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Northwestern Lehigh Wins in a tale of two halves

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

| September 27, 2025

New Tripoli-

In a game of starkly contrasting halves of football, Northwestern left little doubt and pulls away from North Schuylkill to remain undefeated on the year.

The Tigers won the toss and elected to defer, giving the ball to the visiting Spartans to start off the game.  The Northwestern defense forced a quick 3 and out which was reciprocated right back by the Spartan defense to Northwestern.  During their 2nd possession, North Schuylkill got their game rolling, and a big part of that was their running back, Luke Miller, who broke of a huge 63 yard touchdown to open the scoring for the evening.  With 6:52 remaining in the opening quarter the visiting Spartans led by 6.

Northwestern next possession turned out to be even more disastrous than their first as the Spartan defense was able to punch the ball out of quarterback Shane Leh’s hands and Nelson Berger fell on it to get the ball back for the Spartans. North Schuylkill’s offense dished out another heaping dose of Luke Miller who broke free from 30 yards out and scored his 2nd touchdown of the first quarter.

Looking to break out of their funk, Northwestern was finally able to get something going on offense.  Braxton Lakatosh found room around the outside of the Spartan defense early in the drive and set up the Tigers deep in Spartan territory.  The Tigers capped off the drive with a 10 yard touchdown pass from  Shane Leh to Michael Lagowy to get the Tigers on the board with 2:36 remaining in the first quarter.

The ensuing North Schuylkill drive continued in to the 2nd quarter and with it so did the seeming inevitableness of this Spartan offense.  Caden Mengle found Landen Smith deep over top of the Northwestern defense for a long 30 yard strike and 2 plays later, the Spartans’ Cadyn Mcgraw punched it in again for the third Spartan score of the night.  With 9:10 remaining in the half, it was Northwestern Lehigh 6, North Schuylkill 18.

Mixing it up on the ground and through the air on their next drive Leh and the Tiger offense fought their way down the field and Brady Zimmerman capped off the scoring drive with a physical 6 yard td run around the left side to bring the Tigers within a single score closing in on halftime.

The teams went to their locker rooms with the score, Northwestern 13, North Schuylkill 18.  Whatever was said in the Northwestern locker room at half must have really lit a fire in that squad.  The team that emerged for the 2nd half seemed completely renewed and…different.  No more mistakes, no more giving up explosive plays, no more punts.  The Tigers, receiving the 2nd half kick, immediately went to work and the Tigers’ Braxton Lakatosh wasted little time making an impact in the 2nd half as he took the 6th play of the drive 46 yards to the house to put Northwestern on top for the first time on the evening.  The 2 point attempt by Northwestern was also successful, and with 9:52 remaining in the 3rd, Northwestern had secured a 3 point lead, 21-18.

The following North Schuylkill drive came to an abrupt end as Caden Mengel was picked off by the Tigers’ Braxton Lakatosh on 4th down at the Tiger 8 yard line.  This drive was Leh’s time to shine as he found Lagowy  and Zimmerman for 2 first down receptions and then on a seemingly harmless dump-off pass to Zimmerman in the flat, found paydirt 28 yards later as he shook off a Spartan defender and then carried another in to the end-zone to extend the Tigers’ lead to 10.

The Tiger offense continued to pour it on in the 4th quarter as Chase Sukanick scored not just one ….

but TWO rushing touchdowns to cap off his night on the ground.

The 4th quarter was also exciting for the Tigers’ defense as Michael Lagowy came away with 2 interceptions, sealing the deal for Northwestern.

The Tigers decisively righted their ship in the 2nd half and pulled far, far away leaving little doubt as the game came to a close.  Final score from New Tripoli, Northwestern Lehigh 49, North Schuylkill 18.  After the game I was able to speak with Northwestern’s Chase Sukanick, Michael Lagowy, and coach Josh Synder about the mid-game turnaround and their contributions to the Tiger victory.

With the victory this evening, Northwestern Lehigh moves to 6-0 on the season and will look to welcome Pottsville(2-4) next week who are fresh off a shutout loss to Lehighton this week.  In defeat, North Schuylkill is now 3-3 on the year with all three losses coming to undefeated teams(Northwestern Lehigh, Southern Lehigh, Notre Dame-Green Pond).  Next week they will play host to Bangor(0-6) who lost to Tamaqua this evening 20-0.

 

STATS

Rushing:

(North Schuylkill)

Luke Miller 32-269, 2 TDs

Caden Mengel 4-6

Cadyn McGraw 1-1, TD

(Northwestern)

Braxton Lakatosh 14-119, TD

Brady Zimmerman 7-87, TD

Shane Leh 5-16

Chase Sukanick 10-161, 2 TDs

Mason Bollinger  4-20, TD

Passing:

(North Schuylkill)

Mengel 2-11-3, 74 yards

(Northwestern)

Leh 11-15-0, 150 yards, 2 TDs

Receiving:

(North Schuylkill)

Landen Smith 2-74

(Northwestern)

Bollinger 1-5

Michael Lagowy 7-85, TD

Zimmerman 3-60, TD

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