CENTER VALLEY - Southern Lehigh quarterback James Wisecarver was just too much for the Lehighton Indians Friday night.

Wisecarver rushed for three touchdowns and also passed for one in Southern Lehigh’s 56-14 rout of Lehighton.

“A lot of credit to them, there’s a physical football team,” Lehighton head coach Tom McCarroll said. “We didn’t match their physicality on top of it, and we turned the ball over way too many times to even have a conversation of trying to be in the game.”

Both Southern Lehigh and Lehighton were focusing on adding another victory to their 2021 seasons, which haven’t fared that well.

Southern Lehigh came right out of the gate with their rushing game and it proved to be crucial throughout the night.

Spartans running back Blaze Curry was able to get through the Lehighton defense and rushed for two touchdowns on the night.

The Wisecarver-Curry duo was pretty scary as the two combined for 271 rushing yards in a very explosive ground game for the Spartans.

Lehighton sophomore quarterback Brady O’Donnell had a tough night with three interceptions, including a pick-six by Tyler Houser for 59 yards with just under seven minutes into the first quarter. However, O’Donnell did throw two touchdown passes, including a 79-yard connection to Ian Rarick in the first quarter.

Rarick was able to leg out a short pass thrown by O’Donnell to put the Indians on the board. The other touchdown came in the third quarter after Ethan Buchert returned a kickoff to the Southern Lehigh 34-yard line, setting up an O’Donnell 1-yard pass to Hunter Crum to make it a 35-14 ballgame.

“He’s had some ups-and-downs this season, but he’s been very resilient,” McCarroll said about O’Donnell. “Very coachable kid and he knows what he’s done wrong. We’ve coached him up. He takes everything we kind of give him. He usually doesn’t make a lot of the same mistakes twice, so it’s going to be an opportunity for him to continue to grow. It’s never too late to grow and get better.”

Southern Lehigh (3-6) closes out the regular season with Salisbury. Lehighton (1-8) has one game remaining in the 2021 season against rival Jim Thorpe at Olympian Stadium.

LEHIGHTON-JIM THORPE RIVALRY ... Coach McCarroll talked about how the schedules fall and the Indians facing rival Jim Thorpe to close out the season. “The nice thing about the way schedules are set up, especially locally, is that you end the season on a rivalry week. Our focus this week has to be trying to play our best game and put a full game together. I think these kids have one in them. Hopefully, they pull it out this week.”

A YOUNG INDIAN SQUAD ... The Lehighton Indians have a young team in 2021 with a lot of sophomores, including quarterback O’Donnell. Lehighton has a lot to look forward to in the future. “We have a lot of pieces coming back and that’s why this is not a season I’m ready to pack in yet,” McCarroll said. “What better way to finish on some kind of a positive note then against a rival in Jim Thorpe.”