Northwestern football finishes strong, moves into state semifinals for 1st time in 21 years

Northwestern Lehigh football coach Josh Snyder remembers the Tigers’ first two trips to the state semifinals very well.

Now, he has the Tigers heading back to the PIAA final four.

Northwestern erased an early six-point deficit on Friday night and then took control for a 27-6 home win over Scranton Prep in a PIAA Class 3A quarterfinal.

“Playing football and coaching it for the better part of my life now,” Snyder said. “As a player, we got here in ‘97, in the final four. I was a first-year assistant coach on Coach (Bob) Mitchell’s staff there in 2002 when we got to it. It’s been a long time since that particular point that we’ve been back here. We’ve done it a little bit different fashion this year, a lot of convincing wins. Defense is just incredible. Best defense I’ve ever been associated with. To win a district championship and a first round of a state game, giving up a total of 14 points in the last two games is tough to comprehend.”

Final score: Northwestern ( ) 27, Scranton Prep 6. Tigers advance to next week’s PIAA Class 3A semifinals. pic.twitter.com/hnVDNZBrx6

— Josh Folck November 25, 2023

The Tigers, the two-time defending District 11 champions, will play District 3 champion Wyomissing in the state semifinals next Friday or Saturday at a time and place to be determined. Wyomissing beat District 4 champ Danville 48-27 in a quarterfinal matchup.

“Obviously, we don’t want it to end,” Northwestern senior running back/linebacker Devon Hildebrand said. “We play our tails off every single week so we get another week. We just got to keep going 1-0.”

Scranton Prep, the District 2 champion, went ahead 6-0 with 4:33 remaining in the first quarter when junior quarterback Louis Paris ran for a 59-yard touchdown.

But that was the last time the Cavaliers found the end zone on Friday night.

Northwestern scored the game’s final 27 points to punch its ticket to the state semifinals.

“We started out a little slow,” Tigers sophomore tight end/linebacker Shane Hulmes said. “They had a great offense. But we played better as the game went on. We held our own and we didn’t give up any more points.”

Senior running back Dalton Clymer gained 5 yards on a third-and-2 to get Northwestern to the Scranton Prep 7-yard line on the final play of the first quarter.

The Tigers then scored on the opening play of the second quarter as sophomore quarterback Shane Leh found Hulmes running across the back of the end zone for a 7-yard touchdown pass. Junior Seth Kern connected on the extra point to give Northwestern a 7-6 lead with 11:54 remaining in the second quarter.

“It was play action,” Hulmes said of the touchdown catch. “It was a rollout to the right and just a throwback to the left said. Shane put a great ball on it and I was able to come down with it.”

Hulmes came away with a fumble at the Scranton Prep 44-yard line with 10:43 left in the second quarter after senior defensive lineman Ben Walters forced the turnover. On a fourth-and-4 play, Leh scrambled for 8 yards to get the Tigers down to the Cavaliers’ 31-yard line. Clymer capped the touchdown drive with a 7-yard run to put Northwestern ahead 13-6 with 7:43 left in the second quarter.

Clymer took a direct snap and ran for 2 yards on a fourth-and-1 to get the Tigers to the Scranton Prep 29-yard line with 7:50 remaining in the third quarter. Leh then connected with senior Devon Hildebrand for a 28-yard pass play to take Northwestern to the 1-yard line. Clymer capped the drive with a 1-yard touchdown run to push the Tigers’ advantage to 20-6 with 6:47 remaining in the third quarter.

Leh and Hildebrand had a 20-yard pass on Northwestern’s final scoring drive of the game. It ended in familiar fashion as Clymer took a direct snap and ran for a 1-yard touchdown to make it a 21-point lead with 1:35 left in the third quarter.

Clymer rushed for 114 yards and three touchdowns on 29 carries. The senior now has 64 touchdowns in his career, the most in school history.

Leh went 8-for-11 passing for 110 yards and a score. The sophomore quarterback also ran for 39 yards on seven carries.

Hildebrand finished with four catches for 66 yards. The senior also ran for 64 yards on seven attempts. He also hauled in an interception with 5:11 left in the fourth quarter at the Northwestern 17-yard line to clinch the victory.

“We started getting the run game going early,” Hildebrand said. “They started to key on it. That opened up our play action, our pass game. And that’s exactly what we did, we took advantage of it.”

Tigers junior Eli Zimmerman rushed for 39 yards on seven attempts. He also recorded his ninth interception of the season, pulling the ball in with 1:03 left in the third quarter and returning it 17 yards to the Scranton Prep 35-yard line.

“We got them in some passing situations and our defense is so advantageous,” Snyder said. “Eli coming up with that huge one. We got Devon Hildebrand in another one. Our D-line started to get loose in some obvious passing situations. We were chasing them around a good bit. Didn’t miss many tackles.”

Scranton Prep ended its season with a 12-2 record, dropping its first game since a 31-27 loss to Delaware Valley (Pa.) on Sept. 23.

Northwestern continues its record-breaking season and improved to 14-0 for the first time in program history. The Tigers have only had one game this year decided by one possession (a 28-21 victory over Blue Mountain on Sept. 8).

“To think that’s only two possible games left,” Snyder said. “It felt like yesterday we were out here at media day in August, taking our pictures. Here we are 14-0. That’s really tough to think about.”

“I’m just proud of everybody,” the Northwestern coach added. “I’m proud of (athletic director) Jason Zimmerman for providing us the opportunity here, the community, our coaching staff, our players, right down to the ball boys and everybody that comes and helps out. It takes a lot of people to run an organization. To go 14-0 is something special. We were joking, maybe in a couple weeks, I’ll reflect back. In the thick of things, I’m excited to enjoy it and get back to work next week.”