown from Matt Machalik, and the first quarter ended with a 7-7 tie. On the first play of the second quarter, North Schuylkill scored again, this time a 31-yard touchdown pass from Trevor Minalda to Joey Flail. Palmerton answered again, with Machalik throwing a 39-yard touchdown to tie the game at 14. However, North Schuylkill only needed two plays to retake the lead when Minalda found Collin McGee for a 62-yard bomb. North Schuylkill added a field goal and went into halftime up 24-14. The Spartans had an eight-play, 65-yard drive to start the second half, leading to Minalda finding McGee again. Flail then extended the North Schuylkill lead to 38-14 with a 65-yard run. Flail scored on another jet sweep later, this time 41 yards, and North Schuylkill led 45-14 heading into the fourth quarter. Both teams scored one more time, and the Spartans cruised to a victory.