“There’s no question, we have game breakers” was one of the first postgame statements out of Lehighton head coach Tom McCarroll’s mouth after the Indians historic 43-27 victory over Schuylkill League Division 1 rival Jim Thorpe.

The Indians game breakers — Cody Scherer, Taquan Bradley-Chambers, and Zack Crum — came up with big plays time and time again Friday night to help the Tribe (10-0, 5-0 SLF D1) win the battle of the unbeatens, clinching the No. 2 seed in the District 11 3A playoffs.

Coach McCarroll’s statement after the game very well could have been an understatement because the Indians don’t just have game breakers, they have game enders. Lehighton not only came through with big plays throughout the night, it came up with big plays when it seemed Jim Thorpe was getting back into the ball game.

The Indians’ first game-breaking play of the evening came on their second possession. Already leading 6-0 after a lengthy opening drive that ended in a 17-yard connection between Scherer and Crum, Bradley-Chambers got in on the party. From Lehighton’s own 44-yard line, Bradley-Chambers took a handoff, avoided an Olympian defensive tackle who broke through the line of scrimmage, and bounced it to the outside. Fifty-six yards later he was standing in the end zone and the Indians had a 12-0 lead. Chambers added big runs of 29 and 37 yards to go along with the early 56-yard dash, contributing to his 200-yard plus rushing performance.

“Our offense has come up with the big play all year, anybody that’s followed us knows that we’ve been able to put points on the board, and we go into every game thinking that’s how we’re going to play and execute,” said McCarroll. “We saw some things that we thought we could take advantage of, we didn’t think they were really challenged in the secondary throughout the year with the types of offenses they’ve played against, so we took some shots, and we were able to take advantage there.”

As McCarroll highlighted, the big pass play proved to be a back breaker for the Olympians defense. Scherer, on multiple occasions throughout the game, was able to air it out and the Indians’ receivers made plays.

In fact, Scherer was able to connect with his big play receiver Crum for three scores with all of the scoring passes being well-defended and two of them being tipped, but Crum still came up with the football. Scherer connected with Crum on touchdown passes of 17, 23, and 28 yards. A 23-yard pitch-and-catch in the second quarter between the two actually bounced off a Jim Thorpe defender’s helmet, but Crum came up with it, extending the Indians lead to 18-0.

Scherer also connected with his other big-play threat Collin Troxell on huge gainers of 40 and 38 yards. Simply put, it was a rough night for the Olympians secondary.

“My receivers were amazing tonight, they went up and made great plays when I put the ball out there for them, I just really love playing with those guys,” said Scherer. “My lineman gave me time to throw the football too, it was a great effort from everyone involved all around tonight.”

Crum, who came up with a handful of circus touchdown catches, echoed his quarterback’s sentiments.

“At times, I don’t know how I came down with the ball, I just didn’t think about it. I saw the ball and I went up and got it,” said Crum. “A lot of us made big plays tonight, this is just an awesome feeling to get this win.”

The big plays continued in the second half for Lehighton with Scherer using his legs to thwart any and all Jim Thorpe attempts to get back into the game. The Olympians crawled back into contention, trailing 21-14 in the third quarter, but like he did all night Scherer answered the call.

On Lehighton’s next possession, from its own 16-yard line, Scherer took a quarterback run to the outside and down the left sideline where he outran the entire Thorpe defense for an 84-yard score to make it 29-14 after a successful two-point conversion. Then, after another Olympians score made it 29-21, Scherer once again stuck a dagger into Thorpe’s comeback hopes. On the Tribe’s ensuing possession, Scherer hit the hole fast and 74 yards later was all alone in the end zone and the lead was back to two scores with 8:35 remaining, which put the game away.

“Scherer is just a great football player, and he made a lot of great plays tonight. Any time we thought we might’ve had him stopped or bottled up he would just make a play and go for big yardage,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “Bradley-Chambers and him are a nice duo to have back there and credit has to go to all the kids from Lehighton for the way they played tonight.”