Stream Pennsylvania High School Football on the NFHS Network
 
 

Northwestern Lehigh’s ball controller offense and stifling defense leads to shutout win

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

| September 20, 2025

Tigers earn 21st consecutive win after close call a week ago.

LEHIGHTON- After a close call last week for the defending PIAA state 3A champions, Northwestern Lehigh Tigers in a hard-fought 34-28 win over Blue Mountain. Coach Josh Snyder went back to the drawing board in the video room to break down film and made some adjustments to correct some flaws in his teams execution last week.In hopes to get the Tigers focus back to the task at hand.

Friday night at Lehighton’s Multi-Purpose Stadium proved that time well spent as the unbeaten Tigers thoroughly decimated the Lehighton Indians by a score of 50-0 before an overflow crowd

Northwestern scored on their first five possessions in the opening twenty-four minutes to take a commanding 35 point lead into the locker room. The entire second half was played with a running clock.

The defense set the tone early as they held the Indians to a three-and-out on their opening drive and a short punt gave the visitors excellent field position inside the Indian 40. Northwestern needed just three plays to put points on the scoreboard as Braxton Lakatosh dashed in from 30 yards out with 9:40 left in the opening quarter.

On their next possession again Lehighton had only three plays on offense before they were forced to punt. The Tigers took over at their own 49 yard line. Running back Brady Zimmerman capped off the five play drive with a 28 yard run, Zimmerman broke through several would-be tacklers at the line of scrimmage before breaking free down the right side for a 14-0 lead with 5:50 left in the quarter.

The scenario repeated itself on the next Indian possession as they could not muster a first down and were forced to punt. The Tigers took advantage of fantastic field position near midfield from the Mason Bollinger popped into the end zone from three yards out making a the score 21-0 still in the first quarter.

Lehighton finally got some momentum near the end of the quarter and carried into the second as quarterback Jayse Lawrence completed multiple passes on the drive and picked up three first downs, but an errand pass on a deep ball near the goal line was pick off by Shane Leh ending any threat.

The Tigers then marched 80 yards on just six plays as Shane Hulmes took a direct snap and scored from 4 yards out as it looked like he was stopped short of the goal line but kept pushing the scrum into the end zone for a 28-0 lead with 6:36 left before halftime.

With under two minutes left before intermission Leh completed a 3 yard pass to Bollinger increasing to lead to 35-0 making the second played with the running clock. Leh completed 15 of 19 passes for 171 yards and two touchdowns in the contest. Leh spread the ball around to several different receivers both Bollinger and Michael Lagowy each caught five balls. Brady Zimmerman caught a couple of passes as well as Hulmes added two more.

The offense as well balanced in the ground game as Lakatosh picked up 106 yards and Chase Sukanick rushed for nearly a hundred more. The Tigers offense in total gained 476 yards on the night. The defense did its job as well holding the Indians to just 83 yards in total.

“Don’t get me wrong the running game is our strong suit, as long as I am here we will be a running team, but it is nice to have that option of throwing the ball, and with Shane Leh having 37 starts under his belt it is a nice weapon to have.: Coach Josh Snyder said after the game.

There was no scoring in the third quarter as Northwestern took the second half kick and march from the 20 down inside the Lehighton ten yard line using up over half the quarter, but the drive stalled and a fourth down play failed and the Indians took over.

The Tigers scored early in final period as Leh connected Lagowy on a fifteen yard score at the 10:25 mark and the Jesse Yenser playing quarterback ran it in from a yard out to close out the scoring.

Northwestern Lehigh (5-0) will host North Schuylkill (3-2) next week in New Tripoli, in a rematch of last year’s District XI Class 3A championship. The Spartans coached by Wally Hall defeated Jim Thorpe Friday night 36-14. Lehighton (2-3), who gave unbeaten and state ranked 4A team Southern Lehigh all they could ask for in a 21-20 to the Spartns will try to regroup and get back in the win column by hosting Bangor (0-5) next week. The Slaters were shut out by Blue Mountain 35-0.

Follow PA Football News on Twitter @PaFootballNews

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