In any sport, you hope that the game officials go unnoticed.

For much of Saturday night’s District 11 quarterfinal between Allentown Central Catholic and Northwestern, they were.

Then, late in the game, the officiating took center stage and the script turned out to be a tragedy for the Tigers.

Central Catholic overcame two early Northwestern touchdowns and rallied for a 23-22 win over the Tigers, eliminating Northwestern from the district tournament.

The Tiger loss was impacted by a pair of controversial calls by the officials in the final minutes.

With Northwestern ahead 22-20 late in the fourth quarter, the Vikings were facing a fourth-and-nine call with the ball in their own territory. Forced to go for it, Central Catholic quarterback Matt Rauscher threw down the left side of the field for wideout Jack McGorry. The pass sailed well over the receiver, but the officials called defensive pass interference to give the Vikings a first down at the their own 49.

Nine plays later, Chris Matejcek put a 30-yard field goal through the uprights to give Central Catholic their first lead of the game with just 18 seconds left to play.

If the officials weren’t center stage after the interference call, they certainly were on the final play of the game.

With :11 left to play and the Tigers at their own 24, Bollinger hit Justin Holmes, who broke a tackle and raced down the side of the field. He was finally brought down at the Vikings 19, and Snyder immediately called for a timeout.

However, the officials huddled and ruled that the game was over. Snyder and the Tigers sideline erupted, but to no avail.

“I don’t know what happened when they huddled, but we were told there was one second left and I don’t know what happened to that,” said Snyder.

Early on, it didn’t seem like it was going to be a game that featured a dramatic and controversial finish.

Northwestern stopped the Vikings on a three-and-out to start the game, and then went 70 yards in five plays, with a perfect strike from Deven Bollinger to Justin Holmes for a 32-yard touchdown pass. Bollinger showed he can catch as well as throw on the next Central Catholic drive when a ball was tipped and Bollinger stretched out his long, 6-6 frame to make a diving interception at midfield. Two plays later, the senior QB was back to throwing and hit Jayden Allen for a 40-yard catch-and-run that finished in the end zone. The Tigers went for two and this time, Bollinger used his legs to outrace a Viking defender into the end zone for a 15-0 Northwestern lead.

“We came out kind of playing with our hair on fire,” said coach Josh Snyder of the two quick scores. “We weren’t pretending the game was over at that point though, because we knew that they could get things rolling and make a game of it.”

Just past the midway point of the second quarter, Vikings QB Matt Rauscher was picked off for the second time, this time by Wyatt Ledeboer at the Tigers nine-yard line. The ensuing drive stalled, and the Vikings got the ball back at the Northwestern 42, and with the aid of a personal foul penalty on Northwestern, moved down the field with Rauscher going in from one yard out to make it a 15-6 score.

Northwestern regrouped and Bollinger hit Dom Harding for an 11-yard TD, and Andres Garrido added the extra point to send the game to the halftime break with the Tigers up 22-6.

“We felt pretty good at halftime, and we knew we would have the ball coming out, so we felt that if we could get another score on the board, it would be a big one for us,” said Snyder.

Central Catholic put together a pair of long drives, culminating in two touchdowns, closing the score to 22-20 and setting up the wild finish.

“I wear this shirt that says ‘Homegrown.’ We got who we got and not a bunch of kids off the street from some other school district. I would rather go into battle with Northwestern and New Tripoli kids, 18066 kids, than someone off the street,” said Snyder, referring to the much larger boundaries at non-public schools. “I’m super proud of these guys – especially the seniors – for what they did and what they accomplished this season, putting Northwestern back on the map and going out like champs.”

GOING OUT ON TOP ... Bollinger played his last high school game Saturday. He leaves with a number of Northwestern school records, including over 4,000 career yards passing, 97 career touchdown passes, and 45 starts at quarterback. He also set single season records this year for yards passing (2,105), touchdown passes (35) and completions (131).

RECORDS ... Northwestern ends its season with a 10-2 mark. Central Catholic, which will play Pottsville at Saturday at Northern Lehigh High School for the District 11 4A championship, is now 8-4.