On their first four possessions of the game, Northwestern marched its way down the field and pushed the ball across the goal line for a quick 28-6 lead over Bangor.

From there, the Tigers didn’t look back as they finished with a 41-13 win over the Slaters.

On three of their first four possessions, it was Nick Henry who crossed the goal line on runs of 11, nine and 24 yards.

The offensive line played especially well in the win, not only opening holes to run through, but giving senior quarterback Deven Bollinger plenty of time to throw the ball, allowing him to complete 11 of his 21 attempts for 121 yards.

“I have to hand it to my offensive line, because they did a tremendous job tonight and really gave me some gaps to run through,” said Henry. “They’ve been strong all season and have been a big part of our success offensively.”

One of the concerns for Northwestern Lehigh this season has been pass defense and the Slaters were able to hit on a couple of big plays. Nate Owens got wide open down the right side of the field and junior quarterback Rein Farensbach hit him in stride with a 35-yard touchdown pass for the first score of the night. Farensbach hit Nick Davanzo with just :07 left in the first half for a 14-yard touchdown pass to make it a 28-13 game at the half.

“We had a couple miscommunications and they were able to find some guys,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. “We’re working on it and we’ll keep working on it, but the effort has been there, just some things to clean up. You also have to hand it to Bangor, because they didn’t quit and they made some nice plays.”

Northwestern had a little fun on the opening drive of the third quarter. Justin Holmes, who last week pulled in 217 yards worth of passes, this time went to the air and threw deep to Justin Rodda, who pulled the ball in at the Bangor three-yard line. On the next play, it was an easy stroll into the end zone for Henry and the Tigers went up 35-13.

“We wanted to break things up a little. Sometimes, you get a little tired of the same things in practice, so we put that in there to have some fun with and see what we could do with it,” said Snyder. “Justin is our backup quarterback and may even have a stronger arm than Deven, so he’s capable. I didn’t see exactly what happened, but Rodda came down with it.”

On its next drive, Northwestern ate up 5:34 seconds to go 70 yards on 13 plays, capped by Bollinger throwing to Rodda in the end zone.

With backup players in the game for much of the fourth quarter, the teams traded possessions with no scores.

CAN WE HAVE A CHANCE

... Northwestern ran 28 plays in the first quarter and controlled the ball for over seven minutes.

I’LL TAKE THAT ... Wyatt Ledeboer, a junior, picked off a pass from Farensbach on a key third-and-11 play on Bangor’s first drive of the game. Ledeboer stepped in front of Davanzo to pull in the pass and returned it 20 yards to the 49-yard line where the Tigers started their first possession of the game. The interception was the second of the season for Ledeboer.

MAYBE THIS WILL WORK ... Bangor kept trying to get some sort of ground game going, but every time they would start to make some headway, they would wind up being pushed back on the next play. On 10 of their 21 carries, the Slaters either had no gain or lost yardage, finishing the night with a total of minus-four yards rushing.