Northern Lehigh takes advantage of Bangor's giving mood

FROM THE MORNING CALL

Bangor's Scott LaValva took off around the right side for an apparent first down and a potential big gainer in the first quarter of Friday night's game at Northern Lehigh.

But, somewhere between turning the corner and the big gainer, LaValva dropped the ball.

Northern Lehigh recovered.

It was that kind of night for LaValva and the Slaters, who committed six turnovers.


Northern Lehigh's Jake Kern ran the wrong pattern on a pass play in the second quarter and took a Bangor defender with him right into the area of fellow Bulldog Caleb Johnson, the intended receiver.

Not only did Kern flood the target area, but stole Johnson's thunder by leaping to make a standout catch for a touchdown.

It was that kind of night for Northern Lehigh (8-0), which overcame three turnovers to pull away for a 35-6 victory on Homecoming.

"If Jake isn't there, Caleb is wide open for a touchdown," Bulldogs coach Joe Tout said.

Maybe Kern knew what was coming at halftime, when he and several other classmates were outvoted by Cody Remaley for Homecoming King.

Perhaps inspired by his honor, Remaley returned the second-half kickoff 58 yards to spark a quick touchdown drive.

Northern Lehigh, which led 14-6 at the break, got touchdowns on the three drives the first-team offense played in the second half.

Matt Gill's 2-yard touchdown run capped off the first drive, fueled by Remaley's return.

Remaley added a 7-yard TD run and Kern completed the scoring by running a fake punt 40 yards for a score.

"He had the first down for sure, but that's not a touchdown if it's not that kid running," Tout said.

Bangor (6-2) couldn't get out of the way of itself from the game's first drive, when LaValva came up short on a fourth-and-1 play at the Northern Lehigh 41. Slaters coach Frank Scagliotta thought LaValva got a bad spot, but said there were too many mistakes made by his club.

"We picked the worst time to play like this," Scagliotta said. "I'm extremely disappointed. We knew we had to play our 'A' game, but instead, we did everything we could to make it easy for [Northern Lehigh]."

Kern ran for 95 of his game-high 105 yards out of the 'Wildcat' formation in the second half. Remaley added 100 yards and two scores.

LaValva managed 74 yards on 25 carries for Bangor, which threw four interceptions and lost two of four fumbles.

"There's a difference between getting beat and losing," Scagliotta said. "Tonight, we lost."

Bangor had 10 possessions, but only one ended via a punt. Six were cut short by turnovers, one LaValva capped off with a 7-yard TD run with 4:16 left in the first half and three others ended with fourth-down plays.

Down 21-6, Bangor had a 12-play drive end with three incompletions, the last coming on fourth down at the Northern Lehigh 31.

"We made mistakes, but we ironed everything out in the second half," Tout said. "I thought our defense played well. I think we're peaking defensively. Coming into the season, we thought our defense would be our strong suit. But our offense jumped out fast. Our defense has really come around the last two weeks."

SCORING

First quarter


NL-Cody Remaley 46 run (Channing Shiffert kick), 6:39

Second quarter

NL-Jake Kern 19 pass from Dylan Hoffman (Shiffert kick), 7:15

B-Scott LaValva 6 run (kick failed), 4:16

Third quarter

NL-Matt Gill 2 run (Shiffert kick), 10:03

Fourth quarter

NL-Remaley 7 run (Shiffert kick), 11:55

NL-Kern 40 run (Shiffert kick), 4:26

TEAM STATISTICS

B NL

First downs 915

Rushes-yards39-13242-288

Passing-yards 7029

Comp-Att-Int 3-12-42-6-1

Penalties 2-152-22

Punts 1-31.02-33.0

Fumbles-lost4-22-2

INDIVIDUAL STATISTICS

Rushing: B: Scott LaValva 25-74, TD; Ryan Fraunfelter 4-6; Josh Wing 8-56; Josh Pensyl 1-7; Drew Nicholas 1-(-11). NL: Cody Remaley 17-100, 2 TDs; Matt Gill 7-30, TD; Jake Kern 6-105, TD; Dylan Hoffman 5-8; Danny Marsh 3-33; Kane Brensinger 2-9; Trevor Yashur 1-2; Rich Conklin 1-1.


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Passing: B: Nicholas 2-6-2, 30 yards; LaValva 1-5-1, 40 yards; Brett Albinson 0-1-1. NL: Hoffman 2-4-1, 29 yards, TD; Kern 0-1-0; Remaley 0-1-0.

Receiving: B: Ryan Hester 3-70. NL: Kern 2-29, TD.

SCORE BY QUARTERS

1234 --- Final

Bangor 0600 --- 6

Northern Lehigh77714 --- 35

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-northernlehigh-football-1022-20101022,0,6412071.story?page=3