It took time, but Northwestern Lehigh found its offensive rhythm. That did not surprise any one of the Tigers.
What did surprise and impress them is that the Tigers are headed to third consecutive PIAA Class 3A championship game.
Shane Leh threw three touchdown passes and Braxton Lakatosh ran for three scores as Northwestern Lehigh scored the last 42 points of Friday night’s state semifinal to beat Trinity 48-13.
Northwestern Lehigh (15-0), winner of 31 consecutive games, will play District 7 champion Avonworth at 1 p.m. Saturday in a rematch of last year’s state final won by the Tigers in overtime.
“I’m in shock,” Leh said. “But we’ve been in this position before twice. Third time’s a charm, so here we go.”
Trinity took a 13-6 lead with 2 minutes, 35 seconds left in the first half.
It was all Northwestern Lehigh after that.
Leh hit Michael Lagowy for a 23-yard TD pass 37 seconds later to get the Tigers even.
Coach Josh Snyder’s club then scored on its first five possessions of the second half before going into victory formation to become District 11’s first team to reach three consecutive state finals.
“That’s difficult for me to comprehend, to fathom,” Snyder said, “because I know how tough it was to get there in the first place three years ago. Last was spectacular. Getting back again, one day when I’m a little older and retired, I’ll look back at how special this run was.”
Northwestern Lehigh took the lead for good less than two minutes into the third quarter on Leh’s 11-yard touchdown pass to Shane Hulmes. A 29-yard pass to Brady Zimmerman and a 14-yard run by Zimmerman led to the score
The Tigers defense then found a way to slow down the Shamrocks’ physical offense with a third-down stop on their first series of the second half.
Six plays later, Leh hit Lagowy for a 22-yard scoring pass, and the Northwestern offense found the rhythm it was lacking for much of the first half.
“In the run game, we were a block away or had everybody blocked and didn’t make the right cut,” Snyder said. “[Leh] slipped on one fourth down. We missed a block on the other fourth down. Me, as a player caller, didn’t do a good job in the first half throwing it enough.
“I charted down some plays on my sheet at halftime that I thought would work, and we did hit home on a number of those. And the kids just settled into the game and realized and got confidence that we could take over [the game].”
Northwestern Lehigh scored first thanks to Mason Bollinger recovering a Trinity fumble on the game’s third offensive play. Five plays later, Lakatosh scored from nine yards out for a 6-0 lead less than three minutes. The two-point run failed.
Trinity scored the next two touchdowns. The first came when Brandon Harris’s 7-yard touchdown run completed an 11-play, 84-yard drive. The Shamrocks were aided by two Tigers penalties.
Trinity stuffed Northwestern Lehigh on fourth down before countering with another 11-play drive, this one capped by a 16-yard TD pass from Mason Boyer to Maddox Jarzynski with 2:34 left in the first half.
Northwestern Lehigh needed only three plays to respond. The last of Leh’s three completions was a 23-yard touchdown pass to Lagowy with 1:58 remaining in the half.
Each team had one more possession before the break, but couldn’t score.
The Tigers defense played much better in the second half. Leh and Fritz Scheirer had tackles for loss. Ethan Steigerwalt had a sack. Luke Rennells and Bollinger had fumble recoveries.
“It just shows all the hard work and game planning we put in,” Lagowy said. “Our [defensive] line stepped up insanely. They made plays. Our linebackers came up and in the secondary we made plays.”
NORTHWESTERN LEHIGH 48, TRINTY 13
Northwestern Lehigh; 6; 7; 21; 14 — 48
Trinity; 6; 7; 0; 0 — 13
ORDER OF SCORING
First quarter
NWL: Braxton Lakatosh 9 run (run failed), 9:28
T: Brandon Harris 7 run (kick blocked), 3:47
Second quarter
T: Mason Boyer 16 pass to Maddox Jarzynski (Logan Amatucci kick), 2:34
NWL: Shane Leh 23 pass to Michael Lagowy (Chase Sukanick kick), 1:58
Third quarter
NWL: Leh 11 pass to Shane Hulmes (Sukanick kick), 10:17
NWL: Leh 22 pass to Lagowy (Sukanick kick), 4:24
NWL: Lakatosh 43 run (Sukanick kick), 2:58
Fourth quarter
NWL: Lakatosh 39 run (Sukanick kick), 9:09
NWL: Brady Zimmerman 8 run (Sukanick kick), 5:23
TEAM STATISTICSNWL; TrFirst downs; 24; 16Rushing-yards; 35-257; 33-130Passing yards; 196; 96Comp-Att-INTs; 12-14-0; 11-22-0Punts; 1-36.0; 4-29.8Fumbles-lost; 2-0; 4-2Penalties-yards; 5-45; 5-50
INDIVIDUAL STATISTICSRushing: (Northwestern Lehigh) Braxton Lakatosh 12-155, 3 TDs; Chase Sukanick 7-35; Brady Zimmerman 5-43, TD; Mason Bollinger 3-10; Shane Leh 7-16; team 1-(-2); (Trinity) Brandon Harris 24-108, TD; Maddo Jarzynski 1-7; Mason Boyer 6-10; Marcus Yeager 1-8; Jerry Fino 1-(-3).
Passing: (Northwestern Lehigh) Leh 12-14-0, 196 yard, 3 TDs; (Trinity) Boyer 11-22-0, 96 yards, TD.
Receiving: (Northwestern Lehigh) Michael Lagowy 5-75, 2 TDs; Zimmerman 3-66; Sukanick 1-11; Shane Hulmes 1-11, TD; Bollinger 2-23; (Trinity) Jarzynski 4-41, TD; Yeager 4-30; Caleb Klepeiss 2-15; Harris 1-10.
Senior writer Tom Housenick can be reached at thousenick@mcall.com
