Lehighton head coach Rich Oertner expected last night's game against Pottsville to be physical, but he might have been better off if his team put on full gear and challenged the Crimson Tide to a tackle football game.

Pottsville defeated the Indians, 59-30 in the second round of the District II Class AAA tournament in a battle that saw nearly 40 fouls, two injuries to Lehighton starters who also had two starters foul out, a jaw to jaw stare down by opposing players, and a timeout called by Blue Mountain's assistant site manager who then called both head coaches to center court where he told them to "calm their players down.""This was obviously not our best effort," said Oertner. "The game got out of control early for us and we stopped playing hard. Then it turned ugly."From the opening center jump, the Indians (12-12) jumped out to a 7-3 lead on a put back by Tyler Crum of his own missed shot with only 2:40 left to go, but that would be the highlight of the game for the maroon and white. In the final two minutes, Pottsville (21-4) scored 11 points led by Ryan Coyle's two threes and a layup from John Toomey with three seconds on the first quarter clock.The second quarter was a nightmare for Lehighton as they failed to score a field goal with only five attempted shots while the Tide drove through holes in the Tribe's 3-2 zone defense with an 8-0 run that helped increase their lead to 15 points at the break. In addition, the Tribe's Anthony Rossino fell hard to the floor at the 4:33 mark where he lay for quite some time. He would return to the action, but according to Oertner, the junior playmaker was not the same."Rossino hurt his shoulder pretty bad and in fact, I was considering not playing him again. He gave it his best shot, but you could see he wasn't up to par. That was a major factor in how poorly we played thereafter."Pottsville appeared too strong, too deep and too experienced against the young Indians. Frustration set in as the physical tone of the game jumped to an intense level."We started the game too passive and too slow," said Tide coach, Dave Mullaney, whose Schuylkill League champion team has now run off 14 wins in a row and will play Blue Mountain in the tournament semifinals. We finally kicked into gear against their zone and trap."The third quarter saw Pottsville's man to man defense clamp down on the Indians, allowing them only three field goals and for each Lehighton miss it was one and done as the Tide dominated the boards. With 3:25 left, Lehighton's Jordan Knappenberger was helped off the court with a leg injury and would not return. Pottsville's Ryan Coyle spearheaded a 20 point quarter and a 27 point lead going into the fourth.That's when the action became more than just competitive. With 6:25 remaining, forward, Jacen Nalesink, a star for the Tribe on the gridiron, fouled out after committing three offensive fouls and one intentional. Twenty seconds later, the Tribe's James Farano picked up his fifth. Then after another Lehighton intentional foul, assistant District 11 site manager, Carl McBreen signaled to the officials for a time out. He then told both Oertner and Mulaney to "calm their teams down.""It was just getting too physical, " said McBreen. "Everyone needs to remember it's a basketball game being played by young students."Coach Oertner, whose team won only three games last year, put the game and the season into perspective."I told them in the third quarter to not back down and to play hard until the final buzzer. Pottsville is a great team and they held their discipline even with the big lead. We had a really good season and we only started one senior. We hustled at the end of this game as we have all season and I am very proud of our players for that."LEHIGHTONFarano 0-3-4-3, Crum 3-3-4-9, Mele 1-0-0-2, J. Knappenberger 2-0-2-5, Williams 1-1-2-4, McCandless 1-1-2-3, Nalesink 0-0-0-0, Evans 0-0-0-0, Rossino 2-0-0-4, Zwetolitz 0-0-0-0. K.Knappenberger 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 8-8-14-30.POTTSVILLEBlackenhorn 4-0-0-10, Bridy 4-6-7-14, Coyle 5-3-5-18, Whitman 1-0-0-2, Nabholz 0-1-3-1, Painter 0-3-6-3, Toomey 1-0-0-2, Melochick 3-2-2-8, Dunkel 0-1-2-1. Wile 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 18-16-25-59.Lehighton 7 3 8 12 30Pottsville 11 14 20 14 59Three-pointers: L-J. Knappenberger-1, Williams-1. P-Coyle-5, Blankenhorn-2.