Farole emerges as offensive threat

An injury to one player always creates an opportunity for another one.

When Lehighton lost two of their talented skill players in Jacen Nalesnik and Giuseppe Caruso, the Indians needed other players to step up their game.

Enter Anthony Farole.

A starter the entire season, but a secondary option early on, the junior has recently become one of the team's main weapons offensively.

Last week against Pocono Mountain West, Farole continued his emergence as a major threat by catching eight passes for 155 yards. Four of those catches resulted in touchdowns to lead Lehighton to a 30-21 victory.

Because of that effort, the National Honor Society student is also this week's TIMES NEWS Football Player of the Week.

"The game plan wasn't really to look to me," said Farole. "It just started working, and we kept rolling with it.

"We had a play that was working really well and we just modified the route a little bit and it seemed to work for us."

Did it ever.

The 5-7, 155-pounder turned passes from quarterback Josh Agosto into 44 and 37-yard scores in the opening period to help the Indians grab the lead. Farole added a 42-yard touchdown catch in the second frame and extended his team's lead to 28-7 in the third quarter with a 29-yard score.

"We just saw film and just ran patterns that we felt would be open in the middle of the field," said head coach George Ebbert. "He just happpened to be the guy that was open. On his third touchdown he was actually on the right side of the field and did a nice job coming back over to where Josh was.

"He does a real nice job of getting himself open. He's fast. He got behind the safeties and I think they misjudged his speed a little bit. He catches eveything. If you get it close to him, he'll catch it."

In his team's first four games, Farole had four catches for 156 yards and one score. Over the last four, though, he's grabbed 22 balls for 390 yards and six TDs.

"We took kind of a hit when we lost Caruso and Nalesnik," said Ebbert. "That's the difference from last year to this year. We have some kids that could step in where last year we didn't. Losing two weapons like that, we had to find other people to step up and Farole is one of the kids that did.

"I would think he might get a little more attention now. But that's the beauty of the spread offense. You kind of try to get the matchups where you want."

Farole has especially enjoyed playing in the spread offense and is happy his teammates have faith in him getting the job done.

"Of course I enjoy it," said Farole. "It's a lot of fun. You never know where the ball is going. You never know if you're going to get the ball so you just have to run your routes.

"Once the quarterback can trust you to throw to you even if you're not completely open or you're not at the first-down marker ... it's a great feeling. It makes you feel good about yourself that the team looks to you when we're facing pressure or adversity."

It wasn't only on offense that Farole faced pressure Friday night. As a defensive back, he came up big on a number of plays while he also excelled on special teams.

"He also punts for us and returns kick," said Ebbert. "As much as his four touchdowns were big, the way he punted the ball saved us. He punted two or three times out of the end zone so that really helped.

"I remember in the fourth quarter saying I hope they keep throwing at him (on defense) because he was making play after play. He was on all game offensively, defensively and on special teams."