It didn’t take long for adversity to find the Northern Lehigh Bulldogs in the 2026 high school football season.

Northern Lehigh built a two-touchdown halftime cushion against Executive Education Academy on Friday, but went scoreless for the better part of the final two frames.

Head coach Joe Tout and his squad watched the Raptors tie the game with 2:46 left to play, but the Bulldogs still walked off 17-14 winners — because kicker Anthony Hanna calmly split the uprights from 27 yards as time expired.

“The message yesterday, and the message today before the game was adversity,” Tout said. “We said, ‘You’re always going to face it in a football game. How do you answer it?’”

The Bulldogs answered early and often.

On the second snap of the night, quarterback Shawntez Whitsitt uncorked a 34-yard throw down the seam deep into Bulldog territory, but Northern Lehigh’s defense stiffened, and the drive died a few plays later.

The Bulldogs then chewed up 14 plays before Colin Karetsky took a reverse five yards for the score and a 7-0 first-quarter lead.

Late in the second quarter, Garrett Smoyer capped a nine-play march with a perfectly weighted 40-yard beauty down the middle to Karetsky, who caught it in stride and outran everyone. Karetsky’s second touchdown of the night made it 14-0 at the break.

“Garrett — that kid’s going to have all the passing records here, and there’s a reason for it,” Tout said. “And then you see him running the ball. He’s a true dual threat.”

Executive Education got moving in the third. Ayden Ramos ripped off a 50-yard touchdown run, shaking loose through a string of moves to cut it to 14-6 after the conversion kick failed.

Things turned chaotic from there.

Smoyer, who was otherwise excellent, fumbled deep in Executive Education territory, and the Raptors took over with 1:29 remaining in the third.

But the Bulldogs’ defense responded by backing them into a fourth-and-17 from their own 2-yard line, then blocked the ensuing punt, with the ball trickling out to the 12 – and the ‘Dogs were back in business.

“That was a big one for us to get,” Tout said. “That was part of the ebb and flow of those momentum shifts.”

But Northern Lehigh couldn’t cash in on a very short field. Facing 4th-and-8 at the Executive Education 10, the Bulldogs went for it and turned the ball over on downs with 10:32 left in the fourth quarter as the score remained 14-6.

“There’s a lot of blame. And when you can do that when you win, that’s a good thing,” said Tout. “But I thought our kids didn’t execute – some of that’s on them. Coaches, I thought we made mistakes; I made mistakes. We had a chance to put them away in that third quarter. Play-calling-wise, I didn’t do a good job where we had the opportunity to put this game away.”

After the ‘Dogs defense showed up again and forced a punt, their offense failed to burn enough clock on their next possession and handed it back to the Raptors with just under four minutes to play.

Whitsitt found Lezius Bravo for 33 yards to flip the field, then the Raps’ QB scored on a 4-yard run with 2:46 on the clock. His two-point pass to Shakiyl Reid tied it at 14.

Just like that, the adversity spiked again.

Northern Lehigh got it back with just under three minutes and converted a pair of clutch third downs to reach inside the Raptors’ 5-yard line, with Smoyer looking smooth as ever in the game’s ending moments.

But a penalty pushed the Bulldogs back a few yards as the clock inched toward zeros. Northern Lehigh then spiked the ball to stop the clock with two seconds left in the game.

“But even at the end, that’s on me,” Tout said. “The clock-it drill, which we do — we just had a sub in ... we do it all the time, but that goes back to me. I obviously didn’t prepare him how to do that. But our kids kept their composure, and we were able to clock it. But then talk about Anthony — man, he had ice in his veins there.”

As the home crowd chanted “field goal, field goal,” repetitively, Hanna was sent out to get the job done.

The senior kicker has made plenty of pressure kicks. This one was different.

“Nothing like this one where it came down to a final whistle,” Hanna said. “Seeing my teammates rush over, cheering them on — it really brought us together in a moment that was awesome.”

UP NEXT … Northwestern Lehigh is next for the Bulldogs on a short week. “We’re playing a good football team in Northwestern, but we think we’re pretty damn good too,” Tout said. “It’ll be a good dog fight.”

HOT AIR … Slatington was happening on Friday night. Hot air balloons from the Lehigh Valley Balloon Fest and fireworks were seen and heard from the stadium throughout the game.

No. Lehigh 17, Executive Ed. 14

Executive 0 0 6 8 - 14

N. Lehigh 7 7 0 3 - 17

NL – Karetsky 5 run (Hanna kick)

NL – Karetsky 40 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

E – Ramos 50 run (Kick fail)

E – Whitsitt 4 run (Reid pass from Whitsitt)

NL – Hanna 27 FG