Saucon Valley football coach Matt Evancho knew that when his team played Northern Lehigh, it was bound to be “a ‘dawg fight.”

Northern Lehigh, playing without its starting running back and defensive back, Ryan Farber, knew the highly-touted Panthers would be tough to stop.Both sides had solid scouting reports, as the “dog fight” resulted in a 28-14 Saucon Valley win, in which the Panthers and senior tailback Evan Culver (34 carries, 220 yards, three TDs) proved to be too much.“They’re a high quality team and they’re a veteran team,” Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout said afterward. “Give them credit because they made the stops when they had to. We had them on the ropes, but there were some crucial turnovers on our part that spelled the difference.”Midway through the third quarter, the Panthers managed to take a 14-7 lead on a Culver 17-yard run. Northern Lehigh, however, didn’t falter and responded with their own five-play, 56-yard drive to knot the game at 14-14, when Chad Cederberg found room and got to pay dirt.The following Nolehi kickoff was being returned by Nate Harka, when Taz McNair laid a solid hit on the senior receiver to pop the ball loose. Bulldog freshman, Curtis Clifford, recovered to set up a first down from the Panther 32. However, the critical moment occurred on fourth and seven from the 10-yard line, when a fake field goal went awry, and yielded a turnover on downs.“I thought that was our chance there, because we had them where we wanted them and the momentum was in our favor,” Tout recalled. “But give them credit, because they made that stop and that’s what veteran teams do.”Saucon used their next possession to blow open a big run, when Culver found room around the left to break a 65-yard scoring run to make it 21-14.Adding to the Bulldogs’ demise, their ensuing drive finished with a lost fumble, which the victors turned into another score.“I thought the game panned out the exact the way that we expected,” Evancho said. “We expected a dog fight with a good Northern Lehigh team. I think we have a very good team, as well. I thought it was going to be a back-and-forth battle, with each team punching each other in the face.“Coach Tout does a great job and both teams have nothing but respect for each other and I think the fans got a chance to see a ‘smash-mouth’ football game and you don’t get to see that much anymore.”TAZ’-MANIAN DEVIL ... Junior receiver, Taz McNair had a great game for the locals, as he stepped into the role of running back, in the midst of the Farber injury. He amassed 86 yards on nine carries and despite not scoring, contributed huge plays on both sides of the ball.TAKING THE GOOD WITH THE BAD ... Tout told his players after the game to not focus on the loss, so much as to see that their decimated lineup hung tough with a high-quality team in Saucon Valley. His goals for the upcoming week are to get healthy, and return some of those missing pieces into the ‘big picture.’ “Our season is a matter of just being healthy and we can’t lose another player to injury,” he added.FOURTH AND MONEY ... Saucon Valley stepped up in the clutch, as they managed to go 5-for-5 on fourth down opportunities in the contest. Each of those five times, starting senior quarterback Zach Thatcher had something to do with the Panthers’ success. The first two times, he ran for six-yard gains while the other three, he completed passes to keep the chains moving and maintain the momentum.SO PUNTLESS ... Neither team utilized a punt on a fourth down in the game as both teams maneuvered the ball deep inside each other’s territory and saw those opportunities as chances to ‘go for it.’