Big time players often make big time plays.

And it’s no secret that Jim Thorpe’s Noah Rosahac is a big time player.

The senior lineman came up with a momentum-changing blocked punt early in the second half of Friday night’s contest against Northern Lehigh. Nikolas Schwartz collected the loose ball and raced 55 yards for a touchdown to extend a narrow Olympian lead en route to an eventual 29-6 victory.

“Noah is just a special football player,” said Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger, whose team improved to 3-6. “It’s not often you get a 6-5 tackle breaking through and blocking punts like that. It was a huge play. Nick Schwartz was doing his job, he was right where he was supposed to be to scoop and score. That was a big momentum play for us, especially with the field conditions.

“I’m just so happy for these kids. They fought hard and we’ve had a lot of things to overcome all season long, so I’m just proud of these guys getting a win tonight. Hopefully it gets us moving in the right direction.”

The Bulldogs (3-6) were heading in the right direction after receiving the second-half kickoff.

Trailing 8-0 at the break, Northern Lehigh used runs of 26 yards from Jack Tosh and 18 yards from Grady Newhard to get into Olympian territory. But three straight plays resulted in negative yardage and the Bulldogs decided to punt in hopes of pinning Thorpe deep in its own territory.

Rosahac, however, broke through the line and delivered his key play on special teams.

“I’ll have to go back and look at it,” said Bulldog mentor Joe Tout. “I think we probably had a breakdown there, and I don’t know exactly where we got beat. We should have a protector there to help out. We always go through that, that the protector is there to watch if someone does get beat to help out. Rosahac just made a play there. That was a big momentum swing.”

After that, Northern Lehigh went three-and-out in back-to-back possessions as its proverbial wind was knocked out of its sail.

Meanwhile, the Olympians rode the momentum to a long drive on offense to push the margin to 22-0 early in the fourth quarter. Thorpe drove 70 yards in nine plays, with Ben Goldberg picking up a key 16-yard run and Cole Lazorick hitting Justin Yescavage with a 22-yard pass that set up Josh Louk’s 3-yard tally with 10:01 left in the game.

“After the block punt, that gave us a little bit more of a lead right there,” said Rosenberger. “We had Cole run the football, but he also made a couple throws for us too. He had that one to Yescavage. They were double-teaming him all night long, and they finally let him go one-on-one and we took advantage of that. He’s a special athlete, and that was a big play for us at the time.”

“Our defense definitely kept us in it,” said Tout about the first half. “We double covered No. 13 (Yescavage). That was one of our goals to not have him beat us, but then we didn’t contain the quarterback a lot of times.”

Lazorick, who leads the area in passing yards, didn’t throw much but got the job done on the ground. He finished with 173 rushing yards, including a 6-yard TD for the only score in the first half and a 33-yarder late in the fourth that ended the Olympians’ scoring.

“Cole did a good job throwing the ball the times he did, and he did a good job of running instead of throwing the ball into double coverage,” said Rosenberger. “He’s a sophomore quarterback who keeps getting better, and he has special talents throwing the ball and running it and that was on display today.”

The Bulldogs avoided a shutout with 14 seconds left in the contest when Garrett Smoyer tossed a 17-yard touchdown pass to Bailey Smith.

“We had chances early and not to score off them was frustrating,” said Tout. “Last week the execution was off and maybe so was the effort. Tonight we came out and fought but ... we kind of unraveled there in the second half.

“We’re playing a lot of young guys at a lot of positions, and we know there’s going to be brighter days ahead. We just have to stay positive with them.”

THORPE DEFENSE ... Northern Lehigh had 12 plays for negative yards, as Rosahac, Chase Whaley and Josh James all had strong games on defense for Thorpe.

LIGHTNING DELAY ... Halftime was extended due to a lightning delay. And after the Bulldogs scored with 14 seconds left, another strike occurred and the game was called at that time.

NL BRIGHT SPOT ... Nolehi’s Grady Newhard finished with 104 rushing yards, which included a 35-yard pickup during his team’s scoring drive.

UP NEXT ... It will be rivalry week for both teams next Friday as Thorpe hosts Lehighton and the Bulldogs entertain Palmerton.