A 20-14 halftime lead for Northwestern Lehigh didn’t give any indication of what the game would turn into in the second half.

The Tigers would amass a total of 229 yards of total offense in the third quarter alone and put up 29 points in the process to roll to a 55-28 win over Saucon Valley on Friday night.

The Panthers went up 7-0 on the opening drove of the game when quarterback Dante Mahaffey went in from 13 yards out and Jacob Christopher added the extra point.

The lead didn’t last long.

Northwestern saw Justin Holmes hit Nick Henry on a 16-yard touchdown pass and on their next drive go 69 yards on nine plays with Holmes running in from three yards out. Andres Garrido added both extra points and the Tigers were up 14-7.

Northwestern scored again with Henry breaking through the left side of the line for a 26-yard touchdown run before The Panthers closed out the half with a touchdown that kept them close.

In the wild third quarter, the Tigers set the tone when they used some trickery on their opening drive. After an interference call gave the Tigers a first-and-10 at their 36, Holmes handed off to Cade Christopher, who pulled up and fired a strike to Henry. The catch-and-run went for 64 yards and a 28-14 lead.

“It felt great,” said the sophomore receiver turned quarterback for one play. Christopher’s first six catches this season were touchdown receptions, so throwing one was a bit different for him. “That was my first touchdown pass on varsity.”

Christopher would strike again in the scoring when he picked off a Mahaffey pass and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. The quarter also included two Holmes touchdown passes, one to Michael Rader and the other to Wyatt Ledeboer.

“We hadn’t really played a complete game and I wanted that. I wanted to sort of have them send a message and play like I know they’re capable of playing in all three phases,” coach Josh Snyder said of his team’s performance. “At halftime I said that we have 24 minutes left to do it and they just took it and ran with it. I haven’t seen us play that well on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game all season, so that was really nice.”

Saucon Valley would get a touchdown run from Damian Garcia and a 63-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Travis Riefenstahl to Constantine Donahue for two scores.

Northwestern also went with younger players after the mercy rule kicked in when the Tigers went up 49-14 with just under four-minutes to play in the third quarter. Austin Sosnovik took over at quarterback and went through the line from two yards out for Northwestern’s final score of the night. Junior Julian Schaffhouser got three second half carries for a total of 64 yards rushing with 44 of them coming on one carry.

“With [Justin] Rodda out, we had guys step up,” said Snyder. “Christopher played a great game and Rader caught that big touchdown pass. Ledeboer got a touchdown this week and (Tyler) Wikert really played a great game. It’s nice when you can have a key guy out with an injury and have other guys just step into new spots without really losing anything.”

GET BACK HERE … The Tigers had two TD plays called back by penalties. On the first one, an ineligible receiver down field call negated a 74-yard catch-and-run from Holmes to Christopher. After the interference penalty on the Panthers, Christopher struck with his touchdown pass. The other touchdown that was negated was on a 35-yard strike from Holmes to Ryan McDonnell. On that series, the Tigers couldn’t get back into the end zone and had to punt.

OTHER BIG PLAYS … As if he didn’t do enough, Christopher also recovered a fumble by Mahaffey and on the next play, Holmes hit Rader for their touchdown connection as part of the third quarter barrage. Special teams also got their turn in the spotlight in the third quarter when Ledeboer blocked a punt.