Cole Lazorick spent much of his spring splitting time between baseball and track and field.

The Jim Thorpe junior showed Friday night that he is a home run hitter with speed — and power — to burn.

Lazorick lit it up in the Olympians’ season-opening 38-15 win over Palmerton on Friday, throwing for 266 yards and four touchdowns, and rushing for 127 yards and two scores.

It was a performance that set the tone for a dynamic Jim Thorpe attack, one that also helped Lazorick earn Times News Football Player of the Week honors.

“It helps me both physically and mentally, juggling two sports in the spring when you’re in the heart of the school year. It’s very difficult,” said Lazorick. “It really is hard. But also with the physical aspect I’m with (head track and field and football assistant) Coach (Frank) Miller every single day from now until the next football season. We go right into winter track and then we go right into spring track so he helps me with all my speed work, my agility getting ready for track. For baseball, it kind of helps me because we lift a little bit more so we get our arm strength back up, all that stuff.

“So being with Coach Miller, and being around the game of football all year round, it really helps me out a lot.”

Lazorick hit the ground running on Friday. After leading the area in passing a year ago, completing 106 of 205 pass attempts for 1,777 yards, the junior completed 14 of 26 attempts for an average of 19.0 yards per completion as the Olympians put up 524 yards of total offense.

“Definitely just more comfortable with the game in general,” said Lazorick. “Last year, as a sophomore, things got kind of scary at times; forcing the ball, trying to make too many plays that led to big mistakes in big games, which actually kind of cost us the game. So I feel that, with film, talking with all the coaches, and trying to just not force reads or anything, do everything the right way to make sure I keep me team in the game, that’s been my big focal point this whole offseason.”

And he had no problem spreading the ball around to his playmakers, with Aaron Curran (five catches, 108 yards), Justin Yescavage (three catches, 94 yards), Pierce Gothard (four catches, 45 yards) and Josh Louk (two catches, 19 yards) all hauling in a touchdown.

“The way Cole was able to run our offense, his ability to spread the ball around, was impressive,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Mark Rosenberger. “And on top of that, his ability to run for over 100 yards in addition to passing for over 260. It was an outstanding all-around football game, and we’re hoping that’s the start of an outstanding year for him and for us.”

Curran hauled in a 62-yard touchdown, and Yescavage added a 30-yard score and also had a 56-yard catch.

“A lot of credit goes to our coaches, our receivers and our line,” said Lazorick. “For the first time ever, we had four different receivers score a touchdown. It’s never happened in our school history, so we’re really thrilled about that. The coaches called an excellent game, giving us the best chance to win. And the line was really great. They stepped up big time, and I was really proud of them.”

On the ground, Lazorick carried the ball 17 times, with a long of 22 yards and an average rush of 7.5 yards per carry. Running the ball is an aspect of the game Lazorick embraces.

“I love it. I love being the physical kid on the field,” Lazorick. “You don’t want to get yourself hurt, and there’s times where it’s better to try to make a move, but there’s also times when you need to put your head down and get in a few extra yards.”

Lazorick, a team captain, isn’t worried about highlight reel plays or individual accolades. He simply wants the Olympians to achieve and succeed together, and he’s using lessons learned from the players that have come before him.

“I knew that last year, losing big guys like Noah Rosahac, Sal (Capria), Chase Whaley, that we were going to need some leaders on this football team,” said Lazorick. “And our coaches made that known in the offseason.

“And I knew that, if I’m going to be the quarterback here and I want to do all these great things with this team, I need to be the best leader that I can be. So I worked my butt off this offseason, making sure we all worked out together. We’ve been on this field together since February, running routes, everything. So I needed to make sure that I became the best leader that I can be.”

Impressive as he is on the field, Lazorick might be even more extraordinary off of it.

“He’s one of the best leaders I’ve coached, and he’s only a junior,” said Rosenberger. “That says a lot about who Cole is, what he believes in, what he preaches. That’s a big statement, I’ve coached for 27 years and had outstanding players and leaders, and he’s right up there with them.”