Sicknesses, injuries hurt Northern Lehigh in loss

FROM THE MORNING CALL

The changes were confusing for outsiders to follow, so imagine what it was like for coaches and players trying to adjust to all the last-minute transformations to Northern Lehigh's starting lineup.

Northern Lehigh had three defensive linemen out of Friday's game against West Catholic, another defensive player left hurt in the second quarter in addition to two other starters who played hurt.

"We didn't have injuries all year and I'll never, ever in a million years make excuses for this program," Bulldogs coach Joe Tout said. "Everybody has them; everybody faces it, and it's what we do in the adversity. We told them, 'You've got to get guys to step up.'"

Easier said than done.



The Burrs, the District 12 champions, racked up 514 yards of offense, including 486 on the ground, had 23 first downs and scored a season-high 55 points in their 55-14 rout of District 11 champion Northern Lehigh in Friday night's PIAA Class 2A quarterfinal game at J. Birney Crum Stadium.

Defensive end Kyle Greenawald, defensive tackle Jake Moser and defensive end Nick Valentini were all out sick. Dustin Keich got the start in Moser's place; Mike Buresh started for Valentini; and Kyle Schomp moved from tackle to end to fill in for Greenawald.

Guard Daniel Ruth played with a pulled muscle. Cornerback Trevor Yashur left hurt in the second quarter and did not return. And star running back/linebacker Cody Remaley limped off the field at the 3:45 mark of the second quarter with hip and knee problems. He missed an entire series.

"It changed us defensively because we had to plug kids in spots and put others in different spots," Tout said.

Surely, if the regulars were out there, things would have been different.

Coming into Friday's game, Northern Lehigh had allowed an average of just 13.8 points per game in the first 13 weeks of the season, and the 36 points Wilson scored in Week 2 was the most the Bulldogs had given up in a single game.

Two-way senior Jake Kern, who starts at safety, said he and his teammates did their best to not let the absence and changes to the starting lineup affect them psychologically before they even took the field.

"We thought about it, but we really tried to push it to the back of our heads," he said. "We had to push through out."

And they did for a while.

After falling behind 7-0, the Bulldogs managed to tie the game at 7 in the first quarter, but two Burrs touchdowns in less than a four-minute span in the second quarter and the one they punched in with 41 seconds remaining gave West Catholic a 29-7 lead going into halftime.

"We didn't have many mental mistakes, just physical mistakes," Kern said.

That's bound to happen when second-string guys are filling in against a bigger, stronger, faster team.

That's bound to happen when guys are playing out of position.

That's bound to happen when some of the changes are last-minute and on the fly.

But nobody associated with Northern Lehigh's football team used the sicknesses and injuries as an explanation for the loss.

"Really, there are no excuses," running back/linebacker Matt Gill said. "They just beat us fair and square. We definitely didn't step up when we had to."

http://www.mcall.com/sports/varsity/mc-side-northernlehigh-football-1203-20101203,0,1930277.story