It will go in the books as a loss a rather important one as far as the Anthracite Football League standings are concerned.

But despite the 28-25 defeat Lehighton suffered against North Schuylkill Friday night, the Indians learned plenty.Trailing 22-0 at the break and being dominated upfront, head coach Tom McCarroll challenged his players.And they responded.The Tribe opened the second half with an 18-play, 75-yard drive that ended in a touchdown and gave the team plenty of momentum for the final two quarters.Lehighton (2-1) used that momentum to stage a serious rally. But in the end, one half of comeback football proved to be too little, too late."We didn't really make many adjustments," said McCarroll. "We just challenged them to be physical. At the end of the day, that's what the first half was about. (North Schuylkill) lined up and shoved it down our throat ... They hurt us running it right up the middle. I told the kids I didn't have a magic play that was going to give us points on the board, but we just have to execute and match their physicality. We did that in the second half. Unfortunately it took us a half to do that."(The loss) is tough to swallow because you want to come out and have a better performance start to finish but I have to commend our kids. They left everything they had on the field. We battled back. I hope it was a growing process for us. They learned a little bit about themselves as a team and as individuals. Hopefully we can use that moving forward."Forward is the way the Spartans (3-0) moved the ball at the outset of the contest, which had a definite playoff atmosphere. The visitors ran off 24 of the game's first 28 plays 20 of them on the ground and opened up a 14-0 first-quarter advantage.John Rupinski (on a 20-yard run) and Major Jordan (on a three-yard burst) provided North Schuylkill with its scores."We got into a rhythm there," said Spartan mentor Wally Hall. "We did some sets that we knew we'd be comfortable in. We moved the ball well. Against them it's tough getting a big play. You're going to have fight for yards against them."Bobby Grigas, North Schuylkill's talented quarterback, fought his way into the end zone near the end of the second quarter to up the margin to 22-0. Grigas, who finished with 120 yards on the ground, had a big 11-yard pickup during his team's 10-play drive that seemed to put the game out of reach."Lehighton's a very good football team and they have a lot of weapons," said Hall. "Those guys in space are tough. The second half, though, is definitely not the way I want our team to play."Led by Tyler Cann, the Indians ran off nearly as many offensive plays in their opening drive of the second half (18) as they did the entire first half (24). The junior signal-caller completed four passes during the march and ran six times, including the final one from six yards away to get Lehighton on the board."Down 22, we just needed a score on the board," said McCarroll. "That said a lot about our kids. We mixed it up a little bit but we were physical on that drive. We ran the ball pretty well. We had some passes mixed in here and there. The fact that we were able to get on the board gave us some momentum. It was something we needed."After the Indians' defense forced a punt, Cann engineered another 75-yard scoring drive. The key play was a 45-yard pass to Tyler Crum, with Tom Ruzicka's 17-yard scamper to the end zone closing the gap to 22-13 with 7:35 left to play.Unfortunately for Lehighton, Grigas broke free for a 30-yard on North Schuylkill's next possession, and it led to a seven-yard Rupinski touchdown.But down 28-13 with 5:11 showing on the clock, the Indians continued to respond.Wyatt Clements, whose 23-yard gain on a screen pass converted a big third down, bulled his way over from a yard out to narrow the gap to 28-19. After the two teams exchanged turnovers, a bad snap over the head of Grigas was recovered by Cann and carried two yards into the end zone with 1:45 left on the scoreboard.Needing to recover on onsides kick to keep their hopes alive, the Indians instead watched as North Schuylkill covered the ball and ran out the clock."The second half didn't surprise me the way they came out," said McCarroll of his players. "We've always had tough kids here. I think they need to learn that they have to come out and play a full game."