By MEL PERKINS

Last Friday night, the Northgate Flames traveled to Leechburg, and found themselves deeply embroiled in an epic defensive struggle with the Leechburg Blue Devils. This game took on the feel of one of those old black and white football films. The only things missing were the old throwback jerseys and the leather helmets. When the dust had settled, Northgate would be the on the losing side of a 2 - 0 football game.

Here's an interesting fact: Only two games in the history of the NFL have ever ended with a 2 - 0 score. The Green Bay Packers defeated the Chicago Bears 2-0 on Oct. 16, 1932, and the Chicago Bears defeated the Green Bay Packers 2-0 on Sept. 18, 1938. Leather helmets were part of the standard issue uniform back then.

When traveling to the Leechburg Stadium, one has to ride on roads with names like Puckety Road and Spooky Hollow Road. That alone, sets the backdrop for the atmosphere during this game. Leechburg came into the game with a 1 - 4 record, but judging from the size of their crowd you never would have guessed it.

Northgate took the field, and looked a little flat. Coming off of a big win against Wilkinsburg the prior week, the offense may have been still relishing that victory. It didn't take long for the Flames’ defense to get into their rhythm, but their offense would not be so lucky.

Northgate's third drive in the first quarter was as close as they would come all night to putting it into the Blue Devils’ end zone. After taking possession of the ball on the Leechburg 37-yard line, a 29-yard pass from Jon Girvin to Cody Walter put the Flames on the Blue Devils' 8-yard line. Girvin would get the call, on second and goal, and he would easily take it into the Blue Devils' end zone, but the TD would be negated when the referees threw the flag, and made the rare call of "helping runner" on the offensive line. The Flames walked away with nothing to show for their efforts in the Blue Devils' red zone.

When asked about the referee's call that took a Flames' score off the board, head coach Mike Pipak said, "We had our chances and we did not take care of business. The refs made the calls and we have to deal with them. The call in the end zone was correct, however, you do not see that called."

The Blue Devils would get their two-point safety, when they caught Justin Parra trying to scramble out of the end zone in the third quarter.

The Northgate defense held the Blue Devils to a total of 88 yards on offense. They were held to 57 yards rushing, and 11 plays that were for no-gain or for negative yards. After the game, Pipak said "It was a tough loss. Our defense played a great game. We did all the things you need to do on that side of the ball to win a game."

Northgate rushed for a total of 74 yards, and had 123 yards total offense. Eight Northgate fumbles in the second half really hurt the Northgate offense. Pipak, speaking about the offense's output, said, "On the offensive side of the ball, we did not get the job done. If we play mistake-free, we would be a good football team, but mistakes, penalties, turnovers and poor execution kills us."

The Flames (2-3, 2-4) travel to Riverview on Saturday to take on the Riverview Raiders (3-2, 4-2).