CENTER VALLEY — Jim Thorpe gave up a season-high in points and had four turnovers on offense, but still played some of its best football of the season, at least effortwise, according to head coach Mark Rosenberger.

The Olympians fell behind early and the game was into the mercy rule by the first drive of the third quarter as they fell Friday night to Southern Lehigh 56-12 in a Colonial League cross-divisional game at Southern Lehigh.

“I thought that this was our best game, effortwise, since week one,” said Rosenberger. “And that’s on both sides of the ball. We did some positive things tonight. Offensively, we moved the ball well. Turnovers hurt us in certain situations. But there are definitely more positives to take out of this week compared to last week.”

The Spartans scored on all three of their first quarter drives and two of three drives in the second quarter. They also added on a 41-yard punt return for a touchdown by Andrew Olesh in the middle of the period to take a 30-point lead (42-12) into the locker room at halftime.

After a quiet opening quarter, where the Olympians were held scoreless and had to punt on their first possession and turned the ball over twice via interceptions during their other two drives, the offense finally got it going in the second stanza.

Cole Lazorick found Connor Zurwawa for a 21-yard touchdown on the very first play of the second quarter to put Jim Thorpe on the scoreboard.

Lazorick connected with Joshua Louk from 19 yards out and just 0:36 left until intermission. But Southern Lehigh answered in quick fashion and drove 66 yards for an end-of-half score.

Danny Reagan hit the outside of the line and scampered for a 14-yard touchdown run 3:14 into the second half to push the score to 49-12 and put the game into the mercy rule for the remainder of the game.

Jim Thorpe will return home and host Catasauqua next Friday night in another cross-divisional game.

“I think it comes back to fundamentals and being fundamentally sound,” Rosenberger said. “Defense is our number one focus. We need to get more stops on the defensive end and tackle better. But we can build on tonight.”

TURNOVER TROUBLE … Jim Thorpe had three turnovers in the first half and another in the second. Three of the four turnovers led to points for the Spartans.

CLEAN GAME … The first flag of the game was a false start by Jim Thorpe with 4:24 left in the second quarter, and there were only three penalties all game, with all of them coming in the first half.

OFFENSE RUNS THROUGH LAZORICK … Lazorick passed for both touchdowns for the Olympians and showed his dual-threat ability with his legs all game.

So. Lehigh 56, Jim Thorpe 12

Jim Thorpe 0 12 0 0 - 12

Southern Lehigh 20 22 14 0 - 56

SL - Olesh 33 pass from Sams (Tapler kick)

SL - Steckert 37 run (Tapler kick)

SL - Roman 22 pass from Sams (kick failed)

JT - Zurwawa 41 pass from Lazorick (kick failed)

SL - Kawczenski 65 pass from Sams (Gonzalez run)

SL - Olesh 41 punt return (Tapler kick)

JT - Louk 19 pass from Lazorick (conversion failed)

SL - Hite 19 pass from Sams (Tapler kick)

SL - Reagan 14 run (Tapler kick)

SL - Steckert 32 interception return (Tapler kick)