Nerves are bound to be factor on opening night.

Especially in a rivalry game on the big stage between Lehighton and Palmerton.It was the Indians who finally collected themselves in the third period. Lehighton outscored Palmerton by a 17-5 in the third frame, en route to a 41-18 non-league victory."We get streaky," said Lehighton head coach Eric Gidney. "I think there were some first-game jitters. To their (Palmerton) credit, they did come out and fluster us a bit. Maybe I'm stubborn to a fault - I don't change things much. This is what we're doing to do, this is who we're going to play. Stop us."Over two-and-a-half minutes went by after the opening tip before either team bought a bucket.Palmerton ended the opening segment with a 6-2 lead. Linnaea Leister and Tyra Wentz each drained a three-pointer for the Bombers, while the Indians only mustered a pair of free throws in the first quarter."All of the girls came out running on emotion and played well in the first half," said first-year Palmerton head coach Ralph Andrews. "But when you give up 17 in the third quarter and only score 18 in the game, things aren't going to end well."I think both teams had some opening day jitters with the rivalry, and the game being on TV. I thought we worked well through that. We just didn't get any outside shots to fall."While Palmerton put the clamps on Lehighton in the first period, the middle two quarters were a different story.Aubrey Blasiak, who averaged over 10 points per game last season, quickly got a pair of easy buckets for the Indians to kick off the second quarter. The Tribe went on to blank the Bombers in the second frame, while posting 11 points during the shutout sequence. Blasiak finished with a game-high 14 points.Gidney knew focusing on Leister would be a key to his team's defensive success, and the Tribe's turnaround might have been the result of an adjustment."I think for a little while their game plan worked, so we sort of pivoted to a bit more of a hybrid defense where we stuck someone on Linnaea (Leister)," the Lehighton coach said. "We wanted to take her out of the equation. Not only from a scoring standpoint, but they're a better team every time she touches the ball. Then to turn around and shut them out in the second quarter was really, really pivotal for us."The third quarter belonged to Lehighotn's Skylynn Faust, who dropped 10 of her 13 points and helped put the game out of reach during the period."When things aren't going Skylynn's way, teams still have to pay attention to her," Gidney explained. "You have to respect her talent, which still opens things up for everyone else."LEADING LEISTER ... Leister tallied 10 of her team's 18 points during the contest. She will be the focal point of the Bombers' offense after earning second-team Colonial League honors last year. "You can't say enough about her skills," said Andrews. "She saw a lot of box-and-one last year and we're gong to see just as much of it this year. We're going to need some girls to step up and carry the load offensively, and we didn't get that tonight."CALLING ON WHITEMAN ... Gidney stuck Lehighton's Jada Whiteman on Leister for most of the game after the defensive adjustment. "It's big for a player like (Jada) Whiteman to come in and shutdown Linnaea (Leister) for the most part," he said. "She still got 10, but we took the ball out of her hands as much as we could."LEHIGHTONBrown 2-0-0-4, Frey 0-0-0-0, Long 1-0-0-2, Whiteman 3-0-2-8, Blasiak 5-2-2-14, Miller 0-0-0-0, Pantella 0-0-0-0, Faust 5-1-1-13. TOTALS: 16-3-5-41PALMERTONPapay 0-0-0-0, Hirochek 0-0-0-0, Cincillo 0-1-2-1, Leister 4-0-1-10, P.Frantz 1-2-2-4, Wentz 1-0-0-3, Muniz 0-0-0-0, Ruch 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 6-3-5-18.Lehighton 2 11 17 11 - 41Palmerton 6 0 5 7 - 18Three-pointers: Lehighton - Whiteman 2, Blasiak 2, Faust 2; Palmerton - Leister 2, Wentz 1.