For the third time in four weeks, the Northwestern Tigers were dominating enough to invoke the mercy rule against their opponent, this time downing Wilson 41-3. The win puts Northwestern at 4-0 on the season and they've won those four games by a combined score of 159-15.

Coach Josh Snyder stresses being strong offensively, defensively and on special teams and this week, special teams and the defense were the star attractions. Special teams gave the Wilson punting unit fits, blocking two punts. The pressure on punter Ryan Grelle was so constant, that it also helped to force a bad snap. The end result was great field position for the Tigers all night long."Obviously, we stress the three phases and they had some trouble with the snap, but we got after the first one with a clean block and our two deep guys did a nice job picking it up and not losing yardage," said Snyder.The defense got into the act as well, holding the Warriors to just 117 yards of total offense and frustrating junior quarterback Nick Maston who finished the night 8-for-19 passing. Taylor Breininger pulled in an interception with less than three minutes to play in the first-half and returned it 27 yards for a touchdown that pushed the Tigers lead to 27-3."Any time that you don't have to drive it 80 yards and you can settle for a 40 or 50 yard drive, you can go after certain plays that you like a little bit more, because you know you've got the field position and if you make a mistake, you know you're not in a bad spot, so we're a little bit more aggressive when we get good field position," explained Snyder. "The down side is that we missed a ton of guys down the field. Wilson brought the house almost every play; we've got to look at some protection things, because we missed guys going deep because of pressure and we can expect more of that going forward and that's something that we're definitely going to work on."The offensive and defensive lines have been a big part of the early success for Northwestern. The defense was expected to be good, but nobody could have expected just how good they've been, with the first-team defense allowing just nine points all season. Offensively, there were some holes to fill, but they were quickly filled and the line is firing on all cylinders."They were probably the most physical team we faced and that's a good test for us. We've got Saucon Valley coming next week and we these guys tested our limits this week, so this week in practice, we have to work really hard so we can come back and get a W next week," said senior George Haddad, who plays on both the offensive and defensive lines."Defensively, we just go into the game saying that we're going to play to the best of our ability. It's not like we're thinking that we have to do the same thing, we just play hard on every play, 110-percent, and we don't waste any reps," explained Haddad.Next week, the Tigers host Saucon Valley, the only other unbeaten team in the Colonial League. The Panthers downed Catasauqua 49-19 Friday night and are also 4-0 on the season to set up the battle of the big cats in week five."It's a huge game, but I think coach Kerschner said it best; every game is important now. If we want to win leagues, which was one of our goals, we have to win each and every game," noted Haddad. "Saucon Valley is the biggest game on our schedule, but that's what coach Snyder says every week. Every week is the biggest game on our schedule, so that's just what we're going to keep doing."