North Schuylkill's Luke Miller heads toward the end zone for one of his four touchdowns as Blue Mountain's Lucas Pritiskutch gives chase during Thursday's game in Fountain Springs (Photo by Brook Koch-Guers).

FOUNTAIN SPRINGS — Luke Miller had a Senior Night to remember Thursday night for North Schuylkill.

The senior running back broke the North Schuylkill single-game rushing record with 383 yards and four touchdowns as the Spartans rolled past Blue Mountain 42-21 in a Schuylkill-Colonial Red Division game at Ghosh Orthodontics Field at Spartan Stadium.

Miller scored on runs of 34, 52, 43 and 73 yards as the Spartans racked up 447 yards rushing and scored on their first six possessions. Miller broke his own single-game mark of 361 yards that he set Sept. 19 against Jim Thorpe. His 383 yards also gives him 1,723 yards for the season, breaking the North Schuylkill single-season mark of 1,689 set by Jaden Leiby in 2018.

“It’s really awesome,” Miller said. “It was a good day. I’ll always remember my first game here playing against Mount Carmel my freshman year … to end my last game of the regular season here like that was really nice.

“All credit to my offensive line and my teammates. They played their butts off. I’m really thankful for them.”

North Schuylkill (5-3, 4-2 Red) established its running game early and never got away from it, not attempting a single pass after its first offensive possession.

The Spartans’ offensive line of Aiden Zilker, Cameron Hutnick, William Wysoski, Gavin Wall and Kaiden Knox controlled the line of scrimmage from start to finish, clearing big holes for Miller to run through.

That was especially true in the first half as the Spartans compiled 275 yards rushing, 312 total yards and 17 first downs en route to a 30-7 halftime lead.

“When you’re getting results like that, it’s hard to turn back and do anything else,” North Schuylkill coach Wally Hall said. “Luke did a great job. He was patient. He found the holes. He knows the tempo of the play. Some of the plays that we run, he’s doing a great job like that.”

The Spartans opened the game with a nine-play, 64-yard drive that featured five runs by Miller and three straight pass completions by Caden Mengel. Mengel’s 23-yard strike to Landen Smith and Miller’s two-point conversion run put the Spartans up 8-0 3:27 into the game.

After a quick three-and-out by the Blue Mountain offense, North Schuylkill was on the move again, going 75 yards in 10 plays. Miller’s 34-yard TD run put the Spartans up 14-0 with 2:26 left in the first.

Blue Mountain (4-4, 3-3) answered with a quick scoring drive as Cohen Kirby connected with Chase Guers for a 27-yard completion, then hit Duke Renninger for a 32-yard TD to make it 14-7 after one frame.

But North Schuylkill responded with back-to-back scoring drives to close the half. Mengel capped a nine-play, 73-yard march with a 4-yard run before Miller broke free for a 52-yard TD run that put the Spartans up 30-7 at intermission.

Blue Mountain was held to just 6 yards rushing in the first half.

“They won the line of scrimmage up front and pushed us around,” Blue Mountain coach Chuck Kutz said. “Miller … if you give him a seam, he’s off to the races. Second level, he’s a tough guy to catch. Hat’s off to him.

“When you put yourself in a position where a defense is comfortable teeing off on you, bringing extra bodies, it puts pressure on you. It’s tough to get the ball going.”

Kutz’s squad did some things better in the second half, but the first-half hole was too big to dig out of.

Kirby and Guers connected for two more touchdowns on passes of 35 and 14, but good play by the North Schuylkill secondary of Julian Nelson, Miller, Mengel, Landen Smith, Chase Slotcavage and Cole Meskunas prevented the big play and made Blue Mountain work hard for everything it earned.

Carter Smith gave the Blue Mountain offense a spark, rushing for 107 of his 115 yards in the second half. Kirby finished 13-of-27 for 183 yards and three TDs.

Defensively, however, Blue Mountain just couldn’t stop North Schuylkill.

Miller scampered for TD runs of 43 and 73 yards on the Spartans’ next two possessions. He also made a big defensive play on a fourth-quarter red zone stop by the North Schuylkill defense, batting away a pass at the goal line on fourth down.

The end result was a big Senior Night win that gives North Schuylkill some momentum heading into its final two regular-season games at Lehighton and Pottsville as it looks to secure a quarterfinal home game in the District 11 Class 3A playoffs.

“This is huge,” Miller said. “Blue Mountain is a tough team. They have good linebackers and good players. To come here and do this today was really nice.

“I’m really happy with how our team played and how they played with confidence. We had a good week of practice. We have to keep this thing going.”

Game Summary

North Schuylkill 42, Blue Mountain 21

BM (4-4, 3-3)             7          0          7          7  —    21

NS (5-3, 4-2)               14        16        6          6  —    42

NS — Smith 23 pass from Mengel (Miller run)

NS — Miller 34 run (pass failed)

BM — Renninger 42 pass from Kirby (Hoover kick)

NS — Mengel 4 run (Miller run)

NS — Miller 52 run (Mengel run)

BM — Guers 35 pass from Kirby (Hoover kick)

NS — Miller 43 run (run failed)

NS — Miller 73 run (run failed)

BM — Guers 14 pass from Kirby (Hoover kick)

Team Statistics

                                    BM               NS

First Downs                16                 22

Rushes-Yards              28-128          41-447

Passes                          13-27-0        3-4-0

Passing Yards             183               37

Total Yards                 311               484

Fumbles/Lost              1-0                0-0

Penalties                      5-40              7-50

Individual Statistics

RUSHING: Blue Mountain — C. Smith 15-115, R. Miller 1-6, Foose 1-3, Kirby 10-2, Guers 1-2. North Schuylkill — L. Miller 31-383, Ortiz 3-35, Mengel 7-29

PASSING: Blue Mountain —- Kirby 13-27-0, 183. North Schuylkill —- Mengel 3-40, 37.

RECEIVING: Blue Mountain — Guers 4-82, Luckenbill 4-32, Renninger 1-32, Hoover 1-17, C. Smith 2-15, Russo 1-5. North Schuylkill — L. Smith 1-23, McGraw 1-9, Miller 1-5.

INTERCEPTIONS: None