For the first time since 1994, the Route 248 rivalry between Lehighton and Palmerton became a league matchup with the Indians having moved into the Colonial League.

Lehighton, however, received a rough welcome at the hands of the reigning Colonial League champion Blue Bombers, who ran away with a dominating 51-18 victory.

After both teams traded points early and were tied 7-7, the experience and defensive pressure of Palmerton began to overwhelm the younger Indians.

Bombers head coach Jeremy Coleman figured this would be an advantage for his team coming into the game.

“We just tried to pressure them a lot, and that was kind of the goal going in,” he said. “We have a lot of returning players with a lot of experience, so we knew we had that edge on them.

“We just wanted to pressure them, make them handle the ball and get some transition baskets.”

With the Bombers putting on continuous pressure, Lehighton had a difficult time managing the basketball offensively, resulting in a 30-10 halftime lead for the Bombers — who forced 14 Indian turnovers over the first two quarters.

Indians head coach Nadia Gauronsky knows how challenging things can be with a younger team.

“You start out the game and you’re doing things right, and then you run out of gas,” she said. “Then when you run out of gas, sometimes you make mistakes because you’re tired and you go back to the things that you know.”

The Indians faced that reality in the second half as the Bombers continued to clamp down defensively and hold Lehighton off the scoreboard in the fourth quarter.

Junior Courtney Connell led the way for the Blue Bombers with 14 points and nine rebounds, while senior Mikayla Pengelly added 11 points, three boards and three assists. Junior Hailey Barry connected on four 3-pointers to finish with 12 points.

“I know rebounding was a huge thing for us and kind of just getting anywhere that my teammates could get me the ball, or I can support them was the key for us tonight,” Connell said.

“Even during school, I shot at enrichment and an hour before the game, so it was a whole day of shooting for me,” Pengelly said. “I knew that it was going to be a big game, so I prepared well.”

Although the season is only beginning, coach Coleman and the Bombers already have their eyes set on the long-term goals for their program.

“It’s certainly a long way off, but (with) the way that our season ended last year on a sour note, we had bigger expectations and it was a little disappointing at the end there,” he said about last season’s district playoff loss against Catasauqua. “But they came back hungry and motivated, and they had something to prove. So my hats off to them, and hopefully we can just continue to improve from here and just get better week by week.”

“There’s high expectations, and we’ve been stepping it up, especially the younger players. We are all unselfish, and we know we want the best for each other,” Pengelly said.

On the other side, for a team already as young as the Indians with only three seniors, the absence of one of them — Emma Repsher due to injury — is heavily felt throughout the Indian locker room.

“Obviously without Emma, it’s more than just her scoring and her defense, but it’s also her leadership on the court,” Gauronsky said. “When you have a young team like that, they’re looking for an identity, and they found that in Emma. And not having Emma, we’re looking for someone to lead us.”

Among all of their struggles, Gauronsky tried to look at the positives that suggest potential growth and future leaders to build around going forward.

“We saw some potential, I thought, in Leah Yuvari and Riley Troutman who did a lot of good things for a very young crew, so I’m happy about that,” she said. “We’ve got a very young crew. Just need to make some corrections, and we’ll just continue to work on the learning curve.”

LEHIGHTON

Arzuaga 0-0-0-0, Moyer 0-0-0-0, Solt 0-0-0-0, Wise 0-0-0-0, Yeakel 0-0-0-0, Reph 1-0-2-2, Klotz 1-0-2-2, Uyvari 1-1-4-4, Trotman 3-0-3-6, Sittler 0-1-2-1, Costenbader 1-0-0-3, Miller 0-0-0-0. TOTALS: 7-2-13-18.

PALMERTON

Pengelly 4-0-0-11, Baumgardt 0-2-4-2, Rumfield 2-0-0-4, Schneider 0-0-0-0, Morgan 2-0-2-5, Wasilewski 1-0-0-3, Barry 4-0-0-12, Getch 0-0-0-0, Connell 6-2-2-14. TOTALS: 19-4-8-51.

Lehighton 7 3 8 0 - 18

Palmerton 15 15 9 12 - 51

Three-pointers: Lehighton - Uyvari 1, Costenbader 1; Palmerton - Barry 4, Pengelly 3, Morgan 1, Wasilewski 1.

Records: Lehighton (0-1; 0-1); Palmerton (1-0; 1-0).