The Southern Lehigh Spartans came into their matchup against Bangor with fire and flair after losing two of their last three games by a combined score of 10 points. However on Friday night the Spartans were not looking for another close game.
Unlike prior weeks the Spartans came out like a pack of hungry lumberjacks looking for pancakes and forced the Slaters to go three and out. After a seven-play drive the Spartans handed the ball off to senior fullback Zach Mohr at the 22-yard line. He plowed through the middle of the Bangor defensive line and carried a Slater safety on his back as he stumbled into the endzone. The Spartans didn’t look back as the rushing onslaught continued throughout the rest of the game. After forcing yet another three and out on the first play after getting the ball back, junior tailback Luke Strauss’s number was called and he delivered the goods by ripping off 50 yard run and leaving the several crestfallen defenders in his wake.
Coach Derek Bleiler’s defense forced the third Bangor punt of the quarter. On the following drive Strauss carried the ball 13 yards before being brought down by the Slater secondary. However, that would not slow him down because on the very next play he scored his second touchdown of the quarter on a 40-yard scamper. If 20 points in a quarter wasn’t enough, then the suffocating defense was. The Spartans closed out the quarter when junior cornerback BJ Harding picked off a butterfly of a pass and returned it 54 yards to the house.
In the second quarter the Bangor offense was finally able to get something going. Quarterback John Raub ran a read option play to perfection and took it 55 yards before being tackled from behind to set Bangor up at the six-yard line. It took three more tries but Raub would finally put it away with a one yard quarterback sneak to make the score 28-7 in favor of the home team.
On the next possession the Bangor defense would step up and force the Spartans to punt after creating a sack. However the momentum was short lived for the Slaters when junior strong safety Eli Price picked off Raub to set up the Spartans at their own 40-yard line. From their Strauss would put up his third touchdown of the rain-soaked evening when he torched the Bangor defense for a 71-yard touchdown. With the score 33-5 halftime couldn’t come soon enough for the Slaters.
The action would be over for the most part by the end of a third quarter that saw Strauss score his fourth touchdown of the game after he punched the ball in from the one-yard line. Senior running-back Timmy Walter would put up his first points of the game when he practically waltzed into the endzone for a one yard touchdown. The Slaters were however not going to go away too easy for the Spartans. Nearing the end of the third quarter Bangor engineered a drive in which they ran for 27 yards one play, 16 yards on the next, and would take it 12 more yards on the ground for a Jesse Rocco touchdown.
Overall it was a dominant victory for the Spartans, especially on the ground. Luke Strauss would record a career high 230 yards and four touchdowns on 10 carries, a 23-yard average. Zach Mohr and Timmy Walter would have 53 and 51 yards respectively with one touchdown a piece. Sophomore QB Logan Edmond did just enough to win the game while not playing particularly well. Due to the success of the ground game Edmond only attempted 11 passes of which he completed four for 32 yards with no touchdowns and no interceptions.
On the opposite side of the field the offense was stagnant outside of tailback Jesse Rocco who had 13 carries for 80 yards and found the endzone once. Quarterback John Raub recorded 48 yards and one touchdown on the ground. However the aerial attack was near nonexistent for the Slaters. Raub completed 1 of 9 passes for two yards and two interceptions.
With this win the Spartans improve to 4-2 while Bangor falls to 1-5. Next week the Spartans will face Wilson on Saturday and the Slaters will have a home game against a 4-2 Northwestern squad.
