Defensive efforts don’t come better than the one Lehighton had Friday night.

The Indians dominated up front, getting constant pressure on Wilson quarterback Jeramy Cressman en route to a lopsided 50-0 victory.

“We have a great defensive line, and we knew we had to push them back and pressure them,” said Lehighton senior lineman Wyatt Sherer. “And that’s exactly what we came out and did - on every single play.

“We just came out and got in their face and just pressured them. A lot of that came from the hard offseason work and the weight room. It’s paying off now.”

The Indians (2-2) finished the evening with seven sacks, two by linebacker Nelson Stanley. Ten other plays lost yardage as the Warriors were held to minus-58 yards rushing.

In fact, of the 41 offensive plays Wilson (0-4) ran only 13 of them gained positive yardage.

“I challenged our kids this week, and I think they responded,” said Lehighton head coach Tom McCarroll. “They played a helluva defensive game.

“I just can’t say enough about our defense. And it was a team effort. If you look at the game, I know there was some kids probably made a few more plays than others, but really there were a lot of kids who made a lot of nice plays today for us.”

Beside Stanley, other sacks came from Joe Roth, Max Bergdahl, Cooper Hartsell and Xavier Moore, while Reese Balk recovered a fumble and Lukas Croizier and Preston Digrazia had interceptions.

“Up front we dominated on defense,” said Sherer. “It was nice to play with a lead, and it was also nice to come out in the second half - and knowing what we did in the first half - finish them off. It was an awesome feeling, especially holding them to zero (points). We haven’t had one of those in a while, so it’s an awesome feeling.”

While the defense more than did its job, the Indians’ offense reached the end zone seven times - including four by Dylan Moyer.

Moyer ran for 214 yards in the game with his 12-yard touchdown run opening the scoring a little over two minutes into the first quarter. After a Wilson turnover, the senior caught a 14-yard TD pass from Brady O’Donnell to quickly push the advantage to 14-0.

Moyer scored again early in the second quarter when his 70-yard burst down the left sideline set up his 5-yard touchdown run that extended the lead to 20-0.

“He’s been kind of on the verge of that since last season,” said McCarroll of his feature back. “He showed some signs at the end of last season, and we knew coming in as long as he would stay healthy and as long as our o-line was going to start to gel that games like this were possible.

“He had a big game against Tamaqua a couple weeks ago and again, as long as our o-line comes to play every single week ... I think Dylan has an opportunity to break a lot of big plays for us the rest of the season.”

Before the half, Croizier came up with a big play when he picked off a pass and brought it back to the Wilson 29-yard line. Three plays later the freshman took a shovel pass from O’Donnell and scored to make it 28-0.

It was more of the same for Lehighton after the break as the defense stood tall and the offense continued to pile up points.

Croizier caught a 1-yard TD pass from O’Donnell - his third of the game - and Moyer scored on a 21-yard run. Austin Green tacked on the final tally from four yards out.

“We needed a performance like that,” said McCarroll. “I know (Wilson’s) struggling but at the end of the day, we’re worried about us. We needed to gain some momentum for our program, and I told our kids we need to come out and make a statement today.”

SHUTOUT ... The shutout was Lehighton’s first since the 2017 season when the Indians blanked Marian 44-0.

MOMENTUM SWING ... After the Indians scored on their first possession, Wilson returned the ensuing kickoff for a touchdown but the score was negated by a penalty. Two plays later, the Warriors fumbled which led to a Lehighton score and a quick two-touchdown lead.

TOUGH TASK AHEAD ... Lehighton returns to action Friday at undefeated and reigning district champ Northwestern. “For us, there’s a couple programs in the area that are measuring sticks and Northwestern is one of them,” said McCarroll. “We played with them last year and had them on the ropes, up 14-7 ... I hope our kids know we can go toe-to-toe with them and they shouldn’t be intimidated. And hopefully we can build off a win like this tonight.”