High school football is a beautiful thing, especially when two talented teams play to the wire.

The Marian Colts and Lehighton Indians proved just that on Friday night. The two Schuylkill League Football squads left it all out on the field and when the clock hit zero it was the Tribe that outlasted the Colts for a narrow 27-26 victory.The Indians did not get out to a great start as the Colts rocketed out to a 20-6 lead. The Lehighton offense looked all but dead as Marian dialed up the pressure on quarterback Cody Scherer throughout the first half, forcing the Tribe into numerous third and long situations. Scherer was just 4-of-17 passing in the first two quarters of play and the Indians generated just 91 yards of total offense.The Marian defense, along with 121 passing yards and 35 rushing yards from Colts senior quarterback Ethan Kuczynski, aided Marian in getting out to a 14-point lead at intermission.The first half and even the third quarter belonged to the Colts, but the all important fourth quarter belonged to the Indians. Three unanswered scores by Lehighton gave the Indians a 27-20 advantage with 3:16 remaining in the ball game.The trouble started for the Colts after Lehighton’s first score of the fourth. On the ensuing kickoff the Marian kick returner misjudged the direction of the kick and fumbled the ball around the Marian 30-yard line. A Lehighton defender pounced on it, giving the Tribe the ball on the Colts 27-yard line. A few plays later Scherer scored from nine yards out to tie the game at 20-20.“When we went in at halftime I have to be honest, I didn’t really say all that much,” said Lehighton head football coach Tom McCarroll. “I didn’t scream, I didn’t hit lockers, I just asked them when the true Lehighton football team was going to show up. I challenged them to be better. It was up to them and they came out and responded.”Marian didn’t have many possessions in the second half because of the success of the Lehighton rushing attack, but the Colts responded as well. Down 27-20, Kuczynski and the Colts mounted an impressive drive that started with 3:16 on the clock in the fourth and ended at the 38.3 second mark.A 12-yard pass from Kuczynski to a leaping Seth Paluck in the end zone brought the Colts within one. The play was set up by a fantastic 44-yard pitch and catch between Kuczynski and freshman Chris Latoff. It was just one of many big time throws by Kuczynski on the night.The Colts then proceeded to bring out their extra point unit to presumably send the game into overtime, but instead they ran a fake with the end result being an incomplete pass from kicker Jarod Paisley to a Marian receiver over the middle of the end zone.Lehighton was able to recover the onside kick on the ensuing kickoff and escape Men of Marian Stadium with a one-point win.“We didn’t play great defense in the second half, so we felt that if we went to overtime we were going to have a tough time stopping them,” said Marian head coach Stan Dakosty. “We practiced that fake extra point and we ran it tonight we really thought we had it, we just came up a little bit short. Lehighton did a great job tonight and they took the momentum from us and kept the ball away from our offense in the second half.”DYNAMIC DUO... The Indians Mike Mayernik, along with Scherer, were a terror in the second half running the football. The two combined for 142 yards rushing in the second half and Scherer equated for the game-tying and go ahead score, which both came on the ground.KILLER KUCZYNSKI... Marian’s senior quarterback gave the Indians fits all night long especially when forced out of the pocket. Kuczynski passed for a season-high 188 yards and two touchdowns, with most of that coming on the run, which is not something you see every Friday night from a high school quarterback.COMEBACK KIDS... Just to put it into perspective the Indians scored three touchdowns in the fourth quarter to turn a 20-6 deficit into a 27-20 lead and an eventual 27-26 victory. That’s something these young men on both sides will remember for years to come.