COOPERSBURG Sometimes, what happens in the very early moments of a game can help to set the pace for the rest of the night. An interception and a fumble on a punt return gave Southern Lehigh opportunities that it took advantage of on its way to a 40-7 win over Northern Lehigh.

The Spartans (7-1) scored after each of those turnovers and prevented the Bulldogs (5-3) from taking advantage when they recovered a fumble, also very early in the game.After falling behind early 20-0, Northern Lehigh had to turn to more of a passing offense than it would have liked and weren't able to establish any long drives to keep the ball away from the Southern Lehigh offense. Northern Lehigh was held to just 111 yards rushing in the game thanks, in part, to a Southern Lehigh defense that was able to stuff the ground game, especially in the first half."They blitzed a lot. They sent a lot of guys and we didn't do a good job of picking it up, but for me, it was the turnovers early; we had our opportunities for points early," said Bulldog head coach Joe Tout.The Bulldogs' defense forced Southern Lehigh to punt on their first drive and then forced quarterback Travis Edmond to fumble on the second play of the second drive, giving Northern Lehigh the ball at the Southern Lehigh 20-yard line. From there, Northern Lehigh found itself in a fourth-and-four and went for the first down, but the Spartans defense stuffed a pass play to end the drive."That hurt, because we had our opportunities early and that was a big one. We had the turnover early where we had the opportunity," said Tout. "Our kids, I thought, did well early defensively and we had the opportunities and I think that would have made a difference to get some points on the board."Trailing 27-0 at the half, Northern Lehigh regrouped and came out with an impressive 17-play drive that took up the first 9:07 of the third quarter and resulted in the only score of the night when Chad Cederberg connected with Ryan Rubio on a 23-yard touchdown pass and Conrad Bevans added the extra point to cut the lead to 27-7. Unfortunately, the Southern Lehigh offense responded and put together two quick drives to expand their lead to 40-7."I thought our kids responded well to come out in the second half. There again, the story of our season to an extent, has been the penalties, the turnovers, the missed opportunities. The second half was a nice way to come out with that drive," said Tout.The second of those drives became a bone of contention for the Bulldogs coach when the Spartans went for a two-point conversion that would have given them a 35-point lead and enforced the mercy rule. The pass was incomplete and the Spartans never did reach the 35-point lead mark, but it left a bad taste in coach Tout's mouth."We're going to remember this next year. The attempt for two to mercy-rule it, that is stored in my memory for next year; we won't forget that," said Tout. "Teams have to remember when they're up, that they'll be down at some point, so that definitely gets locked in my memory."Next week, Northern Lehigh has their biggest rivalry game against Northwestern (7-1), a team battling for at least a share of the Colonial League championship."We're going to heal up and we'll be prepared for that game," Tout noted. "They're a quality program and they're our biggest rival. We're going to get our [injured] linemen back and we'll be ready for them."