They were seasons of historic successes dotted with highlight reel moments.

With their players often making the improbable look routine, Northern Lehigh and Palmerton rewrote record books and made deep postseason runs.

Their achievements were recognized when selections for the Pa. Football Writers’ All-State Teams in Classes 1A, 2A and 3A were released on Tuesday.

The Bulldogs had Dylan Smoyer (quarterback), Trevor Amorim (wide receiver), AJ Jimenez (defensive line) and Brett Misera (defensive back) named to the Class 2A squad, while the Bombers’ Matt Machalik (athlete) was also part of that team.

The Class 4A, 5A and 6A teams will be released Wednesday.

Season to remember

Northern Lehigh advanced to the state semifinals for the first time since 2003. The Bulldogs were also able to post double digit wins (11) for the first time since 2011 and they were also able to capture a district championship, which was their first district gold since 2010, by defeating a Palmerton program that won nine games this year.

The Blue Bombers led the area, scoring 40.4 points per game this year, with Northern Lehigh second in the category (39.1).

The Bulldogs piled up an area best 390.4 yards per game, while the Bombers were second at 372.5.

It was a season to remember for two teams that were on top of their game in 2021.

“I’m happy for them,” said Northern Lehigh head coach Joe Tout. “They put the work in, and now you get to kind of reflect on the season, and this is something that comes with it, with having that success.”

Dynamic Bulldogs

Smoyer put together a remarkable season to cap his stellar career for the Bulldogs, throwing for 2,060 yards and 27 passing touchdowns this season, completing 119 of 192 attempts. Smoyer set school records for single-season passing yards, career passing yards, single-season passing touchdowns, career passing touchdowns, single-season completions and career completions.

“I’ve always been impressed, especially this year, but I saw it last year, he’s probably the best I’ve coached at being able to get through progressions,” said Tout. “He came a long way the last two years with that, and that’s just him getting game reps. I saw that a couple of times this year, and you have to have the time to be able to do it, but there were certain plays where he was able to get through his third read, and most of what we do are three to four man patterns and he was able to do that. I saw that early on, and as the year went on there were a couple of times, you could just see his eyes going through different progressions.”

Smoyer’s top target in the passing game on the season and do-it-all receiver and runner for the Bulldogs was Amorim, who put together an impressive offensive campaign in 2021. Amorim, who also ran for 834 yards and scored 16 rushing touchdowns this season left his mark on the wide receiver position in the Northern Lehigh history books. Amorim set the single-season reception yards, career reception yards and career receptions records for the Bulldogs, finishing with 50 catches for 955 yards and eight scores this season.

Amorim was always a big play threat, averaging 19.1 yards per catch and 7.87 yards per carry. He was a First Team Colonial League All Star as an athlete.

“It’s a benefit,” Tout said of Amorim’s versatility. “We saw that with our screens too, our wide receiver screens with him. A lot of times they would go from a seven yard gain to ones he would break. Early on .... we had some injuries in the backfield, so we just decided to put Trevor at tailback heading into our first scrimmage. We thought, ‘Let’s look at him there.’ He’s our fastest player, he’s a strong kid. Once we saw what he could do at those practices, he picked it up so quickly, I thought that gave us something else offensively this year as well.

“We were able to play him at wide receiver, put him in the backfield, run reverses with him. It’s nice having those type of kids that have that ability, you know they can break one at any point.”

The playmaking ability wasn’t limited to the offensive side of the ball for Northern Lehigh.

Misera hauled in seven interceptions, made 65 total tackles with one fumble recovery, and scored a defensive touchdown this season.

“He didn’t really play a ton of defense for us last year,” said Tout. “He was kind of an inbetween kid for us last year. We actually played him a lot more at outside linebacker last year in passing downs ... and then this year, he played corner, he would mix in at safety. But I think what he did really well this year, he was another guy that really benefited from a really good offseason. He lifted a lot in season, too. He kept his strength up, and I think he started to have a little more confidence physically this year.

“What I saw with him a couple of times, is he was able to bait quarterbacks. He had that ability to kind of see the eyes and wait to react, and jump some things. Against Palisades (a 35-7 win), he had a good interception where the quarterback thought he had an open touchdown, so he kind of lofted it and Brett was able to read it and intercept it. I thought Brett did a phenomenal job with that this year. And physically he was able to come up against the run more than he could last year.”

Jimenez tied for the team lead with 86 total tackles, making a team-leading five sacks with one forced fumble and two fumble recoveries.

“We were able to take a player with tailback speed and play him at defensive end,” Tout said of Jimenez, who started the season at outside linebacker. “And that was big for us. We had the two nice bookends between him and Austin Smyth. But when we made that move, to kind of shore things up defensively about the middle of the year, you could just see that AJ, once he went to defensive end, he just had an immediate impact. His technique is good, but he could also use his speed. That’s the stuff you can’t teach. He can shut things down.

“I think once we made that move, I would say every game but one or two he was our leading tackler. Once we made that move with him, he really just thrived in that position, and the pressures of the quarterback, he was able to read it and was athletic enough to chase it down.”

Matty Ice

In Machalik, the Blue Bombers had a true dual-threat quarterback.

The sophomore was third in the area in passing, completing 92 of 170 attempts for 1,301 yards and nine scores, while also rushing for 1,542 yards on 149 carries (10.35 yards per carry), good for second in the area and 29 touchdowns.

“Coming into this year, we obviously knew we had a very good player in Matt,” said Palmerton head coach Chris Walkowiak. “We were looking to see how well he was going to mature, and I think the biggest aspect going into this season was having ‘normal’ offseason, where we were allowed to have pass scrimmages and he was able to go against other teams’ defenses, which he didn’t have that opportunity as a 9th grader. So that helped him to grow and mature going into the season and to become more comfortable.

“Matt just has the ‘It’ factor, that all coaches crave. He just makes things happen. He has tremendous moxie, composure, very elusive. He’s a hard-nosed kid, who just refuses to lose.”

Machalik set single season records in interceptions, points scored (201) and single season touchdowns. He was a Second Team Colonial League All-Star at quarterback.

“As a quarterback, he’s a dual threat,” said Walkowiak. “He can makes all the reads, he has all the instincts, good pocket presence, awareness to disperse the ball to his receivers, and if something is not there, he can take off and extend plays to find a receiver or he can run the ball. He’s not afraid to run over you or run by you. We got the best of both worlds. .”

And on defense, Machalik is a ballhawk, returning two of his seven pick for scores.

“The sky’s the limit for what he does, and we’re just excited to watch him grow and watch him mature over the next few years.”