The second Overtime column of the season normally means teams in our coverage area all have a couple of games under their belt.

But there is nothing normal about the 2020 high school football season.

There is no better proof of that than looking at what has happened this season in the Colonial League.

A week ago, Northwestern held its Monday practice thinking it was preparing for a game with Pen Argyl, but by Wednesday the Tigers’ game against the Green Knights had been canceled and Athletic Director Jason Zimmerman had found a replacement game against District 3 power Berks Catholic.

The changes came because cases of COVID-19 forced Pen Argyl to cancel or postpone all their scheduled varsity sports for the week.

This week, three CL games have been impacted by COVID-19 as Northwestern, Saucon Valley and Southern Lehigh all have been forced to cancel football games because of the virus. Northwestern was set to play Bangor, Saucon Valley was scheduled to play Pen Argyl and Southern Lehigh and Wilson were scheduled to play. With SV and SL not allowed to play, Pen Argyl and Wilson will now play each other on Saturday.

Northwestern has suspended football activities through Friday, Oct. 2.

But all the schedule altering news concerning the Colonial League didn’t just occur in the last two weeks. For both Northern Lehigh and Palmerton, the schedule changes happened over a month ago.

Both school districts decided that instead of opening the season on Sept. 11 like a majority of schools in Pennsylvania did, they would delay their starts an extra two weeks to make sure the proper COVID-19 protocols and safety measures were in place.

So this Friday night, both the Bombers and Bulldogs will open the 2020 season.

While Palmerton is facing a Catasauqua team that is also playing its season opener, Northern Lehigh is in the unenviable position of playing a strong Palisades team that already has two games under its belts. That’s because the Pirates were one of a handful of CL teams that scheduled nonleague games the previous two weeks in preparation for the official league openers this week.

In this week’s Overtime column, Bulldog coach Joe Tout talks about the difficulties that presents for a team.

In addition, Rod Heckman’s look inside the boxscores from last week’s games has revealed some interesting facts related to performances by the Tamaqua, Northwestern, Lehighton and Jim Thorpe football teams.

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Playing Palisades was always going to be a difficult.

“They might be the best football team we play all season,” said Northern Lehigh’s Tout.

But playing Palisades in your opening game - when it has already played two games - takes that difficulty to another level.

“I’ve told our kids, we don’t want to be making excuses,” said Tout. “Would I’d rather be in their position ... definitely. But we’re not going in thinking it’s an advantage that we can’t overcome.

“Nothing is normal, nothing is typical this season. We just have to go out and play a really good football game.”

Tout said the message he gave his team this week is that it can’t play like it’s a season opener.

“I told our kids that it can’t be a typical Week 1 performance if we expect to win,” said Tout. “A lot of times, opening games are a little sloppy and teams aren’t really sharp. That’s why I think coaches believe that the most immediate and noticeable improvement for a football team comes between Week 1 and Week 2 of the season.

“But that’s a luxury we don’t have. Palisades has already made that jump. We have to come out and play with a crispness and sharpness because that’s what I’m expecting to see from Palisades with two games under its belt.

The Pirates (1-1) lost to Northwestern, 36-28, in their opener and then bounced back to beat Wilson 42-20 a week ago.

Tout said Palisades definitely displayed the improvement he talked about between its first two games.

“I think it was definitely noticeable,” said Tout about Palisades improvement. “Not only did they play better, but I think they also established a little more of an identity last week.

“They went to more of a power running game against Wilson, and they looked good doing it.”

Tout said one thing that Northern Lehigh will try to use as an advantage Friday night is a familiarity with what Palisades has done early in the season.

“I guess if there is a slight benefit for us is that we’ve been able to see them twice and have some idea of their personal and what they like to do,” said Tout. “But they got film of our scrimmage, so they also have something to check out on us.”

That scrimmage Tout referred to was last week against Nazareth - a Class 6A school that plays in the powerful Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. While it might not be the same as playing a game or two like Palisades has, Tout said the scrimmage against Nazareth at least allowed his team to get some semblance of a game situation under its belt.

“It was a wake-up call for us,” said Tout. “Nazareth is a big school with lots of physical, aggressive kids across the line of scrimmage. But I would much rather have had that type of scrimmage than one where we weren’t challenged as much.

“I think it was really good for our kids.”

With its opener just hours away, the Northern Lehigh players and coaches are anxious to get on the field.

“It’s been almost seven weeks since we began workouts in anticipation of the original first day of practice, which was Aug. 10,” said Tout. “We’ve had a couple of delays since then, so our first official practice wasn’t until the second week in September.

“But the workouts we held up until then were a lot more like regular season practices than we normally do over the summer. So our kids are definitely ready to play a game. It’s been a long, long wait.”

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GOOD START: PART 5 ... Tamaqua pulled out a hard-fought 20-14 victory over Lehighton Saturday to improve its record to 2-0.

This marked the fifth straight season the Blue Raiders have opened with back-to-back wins. Before this, Tamaqua’s program never had five straight seasons of starting 2-0.

Since 1978, only three other Times News area programs have enjoyed five-or-more seasons starting 2-0. Jim Thorpe had six from 2003-2008, while Northern Lehigh and Palmerton each had five consecutive years of starting 2-0. The Bulldogs’ streak came from 2003-2007, while the Bombers’ came in 1991-1995.

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TIGERS LOSE IN SHOOTOUT ... Northwestern had a good offensive effort last Friday night, scoring 35 points. The problem was its opponent, Berks Catholic, put up 56.

The two teams combined for 13 touchdowns and a total of 91 points. That point total is the most ever in a game involving the Tigers in their history. Their previous high was 88 in Northwestern’s 61-27 victory over Catasauqua two years ago.

Since 1978, the most points scored in any Times News area football game is 108. That occurred on Oct. 7, 2011 when Minersville outscored Jim Thorpe, 66-42. The only other game during that time span to reach 100 was Pocono Mountain East’s 62-41 victory over Lehighton (a combined 103 points) on Oct. 1, 2010.

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CRAZY EIGHTS ... Lehighton’s Zack Hunsicker had an outstanding game Saturday despite the Indians falling to Tamaqua.

The senior receiver caught eight passes for 165 yards, and also scored a touchdown. In the first week of the season, Hunsicker also caught eight passes.

Since 1992, only two other Times News area receivers have had back-to-back games of eight receptions or more. Pleasant Valley’s Mike Brown had eight catches in the 2017 season (Sept. 29 and Oct. 6), while Lehighton’s Shane McEvoy also accomplished the feat in 2007 (Sept. 21 and Sept. 28).

Hunsicker’s 165 receiving yards are also the fourth most by an Indian in a game (since 1988). The three top marks consist of Chris Green’s 245 (Nov. 23, 1991), Jacen Nalesnik’s 191 (Sept. 30, 2011) and JT Keer’s 189 (Oct. 2, 2009).

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WHO NEEDS MORE YARDS? ... Jim Thorpe pulled off a rare feat last Friday at Blue Mountain. The Olympians finished with 80 fewer yards of offense than their opponent (216-136), but still came away with a victory.

Over the past 25 years, Thorpe had been outgained by 80 yards or more 70 times before last week. The Olympians’ record in those games was 2-68.

The two wins when giving up 80-or-more yards than they gained both came against Schuylkill Haven. In 2011, the Hurricanes had 84 more yards of offense (361-277) but Thorpe won a 30-28 decision. In 2003, Haven collected 89 more yards (317-228), but still dropped a 26-14 contest to the Olympians.