It will always be a mystery whether Friday's regular-season finale between Jim Thorpe and Lehighton was a District 11 'play-in" game.

But it really doesn't matter.It was a game that had playoff intensity, atmosphere and excitement.When it ended, it also had one District 11 playoff qualifier.Lehighton jumped out to a big lead and then held off a furious Olympian rally for a 28-24 victory. With the win, the Indians secured the third seed in the Class AAA playoffs and could possibly move up to the second seed if Bethlehem Catholic losses to Allentown Central Catholic today."I'm so happy for our kids," said Lehighton coach Tom McCarroll. "These kids won just three games last year, but we had amazing leadership and an amazing work ethic."It's so nice to see them rewarded with a playoff berth. They deserve this."Because the new District 11 point system makes it virtually impossible to project playoff spots for teams on the bubble, both the Indians and Olympians had to approach the game like they needed wins to qualify. Although there was the real possibility that Lehighton would have qualified even with a loss and the Olympians could have missed districts even with a win."What an incredible game," said McCarroll. "I tell you this, I don't care what the District rankings say, Jim Thorpe is a playoff team."Those kids are warriors. They have a great record and in my book they belong in the playoffs."Early in the game, it was Lehighton that not only appeared to be a playoff team, but appeared to have championship potential.The Indians dominated the game's first 23 minutes.The Indians had two offensive possession and both produce touchdowns. One was a 12-play, 5:31 drive that was highlighted by Tyler Cann's rushing and passing and capped by Tom Ruzicka's seven-yard run. The other was a massive 19-play, 9:49 march that include four third-down conversions and 20-yard runs by both Cann and Wyatt Clements. Clements got the TD on a four-yard run. In between those two long drives was a Ruzicka interception return for a touchdown.When the dust had cleared, the Indians had a 21-0 lead with just 1:15 left in the opening half."Lehighton came out and played smash-mouth football and just took it to us early in the game," said Jim Thorpe coach Mark Rosenberger. "They played really well in the first half."But our kids never quit and when we got that long touchdown run by Ryan (Saunders) to close the first half, it gave us the momentum we needed heading into halftime."The run that Rosenberger referred to was a 70-yard scramble by Saunders with just :45 remaining in the half.The Olympians (7-3) built on that momentum after intermission, scoring on two of their first three second-half possessions to close to within 28-24 with 7:41 remaining. Both Olympian touchdowns came on passes from Saunders to tight end Mike Malatak, one covered 31 yards and the other 52 yards."At halftime, we told the kids we've been down two scores earlier this season and came back to win the game and that we could do it again," said Rosenberger. "Our kids have found a way to overcome adversity all year and I was confident we could find a way to do it again."All you can ask from your kids is that they lay it on the line every time they step on the field and our kids have done that and they did it again tonight. We were so close to pulling it out. We just came up one play short."Thorpe had one last chance to pull it out, driving from its 20-yard line to the Lehighton 34 before a deep third down with less than a minute remaining was intercepted by Cann."We executed our game plan to perfection to build that early lead, but we made a couple defensive mistakes and they took advantage of it to get back in the game." said McCarroll. "But we got the big stop when we needed it."I thought we left some plays on the field in the second half, but we found a way to win and that's all that matters. It doesn't always have to be perfect or pretty to be satisfying and tonight's win and our season so far has been very satisfying."While Lehighton (6-4) will move into Districs, Jim Thorpe has qualified for the Eastern Conference playoffs.