MECHANICSBURG, PA — These were different tears. These were not tears of defeat. They were tears of joy and anguish. They were tears of history.
Eli Zimmerman could not help himself. The Northwestern Lehigh senior tailback lost a state title a year ago, then lost a friend, Tucker Wessner, over the summer.
So, when Zimmerman turned the corner for the game-winning touchdown Saturday afternoon he was thinking of them in the Tigers’ 36-33 PIAA Class 3A state championship overtime victory over Avonworth at Cumberland Valley High School’s Chapman Field.
Zimmerman’s 10-yard touchdown run was the winning difference in overtime and capped Northwestern Lehigh’s historic, perfect 16-0 season and the school’s incredibly rare fall season in which both boys’ and girls’ soccer teams won their respective PIAA Class 2A state soccer championships with a combined 56-0 record.
With the Tigers finishing 16-0, it gave the school a combined 72-0 record for the fall season.
It is a community that was hit by the tragic loss of Wessner, a 16-year-old who would have been a junior linebacker for the Tigers this season.
“I was thinking about Tucker, I was thinking about last year, everything, yeah, these are different tears than the last time I was on this field,” Zimmerman said. “We wanted to do this; we had to do this especially for Tucker. This summer was definitely a hard one for us. We had to do this for him. This season was sad, but winning has counteracted that.
“We completely did what we wanted to do. I know I had to get this done for the community. No one was going to stop me from scoring that (overtime) touchdown. Nothing was going to get in my way.”
No one did.
Zimmerman finished with 123 yards rushing on 28 carries and three scores. Quarterback Shane Leh did a great job of mixing things up, taking advantage of the Avonworth defense’s focus on Zimmerman, and trying to keep Avonworth’s explosive junior Luca Neal off the field.
Neal finished with a game-high 252 yards rushing on 36 carries and four touchdowns. There was one point when Northwestern Lehigh was up. 30-16, with 5:47 left in the third quarter. The Tigers had scored on their first five drives and looked unstoppable, while Avonworth began to sputter.
Neal dragged the Antelopes back.
It was just a difficult way to end their season. The Antelopes went into the game without top senior back Nico Neal, Luca’s older brother, due to turf toe.
“Our kids are resilient, they battled back and competed and they made the plays when they had to,” Avonworth coach Duke Johncour said. “It was a hard-fought game. It is a shame one team had to lose, unfortunately, it was us. Overtime in a state championship, I do not know if it gets any worse than that.
“(Nico) is a stud. We obviously had to make some changes. Losing him is a big, big loss. We fight, we compete, and so proud of their effort. We were going for two if we were on defense (to begin overtime) for sure. But we had to put points up, and we only got a field goal out of it. That’s a great football team. We talked about containing Zimmerman. They’re not 16-0 for nothing.”
Avonworth rebounded from a 30-16 deficit to tie the score, 30-30, on Neal’s fourth touchdown with 4:32 left to play. It was Neal who brought the Antelopes within a score on a 54-yard, third-quarter TD run.
Northwestern Lehigh took control at its 30 with 4:27 to play, after being stopped on three-and-outs the previous two drives. The stops ended the Tigers scoring streak at five drives. As Northwestern Lehigh was driving, the Tigers averted big trouble when quarterback Shane Leh fumbled at the Avonworth 45 and tackle Bryer Reichard was there to fall on it.
With 1:18 left in regulation, disaster did strike Northwestern Lehigh and possible resurrection came to Avonworth, when the Antelopes’ Bill Onyshko intercepted a Leh pass at the Avonworth 31.
But the Antelopes could not move the ball beyond their 45 with 17 seconds left and were forced to punt. Northwestern Lehigh took a knee, sending the game into overtime.
In the first overtime, the Tigers halted Avonworth at the seven, forcing a Calder Mahan 24-yard field goal. On Northwestern Lehigh’s first overtime play, Zimmerman went right, got the corner, and beat everyone to the cone for the walk-off, game-winning score.
“For us to push through, it means a lot for us and the community, and I can die a happy man,” Tigers’ coach Josh Snyder said. “In overtime, we have that little bronco formation and we used that a couple of times. We noticed (Avonworth) was loading up on the strong side, and it just popped into my head to fake a toss, and run a little double trap back to the weak side.
“This summer, we lost Tucker in a tragic accident. He has been in our thoughts all year long and he’s been an angel on our shoulders. But Eli would not let us down. He gets everything out of his frame. Measurables are out the window. Their whole defense was designed to stop him. This will be a team I will remember forever. I played at Lehigh and won four Patriot League championships, but there is nothing like this. It is still sinking in.
“We did this for Tucker.”
Scoring Summary
(District 11) Northwestern Lehigh (16-0) 7 10 13 0 6-36
(District 7) Avonworth (12-4) 6 10 7 7 3-33
1st Quarter
A – Luca Neal 18 run (kick failed), 8:54
NL – Eli Zimmerman 1 run (Seth Kern kick), 5:11
A – Neal 32 run (Calder Mahan kick), 2:26
2nd Quarter
NL – Shane Hulmes 7 pass from Shane Leh (Kern kick), 9:13
A – Calder Mahan 28 FG, 2:14
NL – Kern 29 FG, :00
3rd Quarter
NL – Zimmerman 1 run (run failed), 7:45
NL – Hulmes 1 run (Kern kick), 5:47
A – Neal 54 run (Mahan kick), 1:42
4th Quarter
A – Neal 1 run (Mahan kick), 4:32
OT
A – Mahan 24 FG
NL – Zimmerman 10 run
FULL GAME STATS
NL/A
FIRST DOWNS 22/15
RUSHES-YARDS (NET) 49-203/42-259
PASSING YDS (NET) 114/48
Passes Cmp-Att-Int 12-15-1/3-6-0
TOTAL OFFENSE PLAYS-YARDS 64-317/48-307
Fumble Returns-Yards 1-6/0-0
Punt Returns-Yards 0-0/1-23
Kickoff Returns-Yards 5-76/4-54
Interception Returns-Yards 0-0/1-0
Punts (Number-Avg) 2-32.5/2-55.5
Fumbles-Lost 2-0/1-1
Penalties-Yards 0-0/2-10
Possession Time 24:15/23:45
Third-Down Conversions 4 of 10/6 of 11
Fourth-Down Conversions 2 of 2/1 of 1
Red-Zone Scores-Chances 6-6/4-4
Joseph Santoliquito is a hall-of-fame, award-winning sportswriter who has been covering high school football since 1992 and is the president of the Boxing Writers Association of America. He can be followed on Twitter @JSantoliquito [twitter.com]. Follow EasternPAFootball.com on Twitter @EPAFootball [twitter.com].
