"Next man in."

It's a common mantra that coaches at all levels and in all sports preach to their team.It means that when an injury happens, the reserves have to be prepared to step in and fill the void. No excuses. No alibis. No complaints.As Northern Lehigh football coach Joe Tout said earlier this week, "no one is going to feel sorry for you. Every team has injuries at one time or another so you're not going to get any pity."Tout's Bulldogs got to put the "next man in" concept to the test in the opening week of the season.Northern Lehigh had a pair of key players suffer injuries during the buildup to their opener against Pen Argyl on Friday. Losing starters is tough on any team, but for smaller class A and AA teams injuries are often magnified since a number of starters play both ways.That was the case for the Bulldogs as both senior linebacker/fullback Austin Lancsak and junior halfback/safety Ryan Farber missed the game. Heading into the season, it wouldn't have been an exaggeration to call Lancsak and Farber two of the Bulldogs most talented and valuable players.Lancsak suffered his injury prior to the Bulldogs' second scrimmage. Meanwhile, Farber didn't get hurt until two days before the opener."Austin (Lancsak) suffered an ACL tear and will be lost for the season," explained Tout. "Ryan also hurt his knee. He just got an MRI on it Tuesday and he will be meeting with a doctor in the next few days but it looks like he will miss a significant amount of time."Replacing injured starters at a small school like Northern Lehigh, which started the season with just 41 players on the roster, usually isn't just a matter of plugging the backup in. Often times it involves a domino effect of position changes.When Lancsak went down, Kellen Hendrix moved from tight end to fullback. Hendrix was the backup fullback a year ago. Hendrix spot in the Bulldog's two tight end offense was taken by Devin Becker. Replacing Lancsak at linebacker also caused some movement with backup safety Brandon Belfonti filling the spot.Farber and C.J. Young were both scheduled to see time at halfback. With Farber missing Friday's game, Young saw a majority of the halfback carries with Austin Hemingway getting bumped into the back role and responding with a touchdown run. Defensively, starting cornerback Seth Keiser shifted to Farber's safety position and Taz McNair stepped into Keiser's cornerback position."When you have key injuries like we did, I think you have to be creative and move people around," said Tout. "The goal is to get the 11 best players on the field and that's what we tried to do."Tout said there was another key that enabled him and his assistants to shuffle players around."It helps to have smart players and we have a lot of them," he said. "The kids have to know how to play multiple positions for situations just like this."The Bulldogs entered the season with high expectations and Tout hasn't adjusted them. As a matter of fact, he even tried to find a positive in the injuries."Nobody likes injuries, but if your reserves can step in and hold their own, you are a much deeper team when your injured players come back."************A KICK OUT OF SANDER ... Palmerton's Toby Sander had a "special" night in the Blue Bombers' win on opening night last Friday.The senior not only returned the first kickoff of the season 88 yards a touchdown, but he also took the next one 80 yards to the house.The last time a player from the Times News area had two kickoff returns in the same game was Oct. 22, 1988 when a former Bomber also turned the trick. That player was Chris Hager, whose two returns helped Palmerton defeat Pleasant Valley by a 27-14 score. Just like Sander, Hager opened the game with an 88-yard touchdown return. He added an 86-yarder later in the first quarter.************RICHARDSON'S RETURN ... Pleasant Valley's Justin Richardson also made his mark in special teams play on Friday.The junior scored a touchdown for the Bears by returning a punt 85 yards.Over the past 25 years, that's the longest punt return for a touchdown by a Pleasant Valley player. Over that same span, its tied for the fifth longest in Times News history. The longest was a 96-yarder by Northern Lehigh's Matt Sutjak during the 2005 season. During that time frame, the longest by a PV player was an 84-yarder by Rob Getz in the 2010 campaign.************TIGERS' WORKHORSE ... Northwestern's Harry Hall had a big game in his team's loss last Friday.The reigning Times News Football Player of the Year ran for 181 yards on 33 carries.In the last 25 years, Hall is the only Tiger player to have two games of over 30 carries. Besides the 33-attempt game on Friday, the current senior had 38 rushes during a contest back in 2013.Hall is one of just eight TN area players over that time frame to have at least two 33-attempt games. The others include Northern Lehigh's Cody Remaley and Nate Farber, Jim Thorpe's Phil Redline and Shane Edwards, Lehighton's Robbie Frey, and Panther Valley's Chas Field. Matt Kosciolek also accomplished the feat, once for Panther Valley and once for Palmerton.************BOMBERS' OFFENSE ... Palmerton outscored Wilson in Friday's contest, 55-34.In the contest, the Blue Bombers put up 532 yards of offense. That included 352 on the ground and 180 through the air.Since 1987 (which covers 303 games), that's the most yardage a Palmerton team has had in one contest. The previous high was 508, which was accomplished Sept. 16, 1994 during a 34-8 win over Southern Lehigh.Palmerton's 532 yards ranks 13th among TN area teams since 1987. The most during that time frame is 587 by Lehighton during the 2000 season.************