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History in the making: Northwestern wins classic thriller in overtime over Avonworth to capture PIAA gold

Tagged under: District 11, District 7, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

| December 7, 2024

Northwestern Lehigh football team completes the trifecta this fall in a historic run to the school’s third championship this fall.

MECHANICSBURG- 71-0! that was the combined record of the Northwestern Lehigh Tigers boy’s and girls soccer teams along with their football squad coming into Saturday’s afternoon 3A championship contest with District 7 champion Avonworth Antelopes at Chapman Field at Cumberland Valley High School. After 48 minutes could not decide a winner. It took just one offensive play for the Tigers after the Antelopes took the lead on a Calder Mahon 29 yard field goal. Eli Zimmerman took a sweep to the right and ducked inside the corner of the end zone giving the Tigers the win 36-33 and capturing a PIAA State 3A title 36-33 before a packed crowd of supporters from New Tripoli and surrounding area. Completing the 16-0 season and going 72-0 for the triple-crown.

After Luca Neal, of Avonworth scored the first points of the game on the Antelopes hoping drive for a 6-0 lead. Eli Zimmerman matched that score from a yard out, but Northwestern made the extra-point for a 7-6 lead with 5:11 left in the opening quarter. Zimmerman finished the game with 123 yards on 29 carries and 3 touchdowns in the win.

Neal would score right back for Avonworth from 32 yards out giving the WPIAL squad a a 13-7 lead after one quarter. Neal carried the ball 32 times mostly all from the quarterback position for a game record 252 yards.

In the second stanza, Tigers quarterback Shane Leh tossed a 7 yard touchdown pass to a wide open Shane Hulmes in the back corner of the end zone to make it 14-13 after Seth Kern connected on the PAT with 9:13 left in the second quarter.

The teams would trade field goals later in the quarter as Mahon hit from 29 yards and the Kern would answer to close out the half from 29 yards as well as the Tigers took a 17-16 lead in to the locker room.

At the beginning the start of the third quarter, Northwestern Lehigh put together an impressive 11 play drive that covered 59 yards capped off by another 1 yard Zimmerman touchdown to make it 23-16 with 7:45 left on the clock.

On the initial Antelopes drive of the quarter, Zimmerman came up big on defense as he forced a Avonworth fumble near midfield. It would only take the Tigers offense four plays to score again and take a 30-16 lead as Hulmes would Cross the goal line from a yard out with 5:47 left.

Neal came through for Avonworth as he coasted in from 54 yards out and Mahan added the extra-point to make it 30-23 going into last twelve minutes.

The only score of the quarter came on the legs of Neal again as he scored from a yard out to tie the score at 30 with 4:32 left in regulation. Neither team could muster any more points and the game wound up going into overtime, the second straight extra-period game of the championships as Bishop McDevitt knocked off Roman Catholic in the 5A championship on Friday night.

Northwestern won the toss and elected to play defense. The Tigers buckled down and stopped Neal short of the end zone and forced a Mahan field goal from 24 yards to make it 33-30. The Tigers had their shot from 10 yards out and Zimmern took the hand-off and swept right, hesitated for a second the stepped on the gas and out-raced the pursuit just inside the pylon for the win. Northwestern played in the championship game in 2023 but lost to a powerful Bell Vernon team 38-7.

“The heart of this team is tremendous. Things went high and low for us, but our kids kept it together.” Coach Josh Snyder stated.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
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