MAHANOY CITY It's usually a disadvantage to have your defense on the field most of the time.

At Lehighton, though, it may be the best option.Friday night at Mahanoy Area, the Indians forced five first-half turnovers two of which were returned for touchdowns as they opened up a huge halftime lead and cruised to a 47-12 victory in their first-ever Anthracite League contest."The whole team takes pride in our defense," said Lehighton linebacker Wyatt Clements, who forced one fumble and recovered another. "We know that it's more important than offense. On defense, you can intimidate people and that's what we try to do every single game. We try to get takeaways and touchdowns and let people know that our defense is here to play.""It's fine by me (if our defense is better than our offense)," said Indian head coach Tom McCarroll. "I would much rather be a part of any team where your defense is your strong suit. It's cliche, but defenses win championships ... especially the way offenses go now. So many people are putting up so many points that if we can have a defense that can gets stops consistently, it's going to give us a better chance to win."Clements, who gave Lehighton an early lead when he broke free for a 46-yard touchdown run on the game's second play from scrimmage, quickly made his presence felt on the other side of the ball. The junior sacked Golden Bear quarterback Mason Ryan and stripped the ball. Tom Ruzicka scooped up the fumble and raced 47 yards to the end zone.On Mahanoy's next possession, Tegan Durishin stepped in front of a Ryan pass and returned the interception 78 yards for another score. That gave the visitors a commanding 21-0 advantage less than five minutes into the contest."I felt we were prepared and I felt we were ready, but we made some pretty drastic mistakes," said Golden Bear mentor David Holman. "We had some missed tackles, and the turnovers ... you can not do that against any opponent, especially against one the caliber of Lehighton."Two more Mahanoy miscues led to a pair of Indian touchdowns in the second quarter.A Ruzicka recovery midway through the frame started an 11-play, 57-yard march. During the drive, McCarroll's club converted two fourth downs and took five minutes off the clock. The end result was a Tyler Cann 12-yard scoring run that extended the margin to 27-0."Turnovers were definitely a key to this game," said McCarroll. "But you have to take advantage when the turnovers come and we really did today. And when you're up 21-0 and you put a long drive together like that it can be pretty deflating for the other team and I think it was tonight."Lehighton tacked on another score right before the half when the Clements recovery resulted in a 10-play drive that culminated with a two-yard TD toss from Cann and to Tyler Crum."They're well-coached and a solid football team at pretty much every position," said Holman. "They're big and they're also fast and athletic. They're a very tough opponent to open with. We knew coming in we had to tackle well and we knew we would need more than one guy trying to bring (Clements) down. Their skills are some of the better ones we will see this year."No one could bring Clements down on his first carry of the second half. After the Tribe recovered their own kickoff, the 6-1, 215-pounder powered 32 yards for a second TD and a 41-0 lead that invoked the mercy rule."We were up 21 points and we had only run two offensive plays," said McCarroll, whose team also received a 27-yard scoring run by Jahmir Spencer. "That's obviously not going to be common for us but sometimes the ball bounces your way and fortunately for the first game it did for us."