BERWICK-Northwestern Lehigh looked like a team on a mission Saturday night at Crispin Field in Berwick. The Tigers reached the state final in 2023, and find themselves just one victory away from doing it again in 2024. In the second half, Northwestern Lehigh got contributions from all three phases of the game, which opened up some separation on the scoreboard, enabling the Tigers to pull away for a 34-0 win. Northwestern Lehigh (14-0) knocked Scranton Prep out of the state playoffs for the second consecutive season and will advance to face Danville (14-0) next week in the PIAA Class 3A semifinals.
“Yeah, very pleased,” Northwestern Lehigh coach Josh Snyder said. “You get to this stage in the quarterfinals, you’re going to play a good football team, and they were a good football team, very stingy on defense. Unfortunately for them, a heck of a player, the (Louis) Paris kid went down. They weren’t quite the same after that, but proud of our guys. Our defense is incredible, all year long, and tonight was nothing different. Our playmakers didn’t make as many plays as they normally did in the first half, but I thought as the game went on, we gained some confidence.”
Scranton Prep (12-2) lost Paris to a second-quarter injury, and the Cavaliers were only able to rack up 77 yards of offense on the night. Throughout much of the first half, the Cavaliers’ defense hung in there. However, late in the second quarter, the Tigers began to find success and control the clock. Shane Hulmes crossed the goal line from a yard out to complete an impressive 17-play, 80-yard drive with 2:47 remaining. Eli Zimmerman, who had a huge game that included 149 rushing yards, carried the ball 11 times on the lengthy downfield march behind an offensive that became more dominant as the game wore on.
“O-line was great,” Zimmerman said. “Each week, they’ve been awesome. I really don’t think they get all the credit they deserve. Week in and week out, they’re facing some big bodies and they’re creating space for our backs. They’re playing on the other side of the ball on the defensive side, so it’s a great team effort for them up front. They really get the game going and they set the tone for us.”
The Tigers threatened to take a two-score lead into halftime, but a 23-yard field goal attempt sailed wide left as the first-half horn sounded. However, it would only be a matter of time before the special teams atoned and came through with a momentum-changing play. Following a defensive stop on Scranton Prep’s initial series of the second half, Zimmerman fielded a punt at his own 20. The senior worked through some traffic, then cut back to the right side of the field and was off to the races. His 80-yard punt return not only gave Northwestern Lehigh a 14-0 lead, but put a compromised Scranton Prep offense in a tough spot facing a two-score deficit.
“I thought Eli was losing his touch there for a while, he hadn’t had a punt return for a touchdown in a number of weeks, but that was his seventh on the season,” Snyder said. “He can make something out of nothing. We were actually in punt return safe there, he let the ball bounce, and sometimes the defense just takes a little bit of a break when that happens. We had a couple guys bust their butt there down the sideline to give him a little bit of an escort. That really lifted us going up by two scores, especially since they were struggling to score. Knowing that they would have to throw it without their quarterback was difficult for them.”
On the very next offensive play, Brady Zimmerman intercepted a pass to set up Northwestern Lehigh in Scranton Prep territory. Shane Leh would cap off the quick three-play drive with a 1-yard touchdown pass to Hulmes. The 14-point outburst in exactly one minute provided plenty of cushion, given the way the Tigers were in total control on both sides of the line of scrimmage.
“In the first half, I didn’t think we played too bad,” Eli Zimmerman said. “The big thing was we couldn’t finish in the end zone. We had a lot of points left off the board, so at halftime, we really just had to make some adjustments where you punch some of those in, and I think we did that. A lot of momentum came in the second half, a lot of big plays. My brother had a huge interception, and that’s just the way we play the game this year.”
Later in the decisive third quarter, the Tigers resorted to some trickery. Michael Lagowy was originally part of a huddle near the sidelines. When the rest of the offense lined up in the center of the field, Lagowy stayed near the edge of it, outside the numbers. Leh found him wide open down the right sideline for a 36-yard touchdown pass that pushed the lead to 28-0. Lagowy led all receivers with 59 yards on two catches.
“We actually stole that one from North Schuylkill a couple of weeks back when we played them,” Snyder said. “We scouted them and we noticed they did it. Now they didn’t score on it, but we gotta give a little shout-out to North Schuylkill. We have a lot of different packages on offense, so we ran a bunch of guys on, and a bunch of guys came off the sideline, and one just stood there. Their corner actually followed them over for a good bit. I thought they sniffed it out, and just like that, he double-backed, and I knew we had it. It was fun, you’ve got to come up with some different things to have fun. At this stage of the game, it can’t just be all business. It’s our 14th week or something like that, and these guys are great.”
Mason Bollinger closed things out with a 2-yard touchdown run in the middle part of the fourth quarter. Northwestern Lehigh completed its fifth shutout of the season, and will now set its sights on Danville. Should the Tigers emerge victorious in that one, a matchup with the winner of Avonworth-Penn Cambria would be on the horizon in two weeks.
“The goal has been to get back to that state final and win it this year,” Zimmerman said. “We had a little bit of adversity in the summer losing one of our buddies, Tucker (Wessner). We all have (his number) on our wrist tape, because we’re playing for him, and we just hope we can bring back that title for him and his family back to New Tripoli.”
Scoring Summary:
Northwestern Lehigh 0 7 21 6-34
Scranton Prep 0 0 0 0-0
Individual Scoring
Second Quarter
NL-Shane Hulmes 5 run (Josh Wambold kick) 2:47
Third Quarter
NL-Eli Zimmerman 80 punt return (Wambold kick) 8:21
NL-Hulmes 1 pass from Shane Leh (Wambold kick) 7:21
NL-Michael Lagowy 36 pass from Leh (Wambold kick) :49
Fourth Quarter
NL-Mason Bollinger 2 run (kick failed) 5:29
Team Statistics
…………………………….NL………………SP
1st downs………………21………………6
rush-yds……………..57-235………….25-64
comp-att-int……….9-15-0………….3-10-1
pass yds………………108………………13
total yds……………….333………………77
fumb-lost…………….0-0………………0-0
pen-yds……………….7-75……………11-86
Individual Statistics
Rushing-Northwestern Lehigh: Eli Zimmerman 29-149; Mason Bollinger 10-39, TD; Shane Leh 7-37; Seth Kern 5-8; Shane Hulmes 3-5, TD; Landen Matson 1-1; Team 2-(-4). Scranton Prep: Will McPartland 14-32; Anthony Prince 6-21; Louis Paris 3-9; Treyvon Dickey 2-2.
Passing-Northwestern Lehigh: Leh 8-14-0, 84 yds., 2 TDs; Zimmerman 1-1-0, 24 yds. Scranton Prep: Paris 1-1-0, 11 yds.; McPartland 2-9-1, 2 yds.
Receiving-Northwestern Lehigh: Michael Lagowy 2-59, TD; Zimmerman 3-25; Matson 2-16; Bollinger 1-7; Hulmes 1-1, TD. Scranton Prep: Dickey 2-11; Anthony Croom 1-2.
