When the game is on the line, great players make plays.

One thing Lehighton has shown time and time again this season is that it has great players.The Indians displayed that once again Friday night against Marian.With the game's momentum suddenly shifted in the Colts' favor and its undefeated season being challenged, Lehighton's players made plays.The result was a 34-13 Anthracite Football League victory for the Indians."There are no off nights in this league," said Lehighton coach Tom McCarroll. "I was disappointed in how we played offensively in the first half. You have to give Marian a lot opf credit for that because they did a nice job of scouting us and were prepared for what we try to do."At the same time, I didn't do a very good job of play calling. But we made some adjustments at halftime and did a much better job offensively in the second half."Leading 7-0 at halftime, the Indians scored on their first four possessions of the second half.But the victory wasn't as easy as the final score might indicate. When Hunter Nause raced 61 yards for a score with 4:23 left in the third quarter, Marian was within 13-7.That's when Lehighton's players stepped up and made plays.First, Tegan Durishin took a screen pass and raced 50 yards for a touchdown on the possession immediately following the Nause score. On the next Indian possession, quarterback Tyler Cann converted a fourth down play with a run and then tossed a 27-yard touchdown pass to a wide open Nick Chambers.As quickly as Marian had made it a game, Lehighton had blown it back open and led 27-7 with 10:31 remaining."Give our kids a ton of credit," said Marian coach Stan Dakosty. "We had to band-aid our defense together because of some key injuries, but the kids out their battled and kept us in the game for almost three quarters."In the end, however, Lehighton just wore us down. They have a nice team. (Wyatt) Clements and Cann are hard runners and they have a very good defense."The victory keeps the Indians unbeaten (6-0 overall, 5-0 AFL)."We have a lot of big-time playmakers," said McCarroll. "Our kids did tonight what they have done all season."Obviously, we rely a lot on Wyatt and Tyler. But once again we had lots of other kids step up and make plays when we needed them. Tegan (Durishin), Nick (Chambers) and Erik (Skrinkosky) all caught big passes and we had guys up and down our defense step up and make big plays as well."For the Colts (3-3), it was their third straight loss."We were in this same situation last year, and finished the season strong to qualify for Districts," said Dakosty. "We just told our kids that the challenge is to bounce back from these losses and do the same thing this year."DOUBLE TROUBLE ... Cann and Clements each finished the night with 107 yards on the ground. Both players had several highlight reel carries that included running over defenders, running past defenders and even hurdling defenders. "We want all our kids to run hard, but those two definitely take that to another level," praised McCarroll. "They are both old-school, throw-back football players."TAKING THE FOURTH ... Lehighton was 4-for-4 on fourth down conversions in the second half. The biggest of those conversions happened on the Indians' opening possession when Chambers adjusted to a back-shoulder pass from Cann for a 26-yard gain on a 4th-and-14 play. Clements went eight yards for a score on the next play.HUNTER'S HOME RUN ... Up until Nause's 61-yard TD run late in the third quarter, Marian had just 30 yards of total offense.INDIAN ADJUSTMENT ... McCarroll said the Colts were doing a good job of clogging the middle in the first half so the Indians went to more off tackle and perimeter runs after intermission. "I have a ton of respect for what Stan and his staff do and in the first half their kids were obviously ready for what we like to do," said McCarroll. "That was our worst offensive half of the season."