Nolehi, NW honor vets

When Northern Lehigh and Northwestern meet in football, it’s always special.

The intense rivalry game between the neighboring school districts has been tagged the “Mountain Road Rumble” and has provided some memorable moments through the years.

Over the past couple decades, it seems that almost every time they played, at least one of the two teams — if not both — has been in contention for a Colonial League title and/or a District 11 playoff berth.

Throw in the fact that most years the game has been played late in the season when stakes are highest, and it’s easy to see why the Bulldog-Tiger battle is among the most anticipated in the Times News area every year.

In a 2017 Overtime column, where we listed the top regular season games between Times News area teams in the last 25 years, the 2002 Northern Lehigh-Northwestern game was ranked No. 3 on the list and the 2003 game between the rivals was No. 2 on the list. In both of those seasons the teams also played each other in the postseason.

This week’s Overtime column will talk about last week’s meeting between the schools and something that made their “always special” game even more special.

In addition, Rod Heckman’s research into the numbers from the past week’s games has produced some interesting facts and figures. Among the highlights are information on a long Panther Valley touchdown pass, a comeback that is unmatched in Northwestern football history, and a Jim Thorpe touchdown that helped it achieve something no area school has done in over a decade.

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Forget about the fact that Friday’s Northwestern at Northern Lehigh game had playoff implications for both teams, and that the Tigers controlled their own destiny in a battle with Southern Lehigh for the Colonial League championship.

What made this game different from your normal high school football game had nothing to do with blocking and tackling. Instead, it had to do with pride in this country and support for those who served it.

Northern Lehigh promoted it as a “Salute to Service Game” — and the Bulldogs pulled out all the stops to make it as special as possible.

There were T-shirt sales, a huge American flag, free admission for veterans, an honorary coin toss — and really, really cool uniforms.

“Our Patriot Club here at Northern Lehigh came up with the idea and we ran with it,” said Bulldog Athletic Director Bryan Geist. “The club has around 25 members and their adviser is Scott Gerould, who is a teacher at the school and a veteran. “They approached us last year about starting a tradition where we would honor military members during a home football game.

“They had some great ideas and we got tremendous help and contributions from businesses and also from Northwestern to be able to make it a really special event.”

Among the highlights were:

• The schools designed and sold T-shirts to raise money to cover the costs for all veterans who attended the game.

• American Flag and Fence in Whitehall donated a 20’x38’ flag that was unfurled and marched out onto the field before the game.

• According to Geist, Riddell gave both teams “a really good deal” on special custom made reversible jerseys with a patriotic theme that they wore for the game. Northwestern will be using the reverse side of its jersey for this week’s game with Catasauqua, while Northern Lehigh wore the other side of its jersey when it played Catty earlier in the season.

• Sterling Hamm was randomly selected from among all veterans in attendance to participate in the pregame coin toss at midfield.

Geist said that the idea was well received and plans are already in the works to do it again next season.

“Our Patriot Club is very active around the school and in the community,” he explained. “They do a flag-raising ceremony every day at school, and are always looking to help out military organizations.

“They already talked to me about continuing this and making it a tradition at the school.”

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QUITE A COMEBACK ... Northwestern fell behind Northern Lehigh 17-0 last Friday before rallying for a 28-24 victory.

That comeback by the Tigers is the biggest in the school’s history. The largest deficit Northwestern overcame to win before last Friday was a 15-0 margin against Palmerton on Oct. 27, 2006. Vince Jones threw two touchdown passes and ran for a score to lead the Tigers to an eventual 45-23 victory.

Over the past 32 years, there have been only four other area comebacks greater than 17 points. Pleasant Valley rallied from a 23-point deficit to win in 2014, while Panther Valley came back from a 21-point hole in 1990. Jim Thorpe posted a win in 2009 despite falling behind by 20 points, and Lehighton faced a 19-point deficit in 2007 before coming all the way back to post a victory.

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TOUCHDOWN TOSS ... Panther Valley’s only touchdown last Friday against Schuylkill Haven came when Ethan Reis connected with Blake White for a 75-yard scoring strike.

The last time the Panthers had a TD pass longer than that was Oct. 15, 2011 (82 games ago). Ironically, they had two longer in that same game with Devon Dillard catching both of them from Mike Weaver. The first was an 80-yarder with the second going for 85 yards.

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ENTER THE END ZONE ... Jim Thorpe’s Nolan Rehrig recovered a fumble and returned it 26 yards for a touchdown in last Friday’s game against Tamaqua.

In doing so, Rehrig became the 15th different Olympians player to score a touchdown this season.

The last time an area club had that many reach the end zone was 2007 when Marian finished the year with 17 players scoring touchdowns. The Colts, that year, were led by Matt Rizzo’s 14 touchdowns.

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RELIABLE RECEIVER ... Tamaqua’s Matt Kistler and Palmerton’s Ethan Recker both caught passes in their games Friday night.

So, what’s the significance?

Kistler and Recker are the only two area players to have had at least one reception in all of their teams’ games this season.

For Kistler, it continues a long streak of consecutive games with at least one catch. The senior was one of three players (Lehighton’s Zach Crum and Palmerton’s Eli Rivera were the others) to have a reception in every one of their team’s games last year. Combined with catches in the final six games of the 2017 season, Kistler has now caught at least one pass in 26 straight Blue Raider games.