EASTON - Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout had no doubt his team was better than its 0-2 record showed.

The Bulldogs knew it, too.

And Northern Lehigh showed it in a 37-20 victory over Wilson on Saturday.

The Bulldogs (1-2) staged a second-half rally to storm to their first Colonial League win of the season, outscoring the Warriors 30-6 over the final two quarters.

“I give our kids credit,” said Tout. “At halftime, we put it on our kids and told them they had to start playing, and they did. They came out and they fought that second half.”

Northern Lehigh fired off the ball in the second half, finding the end zone on its four offensive possessions.

The Bulldogs’ first series of the second half was a 68-yard march that lasted 5:04 and ended with Joe Abidelli scoring from two yards out. Abidelli ran in the two-point conversion to give Northern Lehigh a 15-14 lead with 3:45 left in the third.

A Wilson (1-3) fumble on the ensuing kickoff gave the ball back to the Bulldogs, and Mike Repsher (10 carries, 62 yards) cashed in with a 29-yard touchdown run on the first play from scrimmage. Abidelli converted another two-point attempt to push the advantage to 23-14 with 3:28 to play.

“I’m not going to say it’s season-changing, because we still need to fix our mistakes,” said Abidelli. “We still need to work on some things. But I hope it does change our season to keep us having this drive to get better and to keep winning.

“Starting the year off 0-2 wasn’t the plan but we’ve been fighting back, and getting this win is really going to help us out I think.”

A 34-yard touchdown pass from Cayden Stem (19-of-37, 227 yards, three touchdowns) to Damon Simpson (five catches, 126 yards) early in the fourth quarter cut the Warriors’ deficit to 23-20 with 11:07 to play.

But the Bulldogs responded with a 65-yard drive that was capped by a 26-yard touchdown pass from Dylan Smoyer to Chase Misera to make it a 10-point game.

As the Northern Lehigh offense hit its stride, so did the defense. Senior Josh Schaffer came up with a sack of Stem on third-and-two from the Bulldogs’ 31-yard line on Wilson’s next drive to force a long fourth down, which ended with an incompletion.

Matt Frame scored his second touchdown of the game on Northern Lehigh’s next drive, rumbling in from 39 yards out with 3:20 to play.

“The inside was definitely open, especially on 48-dive; there was nobody in the B-gap,” said Frame. “We were able to run through there, and the outside was there. It was just overall better (in the second half).”

Frame recorded 74 of his 108 yards rushing in the second half.

As a team, the Bulldogs collected 240 of their 307 yards of total offense over the final two quarters.

“Wilson came out with a sense of urgency I hoped we were going to,” said Tout. “They took it to us. In the second half, I thought we wore on them.

“In the second half, we figured let’s just go double tight and start going at them. And as soon as we ran that first toss (out of that formation), our kids were coming over telling me to keep running it because we’re driving them down field. The kids were into it.”

And it showed.

IN THE TRENCHES ... Stem had success running the ball, with 102 yards rushing on 17 carries. But the Bulldogs got pressure on the junior in the second half. Schaffer sacked Stem on third-and-10 near midfield on Wilson’s first drive of the third quarter with the Warriors ahead 14-7, forcing a punt and setting the tone for the second half.

GIVE AND TAKE ... Northern Lehigh’s second-quarter touchdown was the product of a forced fumble near midfield, which was recovered by Ethan Karpowich after Stem found Simpson on a pass play. Frame finished the drive with a 2-yard plunge to knot the score at 7-7 with 8:20 to play before halftime.

UP NEXT ... Northern Lehigh travels to Pen Argyl (1-2) Saturday for another afternoon contest. “That’s always a tough one,” said Tout. “But we had our best week of practice, so that’s the key. We have to start stringing together another good week of practice.”