By MIKE HAINES mhaines@tnonline.com
September 29, 2007

GREEN POND – After losing its first game of the season last week, Northern Lehigh wanted to use this week's contest with Notre Dame to get things turned around.

It didn't need the whole game to do that.

By early in the second quarter, Northern Lehigh was rolling just like it had early in the season. Twelve minutes and 42 seconds into the game, it had a 21-0 lead and was on its way to a 42-0 mercy rule win at Green Pond.

The Bulldogs put up 277 rushing yards by running the ball 29 times with eight different ball carriers. Most of them ran through huge holes.

"The key to the win was definitely the blocking," said Cody Remaley, who ran eight times for a game-high 93 yards and touchdown. "The line stepped it up. The holes were definitely there."

The Bulldogs (4-1) came out firing on their first possession, throwing two passes in their first three plays. The first was nearly picked off, but the second was a 40-yard competition from Kris Krawchuk to Josh Kern. That led to Matt Gill's 6-yard touchdown run and a 7-0 lead just two minutes and 56 seconds into the game.

Notre Dame (1-4) fumbled on its first possession. Northern Lehigh's Christian Freudenberger recovered at the Crusaders' 32-yard line. The Bulldog offense turned it into seven points with a five-play drive capped by Zach Heller's 8-yard touchdown run with 5:04 left in the first quarter.

Northern Lehigh went up 21-0 early in the second quarter on a 37-yard touchdown pass from Krawchuk to Kern.

Gill made it 28-0 with 5:40 left in the first half when he capped an 8-play, 63-yard drive with a 16-yard touchdown run. He got through a hole in the line and went untouched all the way.

Remaley got the game into mercy rule territory with a 42-yard touchdown run with 8:15 left in the third quarter.

Casey Hedash capped the scoring with a 1-yard touchdown run in the fourth quarter. Hedash, the team's fullback, had 34 rushing yards and went 6-for-6 kicking extra points.

Northern Lehigh only had one player with over 60 yards, but it dominated the Crusaders on the ground with each back it used. Two of which were freshmen Gill and Remaley.

"They don't look like freshmen," said Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout. "They're not playing like freshmen. They're getting better every week. And what's nice is we have that senior leadership with Heller and Hedash carrying the ball too."

The offensive line (Kevin Steckel, Chad Wasilkowski, Badon Weil, Troy Silfies, Christian Freudenberger, Zach Rex, aemer Hedash) deserves a lot of the credit for the huge rushing numbers.

After last week, Tout and his staff simplified the offense a bit and the lline responded with its best effort of the season.

"We didn't feel like we were blocking consistently," Tout said. "We challenged our kids, told them we weren't going to do a lot of trap blocking. We were just going to go straight ahead. They answered that challenge."

The defense was also big. It held Notre Dame to just 50 rushing yards and 118 total while posting the shut out. Tout credited new defensive coach Mark Lavine for the way the Bulldog defense played.

"They [the Crusaders] have some skill kids," Tout said. "That's why I think our defense deserves credit. We were more aggressive. We were punching kids in the face tonight."