There were dramatic momentum shifts in Friday night’s Colonial League battle between Palmerton and Northern Lehigh, but neither team seemed to be affected.

Maybe it’s a testament to the gutsy, disciplined programs that both coaches — Joe Tout at Northern Lehigh and Chris Walkowiak at Palmerton — have built over the years.

Northern Lehigh eventually pulled away for a 37-25 victory that featured more twists and turns than a NASCAR race.

The chaos started immediately. Palmerton fumbled on the third play of the game, and Northern Lehigh pounced on the loose ball at the Palmerton 23-yard line.

Junior quarterback Garrett Smoyer wasted no time capitalizing, rolling out and finding a wide-open Chris Frame for the game’s first touchdown with 9:08 left in the first quarter.

But the fun was just beginning.

Later in the first frame, Palmerton replied with a beautiful 57-yard ball down the sideline from T.K. Gursky to Alex Keiper, which made it 8-6 Bulldogs.

One of the brightest stars of the game was Palmerton sophomore Michael Garey, who entered the night with exactly three carries on the season.

Garey rumbled 64 yards down to the 4-yard line, which set up his first touchdown of the season at the 11:56 mark of the second quarter, as Palmerton claimed a 14-8 advantage.

“Mikey’s been plugging away, and we’re bringing him along,” Walkowiak said. “He has been working hard, and he’s been solid. He has been one of our consistent guys at practice. He took the bull by the horns and took the opportunity and literally ran with it.”

The Bombers looked like they were in complete control, building a 17-8 halftime lead behind Garey’s heroics and some stellar defensive play that included a Keiper interception. They added a 20-yard field goal before half, and their defense made multiple big stands.

“It was good in the first half, but unfortunately, we play four quarters – and we didn’t play four quarters,” Walkowiak said of his defense.

Tout clearly found the right words during the break, because his team emerged from the locker room like a completely different squad.

“The first half was an ugly rivalry game,” Tout admitted. “Give a lot of credit to Palmerton. I mean, they came out kind of like their season was on the line, and I thought that’s how we played in the second half.”

The Bulldogs outscored Palmerton 29-8 in the final two quarters. Trailing 17-8, Grady Newhard capped off the Bulldogs’ opening third-quarter drive with a 6-yard touchdown run, cutting the deficit to just two points.

After Palmerton turned the ball over on downs on the ensuing drive, Tout’s team took just seven plays to go 77 yards for a 22-17 advantage, thanks to Smoyer punching the rock across the goal line for a one-yard score.

Palmerton didn’t waver later in the third period; the Bombers took advantage of a Bulldogs’ muffed punt return, which was recovered by Keiper

“The kids responded well to turning the ball over to start the game and giving up an early touchdown,” Walkowiak said. “We did settle down, but we obviously didn’t do enough to win the game.”

The Bombers then orchestrated a methodical 13-play drive, capped off by another Garey one-yard plunge to open the fourth-quarter scoring. Palmerton took that 25-22 lead with five-and-change left to play, which could have made the wheels fall off for some teams.

But not for the Bulldogs on Friday.

After the ensuing kickoff, Colin Karetsky housed an 80-yard receiver screen on the very next play, which showcased everything beautiful about high school football — adjustments, crisp blocking, perfect execution and pure speed.

“It’s a newer play, and we haven’t run it much, but it’s looked good every time we’ve run it,” Tout said. “It’s been about three weeks since we last ran it in a game, so we thought it would be there.

“I have to give our line credit, they bee-lined out there to get out on people, and then Colin made a guy miss and outran guys.”

Palmerton wouldn’t regain the lead after Karetsky’s splash made it a 29-25 NL advantage. That play shifted momentum permanently in Northern Lehigh’s favor. The junior playmaker collected over 100 receiving yards.

Newhard tacked on one more touchdown for good measure after a Frame interception late in the game, putting the finishing touches on a crazy Colonial League comeback.

For Walkowiak, whose team battled illness and injuries all week — they had just 25 players at practice on two different days — the loss stung because of how close they came to finishing the job.

“We need to learn how to finish games,” he said. “We took a little bit of a step back, they got momentum, and we were kind of waiting for something to happen.”

CAREER DAY … Garey racked up 133 rushing yards during his breakout game.

JUST GET BETTER … Tout’s plan for the rest of the season is simple. “That’s our tunnel vision, just get better this week. We get Notre Dame next week, and that’s going to be a challenge. We’ll enjoy this one this weekend. We’ll have a tough challenge, but hopefully we feed off this one.”

N. Lehigh 37, Palmerton 25

Palmerton 6 11 0 8 - 25

No. Lehigh 8 0 14 15 - 37

NL - Frame 20 pass from Smoyer (Smoyer run)

P - Keiper 57 pass from Gursky (Run fail)

P - Garey 1 run (Gursky run)

P - Moyzan 20-yard FG

NL - Newhard 6 run (Hanna kick)

NL - Smoyer 1 run (Hanna kick)

P - Garey 1 run (Negley pass from Gursky)

NL - Karetsky 80 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

NL - Newhard 6 run (Newhard run)