Stream Pennsylvania High School Football on the NFHS Network
 
 

Northwestern Lehigh captures another Colonial-Schuylkill League Red Division title

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

| October 25, 2025

Five different players score for the Tigers as they win their tenth game on the season

NEW TRIPOLI- Both the unbeaten Southern Lehigh Spartans and the Northwestern Lehigh Tigers came into Friday nights’ showdown at Tiger Stadium both ranked high in the latest pafootballnews.com rankings. The Spartans at number one in class 4A and the Tigers number 2 in 3A behind Avonworth.

Northwestern Lehigh riding a 25 game win streak and are the defending 3A state champions. When the final whistle blew, the Tigers reigned supreme with a 36-28 win before an overflow crowd. Making it six straight wins over the Spartans and capturing the league crown.

The Tigers jumped out quickly on the opening drive after two third down conversions culminated in a twelve yard run for quarterback Shane Leh dove in to the end zone on a 12 yard run around left end to take a 7-0 lead just 1:43 into the contest, Chase Sukanick added the point-after.

After an impressive drive by Southern Lehigh on their first possession stalled out. The Spartans defense, came up with a rare interception of Leh placed the ball at the 38 of Northwestern Lehigh, but the Tigers defense rose to the occasion stopping a fourth down attempt and giving the ball back to the offense.

A few plays later, on a third and two call, the hand-off went to Shane Hulmes and as he crossed the line of scrimmage a well-placed stiff-arm stopped a Spartan defender in his tracks and Hulmes exploded down the far sidelines for a 64 yard touchdown run making the score 14-0 with still 3:06 left in the opening quarter after Sukanick made the PAT.

“That was an impressive stiff-arm, I think that kid is still somewhere left on the field after that.” Head coach of Northwestern Josh Snyder said after the game.

The Tigers would increase their lead to 22-0 after forcing a a three-and-out on Southern Lehigh’s next possession. A methodical 74 yard eight play drive by Northwestern concluded with a 27 yard yard touchdown pass from Leh to Michael Lagowy, then a two-point conversion pass from Mason Bollinger to Mason Wertman extended the lead with just over two minutes played in the second quarter.

Needing a score, desperately, The Spartans responded with a perfectly thrown bullet over the middle from quarterback Colton Sams to Otto Young, who got the ball right on the goal line to cut the deficit to 22-7 with 2:35 left before halftime.

The Tigers defense shutdown the running abilities of Sean Steckert who finished the night with 83 yards on 20 carries and harassed Sams all night long, though the signal-caller did throw for 217 yards on 22-of-32 assing and the three touchdowns and had one interception.

Brady Zimmerman, Ethan Steigerwalt and Colton Popp led the defense with multiple tackles for loss for the Tigers, Shane Hulmes would pick off a Sams pass on Southern Lehigh’s opening drive coming out of the locker room, but that drive would lead to no points for the home team as a field goal attempt would be blocked by Spartans’ Carter Giberson.

A 63 yard drive would follow a Spartans punt that was turned into another score for Northwestern when Brady Zimmerman found the end zone from three yards out making the score 29-7 with 4:36 left in the third quarter.

Late in third quarter Sams would connect with Darius Roman for a 16 yard score, but again the Tigers would answer as Sukanick capped off a 12 play 67 yard drive with a 3 yard touchdown run pushing the lead to 36-14 with 5:51 left in the contest

The Spartans scrambled back in the game as on their next drive as Sams would find Roman for a six yard score and then they would recover the on-side kick and would convert again and this time a 22 yard pass from Sam to Jack Fistner would make it a 36-28 game with still 1:18 left in regulation.

Southern Lehigh nearly recovered another on-side kick, but Brady Zimmerman came up out of the pile with a ball. Northwestern would pick up two first downs and were able to go into victory formation to close out the win.

The District XI playoffs begin next week and top speed in 4A Southern Lehigh (9-1) will face 0-10 Bangor Slaters in Center Valley at 7 p.m on Thursday. Northwestern Lehigh (10-0) is the second seed behind Notre Dame Gree Pond in the 3A classification will host the number 7 seed Panther Valley (4-6) also on Thursday. Bangor lost to rival Pen Argyl 32-21 while Panther Valley dropped a 45-18 decision to Minersville.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

 
 
PA Football News Scoreboard presented by NFHS Network
 
GoRout
 
Showcase by Circle W Sports
 
x