Two weeks ago when the regular season ended, Northern Lehigh Joe Tout kept his fingers crossed that his seniors would have a chance to play in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

And that wish came true.The Bulldogs survived a trip to Western Wayne last Friday. This week, they took advantage early and pounded Pine Grove to win the Eastern Conference Class AA Championship and ended the night hoisting the trophy to their fans."It was a nice bounce back after the way we ended our regular season," tout said before hanging the medals over each member of his team's head. "We didn't know if we'd get in after the way that Palmerton game ended."Our kids were excited to play Western Wayne last week. I thought that was our best game of the season until this one. I think this was our most complete game offensively and defensively."The Bulldogs racked up 470 yards of total offense, had two 100 yard rushers in Nate Farber and C.J. Young, managed 20 first downs and held the Cardinals to 137 yards and made them punt six times.And before a minute was off the clock after the opening kickoff, the Bulldogs surprised quite a few when Floyd Snyder hooked up with Ryan Rubio for a 56-yard touchdown and Conrad Bevans booted the PAT for a 7-0 lead."We've had that play in and they bit," said Tout. "It's kind of the bookends of the year. We ran that our first play of the game at Pen Argyl, but we overthrew him. Tonight we completed it and that was a big step in the right direction. That was big on that first series."Our kids both offensively and defensively played excellent tonight. I'm happy because I stand by them. We send our seniors out with a championship and we're hoping this is a springboard because we're a junior and sophomore heavy team."Nate Farber, who had another excellent game both offensively and defensively, picked off a pass to give Northern Lehigh great field position on the Pine Grove 39. It helped set up the Bulldogs second score.Austin Arnold bolted into the end zone from 11 yards out with 2:10 still left in the opening quarter giving Northern Lehigh a 14-0 lead.still left in the opening quarter giving Northern Lehigh a 14-0 lead.Both teams put together a good drive each taking off a lot of time in the second quarter, but Northern Lehigh was able to score twice in the final 25 seconds before the half for a 27-0 halftime advantage.Nate Farber scored on a two-yard run, then Chad Cederberg intercepted a pass and took it to the house from 51 yards out with non time left on the clock.Just as they did to start the game, the Bulldogs scored in the first minute of the second half when Stephen Scheib recovered a fumble and on the first offensive play, Young ran 34 yards for a touchdown giving the Bulldogs a 33-0 advantage.The Cardinals scored their only TD when Danny Diaz-Walton caught a 27-yard pass from Logan Levan at the start of the final quarter.The Bulldogs, with Snyder at the controls after Cederberg was injured, added three more scores before the final seconds ticked off the clock.Young broke loose on another long run for a 46-yard TD, Ryan Farber scored on a 35-yard run and Mason Seiler ended the night on a 19-yard run to end the scoring."We didn't miss a beat," Tout said. "And that's one of the things about injuries during the course of the year. Floyd came in and he did a real nice job there."We had a shot to redeem ourself and we're glad that we got to send our seniors out with a win at home."