It’s not how you start. It’s how you finish.

With 8:02 left in the first quarter, Jim Thorpe quarterback Cole Lazorick found Chase Whaley over the middle for a 24-yard touchdown pass and a 14-7 Olympian lead over Notre Dame of Green Pond. The Crusaders then scored the game’s next 56 points to win going away, 63-14.

The teams combined for 35 points in the first nine minutes of the game.

AJ Lozano ran back the opening kickoff 95 yards for Notre Dame, but Thorpe quickly answered after recovering a fumble on a pass from Lazorick to Joshua Louk who raced down the sideline for a score.

Jim Thorpe’s lead was short lived. The Crusaders tied the game when Danny Darno found a wide open, Christian Rivituso over the middle. The pass and run play covered 68 yards.

With 3:43 left in the quarter, Darno hooked up with Josh Ludlow from midfield on a 38-yard pass to the Jim Thorpe 12 where Ludlow carried the final 12 yards on the next play for a 21-14 Crusader advantage.

Notre Dame’s high scoring offense put up three more touchdowns in the second quarter for a 42-14 lead at halftime. Ludlow scored again on a 10-yard run and Aaron Gordon returned an interception 36 yards for another score and then Darno ran 72 yards for a touchdown.

“After we took the 14-7 lead, we just couldn’t make plays on defense. The game quickly turned out of hand,” Jim Thorpe coach Mark Rosenberger said.

Notre Dame came out in the second half and scored three more times on a long run by Darno, a 49 yard pass for a TD and a 65 yard run by Ludlow.

Jim Thorpe had trouble moving the chains in the second half as the Crusader defense continued to chased Lazorick from the pocket and had six sacks for the game.

Despite the lopsided loss, the pass combo of Lazorick to Justin Yescavage had another big night. Yescavage, who leads all area wide receivers in number of catches, caught eight more balls for 91 yards, several with his trademark leap over the defender receptions.

As they have managed to do in most of their games this year, the Olympians moved the ball on offense, but turnovers and sacks stifled their ability to move the chains into the red zone.

“We obviously didn’t play well,” Rosenberger said. “We’ve got to find a way to be better on defense. That’s the big challenge in front of us to give us a chance to win our last two games.”

STATS DO LIE ... In the last two games, Thorpe has gained 639 yards, but scored only three touchdowns. Eight turnovers have put a stop to many potential scoring drives.

POINTS TAKEN ... With their 63 points, Notre Dame is now averaging 42 points a game and has scored on offense, defense, and special teams as they did last night.

UP NEXT ... Thorpe travels to Slatington to take on the Bulldogs of Northern Lehigh next Friday night.