No. Lehigh reloads in '11
Great teams rebuild. Great programs reload.
There's no doubt that Northern Lehigh was a great football team in 2010. There should also be no doubt that the Bulldog football program has reached a level of greatness during the past decade.
Northern Lehigh entered this season having lost just 19 regular games in the past 10 seasons. Over that time period, the Bulldogs have qualified for the District 11 playoffs nine times and captured two D-11 championships. They have also won or shared four Colonial League titles.
Last year was one of the most impressive seasons during the Bulldogs' incredible decade-plus run of success. The team stormed through league play with a 10-0 record, outscoring the opposition 453-123 and racking up an average margin of victory of 33 points a game. Northern Lehigh won the District 11 Class AA championship and reached the quarterfinals of the state playoffs before finishing with a 13-1 record.
But graduation hit the Bulldogs hard. Northern Lehigh lost seven starters from its explosive offense unit, including two-time TIMES NEWS Player of the Year Cody Remaley. Although the defense returns a bit more experience, it arguably lost its top three players in Jake Kern, Matt Gill and Mike Buresh.
Even more than the number of players the Bulldogs lost through graduation was the quality of the players they lost. Six members of the 2010 team Remaley, Kern, Gill, Buresh, Kyle Heiser and Carl Sahlberg are now playing college football.
At most places, those types of losses would almost guarantee a rebuilding year. That's doesn't appear to be the case at Northern Lehigh, however.
Although we're just two weeks into the 2011 season, it already seems obvious that these Bulldogs still have plenty of bite.
Northern Lehigh opened the season by stunning Southern Lehigh, who was touted as one of the league favorites entering the season. The Bulldogs followed that up with a 55-12 rout of Wilson last week.
"We lost a lot of quality players," said Northern Lehigh coach Joe Tout. "But we also knew that we had some very talented kids coming back.
"I think if you ask any of our coaches, they would tell you that we knew players like [fullback] Kirk Bender and [tailback] Trevor Yashur were going to be very good once they got a chance."
Tout said the Bulldogs' success a year ago has paid dividends this season.
"What a lot of people might not remember is that we had so many blowouts last year that our reserves saw a lot of playing. That experience is so valuable," said Tout. "In addition, we got four extra weeks of practice during the postseason. That give us a nice advantage over teams that didn't make the playoffs."
One thing you won't hear Tout doing is talking to his team about repeating as league or district champs.
"That's not what we do," said Tout. "Even with all the talent and experience we had last year, we didn't set a goal at the beginning of the year of winning championships. I just feel that puts too much pressure of the kids. Our goals are always to get better every time we step onto the field. If you can do that, the championships will take care of themselves.
"This season has a long way to go, but I've liked what I've seen so far. If we keep working hard and improving, we have a chance to be a good football team."
Despite the graduation losses they suffered, you wouldn't expect anything less from the Bulldogs.
After all, it's what they do. They reload.
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THIS WEEK IN OVERTIME ... This week's OVERTIME column has information on a wild offensive night involving Jim Thorpe, a strong defensive performance by Lehighton, and some outstanding individual performances during week two of the high school football season.
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SCORING FRENZY ... Jim Thorpe and Line Mountain had their offenses in high gear Saturday night. Although the Olympians ended up dropping a 62-32 decision, the 94 combined points was the most points in a Jim Thorpe game since Sept. 29, 2000 when the Olympians beat Shenandoah 48-47.
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ONE FOR THE DEFENSE ... Lehighton has relied on its offense to produce victories the past several seasons.
As a matter of fact, it's had been almost six years since the Indians won a game when they scored 14 or fewer points.
Friday's 14-6 victory over Tamaqua was the first time that happened since Oct. 21, 2005 when Lehighton defeated Pocono Mountain West, 14-13.
The Indians had lost 19 straight games when they scored 14 or fewer points.
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HE 'GETZ' IT ... Pleasant Valley's Rob Getz rushed for 211 yards against Honesdale on Friday night.
That's the most by a Bear player since Chris Jacobs collected 213 yards against Coughlin on Sept. 12, 1998.
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BACK-TO-BACK ... Northwestern followed up its season-opening 47-9 victory over Palisades with a 42-7 rout of Saucon Valley last week.
It was the first time since the 2006 season that the Tigers have put up 40 or more points in back-to-back games. The last time they accomplished that was Oct. 27 (Northwestern 45, Palmerton 23) and Nov. 3 (Northwestern 42, Catasauqua 35) of 2006.
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PICK SIX ... Palmerton's Alex Vignone returned an interception 67 yards for a touchdown in his team's 42-24 loss to Southern Lehigh on Friday.
It was the Bombers' first interception return for a touchdown since Justin Petersen turned the trick on Oct. 20, 2007 against Catasauqua.
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FIVE WAYS TO SIX ... Northern Lehigh scored touchdowns in a variety of ways last Friday against Wilson.
The Bulldogs ran, passed, intercepted, kick returned and punt returned the ball for a touchdown in their 55-12 win over the Warriors.
Trevor Yashur, Dalton Johnson and Kirk Bender all ran for scores, while Dylan Hofmann threw and returned a punt for a score.
David Getz returned an interception 44 yards for a touchdown in the third quarter. Later, Darien Middaugh took a kickoff 70 yards to the house to cap the scoring.
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BUSY NIGHT ... Panther Valley's Rich Smith carried 31 times on Friday night against Schuylkill Valley.
That's the most carries by a Panther since Oct. 10, 2005 when Chas Field had 35 carries against Mahanoy Area.
