It was a point of emphasis all week.

And because they excelled at it, they're heading to the district playoffs.Dominating the line of scrimmage on both sides of the ball Friday night, Palmerton handed rival Northern Lehigh a 21-0 loss to claim the final spot in the Class AA bracket."We wanted to take away their run game and pound it right back at them do what they usually do to other teams," said Blue Bomber senior Jerry Pereira, who scored two of his team's touchdowns. "Credit goes to our line. They re-established the line of scrimmage.""Going in, we told the players that defense and running the ball gets you into the playoffs and wins games in November," said Palmerton head coach Chris Walkowiak. "We did both tonight. Our line coaches (Fred Lesher and Mike Falcone) do a great job with the linemen .. We talk to them about winning your assisgnment and dominating your guy."The Bombers (7-3) took possession of the trenches right from the start, and maintained it throughout the Colonial League contest.In the first half alone, Palmerton ran off 43 offensive plays and they came on just three possessions.The opening drive stalled on downs, but the next two resulted in touchdowns. An 18-play trip down the field took over eight minutes off the clock and ended with a Pereira six-yard scoring run. The next time they touched the ball, the Bombers ran off 11 plays with the final one a 22-yard touchdown pass from Garrett Perschy to Sean Doherty with 27 seconds left until halftime."Offensively in the first half we had the ball for a while," said Walkowiak. "We had one touchdown called back and then we put two in. We may be a spread team but we pride ourselves in running the ball.""We figured that's what they wanted to do, run the ball," said Bulldog mentor Joe Tout. "Give them credit because they were able to do it ... They were physical up front and controlled the line of scrimmage all night."While Palmerton established its running game, it also managed to take away Northern Lehigh's ground attack.That forced the Bulldogs (5-5) into doing something it usually doesn't do throwing the ball.Tout's squad, which managed just 30 yards rushing in the contest, passed on 16 of their 25 plays in the second half. And while they were able to move the ball somewhat and ended the night with 225 passing yards, they never really threatened to score."We decided to go with our tight end formations and that didn't give us a whole lot from the get-go so we had to go to spread," said Tout, whose team was eliminated from the district playoffs but is still hopeful for an Eastern Conference berth. "We just weren't able to do what we wanted to offensively. We had a couple opportunities to maybe score and make things interesting, but we couldn't finish."Palmerton was able to finish things off late when Pereira scored his second touchdown of the game with 3:41 left to play. After holding the Bulldogs on a fourth-down, the visitors marched 47 yards on eight plays. Pereira's four-yard run capped the scoring.Pereira finished with 68 yards on the ground while quarterback Perschy led the winners with 104."It's enjoyable when you can have five different guys in the backfield touching the ball," said Pereira. "They all have different running styles which allows us to mix things up.""We play as a team," said Walkowiak, whose club ran the ball 63 times. "There are no egos out there. We spread the ball around and the kids bought into that concept and they just want to win. They want to win and they play hard and that's the key."Palmerton now awaits a trip to districts, its first since the 2008 season."It's just great for the program," said Walkowiak. "I'm so happy for this team, especially for the seniors. They started with me four years ago and we taught patience and perseverance."You just need to get in (the playoffs) and once you're in you just see what happens because everyone is back to 0-0 again."