The Funding Zone
 
SAFR: Safer Through Science
 

Northwestern Lehigh rebounds from sloppy first half to pull away from Bangor

Tagged under: District 11, Gameday Hub, News

| October 14, 2023

Bangor- In a game riddled with penalties and mistakes, Northwestern was able to weather the storm and come away with a victory due to a dominant 2nd half performance.

Northwestern received the opening kick after Bangor deferred their choice to the second half.  After picking up a single first down, the Slater defense tightened up and forced Northwestern to punt.  The Tiger defense was more than up to the challenge on the following drive as they forced a 3 and out from the the Bangor offense.  On Northwestern’s ensuing drive their offense was able to gain some traction and had their drive capped off via a sneaky screen pass from sophomore QB Shane Leh(15-26, 227 yds, 3TD, 3INT) to Dalton Clymer(1 rec, 32 yds, TD; 21 rushes,106 yds,1 TD) who took the ball and navigated his way 32 yards to the endzone to open the scoring for Northwestern. Congratulations to Dalton on eclipsing the 3,000 career rushing yard mark later in the evening!

On the ensuing drive, the Slaters were able to move the ball down in to Tiger territory via a very nice pass from QB Greg Campbell(6-14, 130 yds, 1 TD) to wr MJ Siu(4 rec, 79 yds) for a gain of 27 yards right along the home sideline. However, the Tiger defense tightened up and forced the Slaters to punt.

The next Tiger drive started off with promise as Leh was able to find TE Shane Hulmes over the middle for what was at first thought to be a contested Slater INT, but the play was ruled a Tiger completion and just a few plays later the turnover bug would bite the Tigers as the Slaters’ Jacob Weaver would step in front of a Leh pass on the first play of the 2nd quarter and get the ball back for Bangor.

Following the turnover, the Slater offense would get some help via a roughing the passer penalty to keep their drive alive. Campbell found Siu open down the middle of the Tiger defense for a huge gain of 38 yards down inside the Northwestern 10 only to turn the ball over via a fumble on a mishandled snap on the next play which was recovered by Tiger lineman Benjamin Walters.

The following drives by both the Tigers and Slaters would be stymied by the opposing defenses and then finally just before the end of the half, the Tigers offense was able to break through and score again via a beauty of a pass from Leh to Devon Hildebrand(6 rec, 91 yds, 1 TD) with just under a minute remaining in the half.

The second half saw both teams going 3 and out and then Northwestern would break through after capitalizing on a short field with a 1 yard Dalton Clymer TD rush to put the Tigers up 22-0 with 5:19 left in the 3rd quarter.

The ensuing Bangor drive would see the Slaters finally get on the board via a beautiful pass down the seam for 32 yards and a TD from Campbell to Alex Farensbach to bring the score to 6-22 with 2:58 left in the 3rd quarter.

On the ensuing Tiger drive, the turnover bug would strike once again as Leh would be intercepted by the Slaters Jaxson Kreider at the Slaters own 2 yard-line to turn away the Tigers as they were marching for another score.   However, the euphoria of a defensive takeaway would only last momentarily as the ensuing Slater drive almost resulted in a safety, and then after the Tiger defense force a punt from the Slaters own endzone, Tiger returner Seth Kern returned the kick all the way for a Northwestern touchdown to extend the lead to 28-6 in favor of the visiting Tigers with  just over 10 minutes left in the game.

On the next 2 posessions the Slaters and Tigers would exchange interceptions on back to back plays.  Campbell would be intercepted by Northwestern corner Daniel Jenkins only to have a Leh pass on the very next play intercepted by Bangor’s Noah Hillis.  The following Bangor offensive series would go 3 and out.  After receiving the punt from Bangor, Northwestern would march down the field and score the game’s final points as Leh would find Devon Hildebrand once again for a Tiger touchdown to push Northwestern’s lead to 35-6 with just under 6 minutes left in the game.

The following drive would see Bangor going three and out and then the Tiger offense happily lining up in the victory formation to run out the clock and secure the victory for Northwestern.

After the game I was able to speak with Northwestern QB Shane Leh who when asked about the mistakes made by himself and his offense this evening said ” Yeah that Bangor team over there is a great team, I didn’t expect that defense to come out and stop us like that, it was a good win for us tonight and we’re happy to get it”. When I asked him about being a underclassman quarterback he replied “As the qb I’m the one making the throws out there, gotta get my guys involved and gotta throw perfect balls, but we have lots of senior and junior leaders on this team and they really help me and welcome me in to this program and help me as the quarterback as this season has progressed”.  I then asked about the looming matchup with Southern Lehigh in 2 weeks and Shane replied “Of course we’re very excited, but we’re not focused on them right now, we’re focused on this win tonight and then we’re going to be focused on Wilson next week.”

After speaking with the Tigers’ QB I was able to speak with Sr. running back Dalton Clymer about his team’s performance “Sloppy tonight for sure, a lot of penalties, but the line was able to open up those hole and somebody said over 100 rushing yards tonight so credit to them, they still did a good job and we ground it out to get the win.” When asked about looking forward to the upcoming matchup vs Southern Lehigh or if the team is just trying to take it one game at a time he said “A little bit of both, ya know we go week to week looking to go 1-0 each week we’re not looking ahead”.

Finally, I was able to corral head coach Josh Snyder who when asked about the sloppy win and his underclassman QB said ” Yeah, I told him the same thing I told him at the beginning of the season, you play the quarterback position and if you throw it enough, you have a complex offense like we do, you’re going to make mistakes, your gonna throw  interceptions, but you have to have the next play mentality. That being said you gotta be a little more careful with the football and not force it if it’s not there and live to play the next down. Sometimes we tried to force it tonight a little bit and in a tighter ball game that might come back to haunt us a bit, but it’s all good learning experiences for us .  You’re gonna make mistakes and there was plenty of blame to go around tonight. We were penalized quite a bit, missed blocking assignments, had some drops, we were due for one of those games.  Credit goes to Bangor for making us play like that, but to come out with a win after playing like that, that’s something you can take. Winning football games is tough, its tough, and no matter what you need to cherish the victories even though you can look at them and find areas that you can get better.  We’re really pumped up and pleased that we won a tough football game against Bangor to go 8-0. ”

This victory for Northwestern takes them to 8-0 on the year as they prepare to travel to Wilson Area next Saturday for a matchup vs the 0-8 Warriors.  The loss for the Slaters brings them to 5-3 this season as they ready themselves for their matchup at Blue Mountain(6-2) who defeated Saucon Valley 40-14 this week, next Friday night.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
QwikCut
 
GoRout
 
Rainbow Lettering
 
x