Defending Northern Lehigh’s Garrett Smoyer can often be a nightmare.

The quarterback for the Bulldogs can throw with accuracy to a number of his teammates, but he also has the ability to run when the situation presents itself.

On Friday, the senior signal-caller did both against visiting Pen Argyl to lead his team to a convincing 46-6 victory.

Smoyer threw four touchdown passes, two of them to Colin Karestky, and also gained double-digit yardage five times on the ground, including a long scoring run.

“He kept plays alive,” said Nolehi head coach Joe Tout. “He did a better job tonight keeping his eyes downfield. And then he took off. It’s frustrating as a coach on the other sideline when you have things covered and then you have a kid break out and do 20 yards and get a first down.

“We’ve been trying to work a little bit more on pocket presence and him not relying on his legs as much, and I though tonight he did a good job.”

Smoyer let Karetsky do most of the work on the first play from scrimmage when he tossed a sideline pass to his senior receiver, who weaved his way downfield for a 63-yard TD and a lead just 10 seconds into the game.

“A first-play touchdown is always a great thing,” said Smoyer. “It very much kills their momentum out of the gate. It makes it a lot harder for them.”

Pen Argyl’s work got a little tougher when late in the opening period, Smoyer turned a 2nd-and-17 in Bulldog territory into a 62-yard touchdown run. Nolehi’s QB found a seam up the middle, cut to the right side, and then back to the left to reach the end zone and extend the advantage to 13-0.

“A lot of plays weren’t designed runs,” said Smoyer, who finished with 117 yards rushing and 163 yards passing. “I had to improvise, use my legs because they covered it well.

“Usually my receivers are always open, so part of it is on me not hitting them all the time and I’ve noticed that, and we’re starting to work on that. But when they’re all covered up, that’s when I decide to use my legs.”

The Smoyer-to-Karetsky connection worked again midway through the second quarter, completing a 12-play, 64-yard march.

Runs from Mason Rothrock and Kaiden Smith, as well as a 12-yard pickup from Smoyer, got the home team in the red zone. Smoyer hit Karetsky with a 17-yard strike to make it 20-0.

“Offensively we’re really happy,” said Tout. “Things are starting to click again. And defensively, I thought our kids flew around. Defensively, this is one of the fastest teams we’ve had, and you go from last week where Northwestern, their speed is phenomenal. Now we’re playing the other teams in the league.

“I was happy with all three phases. I thought our special teams were phenomenal tonight, too.”

As efficient as the Bulldogs offense was in the opening half, their defense also came through — as Tout mentioned.

Northern Lehigh allowed just 51 total yards over the first two quarters, including a key fourth-down stop. They also forced a three-and-out on the opening series of the second half and got a sack from Hayden Lilly on the Knights’ next possession.

Both those stops set the offense up for scoring drives, the first a Smoyer 21-yard TD pass to Smith in the back corner of the end zone and the second a Paul Porobenski 3-yard scoring run that upped the margin to 33-0 in the third. Later in the frame, Smoyer found Ryan Zambo in the back of the end zone for a 25-yard hookup that made it 40-0.

Not a bad performance considering the Bulldogs’ top playmaker, Chris Frame, is still out.

“Chris is still kind of week-to-week, but then you saw Kaiden Smith who’s our change of pace guy, and then you saw (freshman) Lukas Eck, who he’s like a little Chris Frame to me. ... Christian Fortino is another guy we’re high on. He stepped in for Ryan and had a nice catch. But our playmakers, Colin made plays, Ryan made plays, Kaiden, Garrett, we had a bunch of guys. And that’s what we’re trying to do is just kind of build that up.”

Smoyer agreed.

“It makes my job way easier knowing I have all those guys that are vertical threats downfield,” he said. “And I know they’ll come down with it every time.”

CLOSING SCORES ... Both teams added touchdowns in the final frame with the mercy rule in effect. Pen Argyl’s Keegan Hettel hit Joey Pysher with a long 84-yard touchdown pass, while Eck reached the end zone on a 6-yard run.

REARVIEW MIRROR ... The Nolehi win came after last Thursday’s lopsided defeat against Northwestern. “It’s difficult losing to a rival that badly, but we know we have a good team here, so we executed very well tonight,” said Smoyer.

No. Lehigh 46, Pen Argyl 6

Pen Argyl 0 0 0 6 - 6

No. Lehigh 13 7 20 6 - 46

NL - Karetsky 63 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

NL - Smoyer 62 run (pass failed)

NL - Karetsky 17 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

NL - Smith 21 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

NL - Porobenski 3 run (run failed)

NL - Zambo 25 pass from Smoyer (Hanna kick)

PA - Pysher 84 pass from Hettel (kick failed)

NL - Eck 6 run (kick failed)