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Northwestern Lehigh claws their way to Victory over Wyomissing

Tagged under: District 11, District 3, Gameday Hub, News, pfn, Playoffs

| December 2, 2023

Kutztown-

Northwestern Lehigh overcomes a bevy of mistakes and a very solid Wyomissing ground attack to come away victorious en-route to their first ever trip to the PIAA football Championship game.

Wyomissing won the coin-toss and elected to defer to the 2nd half which gave the ball to the visiting Tigers to start the game.  The Spartan defense made quick work of this series and forced a quick 3 and out by the Northwestern offense.  Punting from deep in their own territory, the Tigers ended up giving Wyomissing excellent starting field position right around mid-field to start their first offensive possession of the game.

The Tiger defense, not to be outdone by their Spartan counterparts forced a 3 and out themselves and got the ball back for the Tiger offense.  The Tiger offense couldn’t get anything going after a quick strike from Leh (7-13, 112 yards, 1 TD) to Landen Matson got them a first down on a 16 yard pass play.  The following  plays would include a snap infraction, a sack, and a delay of game penalty by the Tigers who would have to punt the ball away again to the Spartans who once again would start with excellent field position right at midfield.  This time however, the Spartan ground game would get rolling and 5 plays later, Spartan running back Chase Eisenhower would find a hole right up the middle for a 21 yard touchdown to put Wyomissing up 7-0 over Northwestern with 3:57 left to play in the first quarter.

The ensuing kickoff would be returned by the Tigers all the way to the Wyomissing 45.  It wouldn’t take Northwestern very long to answer the Spartans’ score with one of their own as the Tigers would put together a quick 7 play drive capped off by a 25 yard pass and catch from Shane Leh to Dalton Clymer (18 rushes, 99 yards, 2 Total TD) in the flat who would take it to the house to tie the game up at 7 with just 57 seconds left in the first quarter.

Wyomissing would start off their next offensive possession with a big 18 yard run by Ryker Jones to get the Spartans in to Tiger territory.

The Northwestern defense would put the clamps on the Wyomissing offense after this first first down of their possession and force them to punt.  The Wyomissing punt would take a great bounce for the Spartans and be downed at the Tigers’ 1 yardline.  The Wyomissing defense would keep them in the shadow of their own endzone and force a quick punt by the Tigers.  The punt would not get very far as the ball would be downed by the Tigers just outside their own 20 yardline.  The Wyomissing offense would take advantage of the fantastic field position and cash in on a 2 yard pass from Logan Hyde to Ryker Jones to put the Spartans up 14-7 over Northwestern Lehigh with 5:09 left in the first half.

The Tigers would get the ball back with just over 5 minutes to play in the half and were looking to cut in to the Spartans’ lead.  They would muster a single first down before the penalty bug came back to bite them once again.  The penalty  would put them behind the chains and eventually lead to a Tiger punt.  Wyomissing would come out on offense hungry to extend their lead, but the Tiger defense had other ideas as they forced a quick 3 and out and punt by the Spartans.  The punt would hit a Northwestern player and be recovered by Wyomissing at the Tigers’ 26 yardline.  An illegal touching penalty by Wyomissing would put them behind the sticks and after almost throwing an interception, Logan Hyde would find some running room on 3rd and very long to put the Spartans in field goal range.  The field goal attempt by Keegan Maher would sail through the uprights and with 59 seconds left in the opening half, Wyomissing lead Northwestern Lehigh 17-7.  This score would carry through to halftime.

 

The 2nd half would see Wyomissing start with the ball.  The Spartans would look to their ground game and after ripping off a few nice runs by Ryker Jones Derek Marcina, and Chase Eisenhower, a false start penalty would throw a wrench in to their steady march downfield.  Two plays later Hyde would be intercepted by the Tigers’ Eli Zimmerman (1 rec, 39 yards, 2 rushes, 8 yards 1 TD, 1 INT)and returned to the Tigers 27 yardline.

Northwestern’s Shane Leh would take matters in to his own hands and 2 plays later would find an opening on a qb keeper  and race 41 yards down the Tigers’ sideline deep in to Wyomissing territory.  Two plays later he would have his own number called again and scamper 26 yards and dive in to the endzone to bring the score to 17-14 in favor of Wyomissing with 5:42 left in the 3rd quarter.

The Tigers’ defense would force a Wyomissing 3 and out on their next possession and the Spartan punt would be returned by Northwestern all the way to the Wyomissing 46.  The Northwestern offense would stick to their tried and true ground attack on this series and find paydirt after 6 consecutive runs by Dalton Clymer which he capped off via a 3 yard TD  run.  This would give Northwestern their first lead of the evening at 20-17 after the extra point would sail wide with 2:09 left in the 3rd quarter.

The ensuing Wyomissing drive would be quite the adventure.  After a heavy dose of Spartan rushes would get them deep in to Tiger territory, the Northwestern defense would stiffen up and force a field goal attempt. The Spartans lined up for what looked to be a chip shot only to have a lineman jump, and have a false start penalty assessed to them.  After moving their field position back the requisite 5 yards, the kick sailed through the uprights and seemed to have knotted the game at 20, however, there was a roughing the kicker penalty called on Northwestern and Wyomissing chose to take the 3 points off the board in favor of a first down for their offense.  The new set of downs gave Wyomissing a first down inside of the Northwestern 5 yardline.  On first down Eisenhower would almost find paydirt only to be stopped at the 1 yardline by the Northwestern defense.  The Spartans would be called for a hold on the next play which pushed them outside the Tiger 10 yardline.  On 3rd down, Hyde would find an opening around the left side of the Tiger defensive line and scamper all the way down to the Tiger 1 yardline.  The play would see Northwestern’s anchor on their defensive line, Bryer Reichard go down with a cramp and be unavailable for the next play, 4th and goal from the 1.  On 4th down this time the Spartans would go for it and Eisenhower would eek across the line and after a long pause the line judges would signal a touchdown for Wyomissing putting them back in the lead 24-20 with 5:43 left in the game.

The ensuing Tiger drive would be energized by a 39 yard dump off over the middle from Leh to Hildebrand who was finally brought down at the Wyomissing 12 yardline.

On an attempted pass 2 plays later,  the Tiger quarterback  would get slammed to the turf as he was trying to get a pass off and be pulled from the game by the Tigers’ staff.  Hildebrand would take over as the wildcat quarterback for the Tigers and 2 plays later would have his own number called and find paydirt from 4 yards out leaping over a blocked Spartan defender and Tiger teammate into the endzone to put Northwestern up 27-24 with just under 3 minutes left in the game.

The Wyomissing offense would come back on to the field in hopes of retaking a late lead to put them in to the championship game.  However, it was not to be.  The Northwestern defense would force 3 incompletions and then on 4th down, quick pressure up the middle by Shane Hulmes would force an errant pass from Hyde and the Tiger’s would take over  at the Wyomissing 22 yardline.  Two plays later after a 20 yard rush, Tiger running back Dalton Clymer would find the endzone on a 2 yard run right up the gut to put the game seemingly out of reach, 33-24, in favor of Northwestern with only 1:21 left in the game.

The ensuing Wyomissing drive would see Hyde complete 2 quick passes for a first down only to be sacked by Bryer Reichard.  Seemingly sensing defeat, the Spartans did not call a timeout and let the game clock run.  The next play Hyde would escape from the pocked and find an opening down the Wyomissing sideline and then as he went out of bounds was contacted late by Clymer which drew an immediate flag from the officials and tacked on another 15 yards for a late hit.  On the following play, Hyde would lob a pass in to the end zone which would be picked off by Daniel Jenkins to seal the victory for Northwestern and send them to the PIAA 3A Championship game next week.

After the game, when asked about his team’s second half effort, Dalton Clymer said ” It was a team effort, on third and short, 4th and short, our defense stepped up and made plays, I’m so proud of them Yea going in down at the half we had penalties that were killin’ us in the first half.  We overcame it”

When listening to Tiger quarterback Shane Leh talk about the play and series during which he was knocked from the game he said “I don’t care about the injury, just gotta deal with it. I’m just a little banged up “. When talking about halftime adjustments he said “Coach Snyder was just telling us how the offense wasn’t doing what we were supposed to be doing and we needed to change that”

Lastly, I was able to listen to Northwestern coach Snyder talk about his team’s 2nd half effort, he said “We had to compete, that’s all you can ask for, is to compete to win the game, give yourself a chance in the 4th quarter and that’s exactly what we did and we made the plays, we made a couple more plays than them and that’s what happens in championship games, the team that does that typically wins.

With the loss, Wyomissing ends their season 12-2 and as PIAA District III 3A Champs.  Northwestern Lehigh (13-0) will face off next week against Belle Vernon, the WPIAL 3A Champs, in the PIAA 3A Championship game.  The Leopards are  fresh off a 42-16 victory over Hickory in the West Semi-final.

 

Credit to Bill Snook for photos used in story image.  For more photos from the game check out his Wyomissing vs Northwestern Lehigh Gallery.

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