Northwestern Lehigh committed several penalties, turned the ball and couldn’t tackle North Schuylkill’s Luke Miller.
It all added up to an 12-point deficit early in the second quarter of Friday night’s Colonial-Schuylkill League showdown among last year’s District 11 Class 3A finalists.
But the Tigers showed the grit, heart and focus of a champion.
Adjustments were made. Plays were made. All by Northwestern in the second half of a 49-18 victory at Tiger Stadium.
“Something we have that maybe others don’t is just a belief,” head coach Josh Snyder said. “We’re playing with that 12th man, that belief that we can win every single football game that we’re in because we’ve done it before. That belief gets compounded when you overcome adversity like we did in the first half and executed really flawlessly in every phase.”
Snyder’s club scored the game’s final 43 points in a variety of ways and slowed down Spartans stellar running back Luke Miller enough to dominate the final two quarters.
“In the locker room at halftime we said that we had to make them uncomfortable,” junior wide receiver/defensive back Michael Lagowy said, “which is to make them throw the ball. We did that. Our linebackers and linemen made some plays to put them behind the sticks.
“And they had to throw the ball, and that’s what they didn’t want to do.”
Northwestern took the lead for good on Braxton Lakatosh’s 46-yard touchdown run with 9 minutes, 52 seconds left in third quarter.
But North Schuylkill drove into the red zone on its first offensive series of the second half thanks to Miller’s 45-yard burst.
But the Tigers got a third-down incompletion and fourth-down interception by Lakatosh to maintain the lead.
Northwestern then drove 93 yards in nine plays for another score, a 28-yard touchdown pass from Shane Leh to Brady Zimmerman.
The Tigers never looked back. They scored on seven consecutive possessions dating back to the first half minus the team kneels at the end of each half.
Snyder knew this team was talented and determined. He got confirmation in the Tigers’ 21st consecutive win.
“I knew they were tough,” he said. “I knew they were gritty. I just didn’t know if we had enough stamina to tackle [Miller] 40-some times with that big offensive line.”
Northwestern racked up 397 rushing yards and 150 more in the passing game to rack up 22 first downs.
Miller, a week after running for 363 yards and four touchdowns in a win over Jim Thorpe, amassed 269 yards, 205 in the first half, and two scores.
Quarterback Caden Mengel was only 2-for-11 for 74 yards with three interceptions, the last two by Michael Lagowy who also had seven receptions for 85 yards and a touchdown.
“I was keying on [Miller],” Lagowy said. “That’s my number one. I saw [Mengel] eyeing him up, and I made a move on him.”
After the teams exchanged punts to start the game, North Schuylkill scored on three consecutive possessions.
Miller had touchdown runs of 63 and 30 yards on the first two series, the second coming after Spartans teammate Nelson Berger recovered a Tigers fumble.
Cadyn McGraw’s 1-yard TD plunge gave North Schuylkill an 18-6 lead early in the second quarter.
Northwestern responded when Brady Zimmerman’s 1-yard TD run capped an 11-play, 65-yard drive to get within 18-13.
The Tigers defense finally got a stop on the Spartans’ next series to end the half and then got things rolling in the second half.
Shane Leh, named Homecoming King at halftime, completed 11 of 15 passes for 150 yards and two touchdowns.
Lakatosh ran for 119 yards and a touchdown. Chase Sukanick ran for 161 yards and two second-half scores of 10 and 74 yards, respectively. Zimmerman ran for 87 yards, caught a 28-yard TD pass and played strong defensively to help contain Miller after his fast start.
Northwestern (6-0) travels to Pottsville (2-4) at 7 p.m. Friday. North Schuylkill (3-3) hosts Bangor (0-6), also at 7 Friday.
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com
NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH 49, NORTH SCHUYLKILL 18
North Schuylkill: 12; 6; 0; 0 — 18
Northwestern Lehigh: 6; 7; 15; 21 — 49
ORDER OF SCORING
First quarter
NS: Luke Miller 63 run (run failed), 6:52
NS: Miller 30 run (run failed), 3:53
NWL: Shane Leh 8 pass to Michael Lagowy (kick failed), 2:36
Second quarter
NS: Cadyn McGraw 1 run (pass failed), 9:11
NWL: Brady Zimmerman 1 run (Chase Sukanick kick), 4:37
Third quarter
NWL: Braxton Lakatosh 46 run (Sukanick pass to Shane Hulmes), 9:52
NWL: Leh 28 pass to Zimmerman (Sukanick kick), 3:01
Fourth quarter
NWL: Sukanick 10 run (Sukanick kick), 9:34
NWL: Mason Bollinger 3 run (Sukanick kick), 8:17
NWL: Sukanick 74 run (Sukanick kick), 5:43
TEAM STATISTICSNS; NWLFirst downs; 15; 22Rushes-yards; 37-276; 44-397Passing yards; 74; 150Comp-Att-INTs; 2-11-3; 11-15-0Punts-avg.; 3-43.7; 1-38.0Fumbles-lost; 0-0; 1-1Penalties-yards; 6-40; 7-82
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRushing: (North Schuylkill) Luke Miller 32-269, 2 TDs; Caden Mengel 4-6; Cadyn McGraw 1-1, TD; (Northwestern) Braxton Lakatosh 14-119, TD; Brady Zimmerman 7-87, TD; Shane Leh 5-16; Chase Sukanick 10-161, 2 TDs; Mason Bollinger 4-20, TD; team 4-(-6).
Passing: (North Schuylkill) Mengel 2-11-3, 74 yards; (Northwestern) Leh 11-15-0, 150 yards, 2 TDs.
Receiving: (North Schuylkill) Landen Smith 2-74; (Northwestern) Bollinger 1-5; Michael Lagowy 7-85, TD; Zimmerman 3-60, TD.
