During his first 18 years as Jim Thorpe's head coach, Mark Rosenberger had never alternated quarterbacks.

But when the Olympians broke summer camp in preparation for this year's season opener, Rosenberger found himself in a situation he hadn't experienced since his first year as head coach. He had two quarterbacks he thought he could win with - and very little separating them.The Olympians started the season with Brendan Carroll and Nick Rosahac alternating series under center. Carroll is an outstanding senior athlete who is a first-year member of the football team. Rosahac is a junior who served as the team's backup quarterback a year ago."We felt like we had two talented quarterbacks with different strengths," said Rosenberger. "They had a close battle throughout camp and I felt they both had earned a chance to be the starter."Brendan has a strong arm and is a very good runner, but he was still learning his reads as a quarterback. Nick's combination of a strong arm and knowledge of our offense made him a little better in the passing game. On the other hand, Brendan was probably a better runner."Through the first six quarters of the season, Rosenberger stuck to the plan. But after losing top running back Antonio Madera to an injury in the first half of his team's Week 2 battle against Marian, Rosenberger decided he needed to make a decision.Carroll took the snaps in the second half of the Marian game and was named the No. 1 quarterback heading into last week's game against Panther Valley."Antonio was our primary threat running the football," explained Rosenberger. "With him out of the lineup, I felt we needed Brendan's running ability at quarterback."I feel like the move helps us offensively in a number of ways. Not only do we get to take advantage of Brendan's running ability, but Nick is our best receiver and one of our better athletes, so now we get both of those players on the field all the time."During the first two weeks of the season, when both players saw time at quarterback, Carroll was 10-for-17 passing the ball while Rosahac was 3-for-7. In Week 3 against Panther Valley, Carroll was 4-for-9 passing the ball. For the season, he has 261 yards through the air and has added another 159 yards on the ground."I was pretty content with how both Brendan and Nick played the first two weeks," said Rosenberger. "The injury to Antonio forced our hand a little bit, but I'm confident we can win with either quarterback in the game."Although the Olympians' time-share at quarterback now appears to be a thing of the past, all coaches know that their backup quarterback is just one play away from being the starter.Rosenberger experienced that in his first season with the Olympians."The only other time in my coaching career that we had planned on giving two quarterbacks playing time, was my first year as head coach," said Rosenberger. "We had Joe Halenar returning at quarterback and had Matt Long behind him. We weren't going to do a 50-50 split, but the plan was to definitely give Matt some series in every game."In addition to being our quarterback, Joe was also probably our top defender. So he was on our kickoff coverage team. On the opening kickoff of the season, Joe got injured. Matt stepped in and quarterbacked us the rest of the season. So even though our intent was to alternate quarterbacks, it never happened because of the injury."Rosenberger added that Long went on to have a stellar high school career at quarterback, which led to him recently being named to the school's Hall of Fame. Meanwhile, Halenar is currently a member of the Olympian coaching staff. As for Rosenberger, he took something valuable away from that first season when he was going to alternate quarterbacks."Although Matt Long ended up having a great year for us, I learned not to use my quarterback on the kickoff team no matter how great an athlete he is," laughed Rosenberger.************FOURTEEN IS ENOUGH ... In this day and age of spread offenses and explosive scoring, 14 points in a game usually isn't enough to win a high school football contest.Last Friday, though, it was for Marian. The Colts claimed a 14-12 victory over North Schuylkill, denying a Spartan two-point conversion in the final minute to seal the decision.The last time Marian won a game when scoring 14 or fewer points was on Oct. 12, 2007 when it posted a 13-7 overtime victory over Minersville. Since that time, the Colts had lost 32 consecutive times when they score 14 or less.************BEARS SCORING BARRAGE ... While Marian won with limited points, Pleasant Valley's victory over Northampton featured a barrage of points.The Bears scored in every quarter en route to a wild 55-35 win.The combinedtotal of 90 points is believed to be the most ever in a Pleasant Valley game. The figure topped the 87 the Bears and Wyomissing combined for in a PV 49-38 victory on Sept. 27, 2013.************LONG THORPE TOUCHDOWN ... Colin Jacobs capped Jim Thorpe's victory last Friday when he stripped the football from a Panther Valley player and returned the fumble 88 yards for a touchdown.The six-pointer was the longest by an Olympian since Sept. 8, 2006, when Phil Redline returned a kickoff 88 yards for a score during a 42-6 victory over Mahanoy Area.The touchdown was also the longest defensive score by a Thorpe player since Sept. 26, 2003, when Jason Figura picked up a fumble and raced 97 yards to the end zone.************BULLDOGS RALLY ... Northern Lehigh fell behind Bangor 14-0 last Friday but Brandon Belfonti (see Player of the Week story) helped the Bulldogs rally to earn a 39-33 Colonial League victory.Since the school changed its name from Slatington to Northern Lehigh in 1981, this matched the biggest comeback in its history. The only other time it rallied from a 14-point hole was Nov. 1, 2013, when the Bulldogs trailed Palmerton 14-0 and posted a 22-21 win.It also marked just the fifth time Northern Lehigh came back from a double-digit deficit. The other three times were: Sept. 26, 2014 (trailed Palisades 13-0 and won 14-13), Oct. 24, 2008 (trailed Catasauqua 10-0 and won 25-10), and Aug. 31, 1985 (trailed Saucon Valley 12-0 and won 25-12).************TIGER PASSING GAME ... Northwestern freshman quarterback Deven Bollinger broke the school record for passing yards in a game with 292, topping the previous mark of Mike Heinzelman's 1975 mark of 264 (set against Jim Thorpe). Bollinger also tossed three touchdown passes in the game against Palisades.Bollinger's head coach, Josh Snyder, has seen opposite ends of the Tiger passing spectrum during his days in the program. As a sophomore in 1995, Snyder was part of a team that saw its starting quarterback - Tom Caamano - complete 17-of-34 passes for 246 yards and one score during the entire season which, including playoffs, totaled 12 games.