Justin Holmes had a breakout season a year ago as Northwestern’s quarterback.

He started 2021 like that might have just been a warmup.

Holmes ran for two scores and threw for two scores, racking up nearly 200 yards in total offense in less than three quarters of playing time as the Tigers rolled to a 42-13 opening night victory over Tamaqua.

“We knew he was a great athlete with a big frame and a big arm,” said Tamaqua coach Sam Bonner. “He had a great season a year ago, and he showed his ability and versatility tonight.

“He’s a Division 1 athlete ... he made some big plays both running and throwing the ball.”

Holmes opened the scoring with a 2-yard run on Northwestern’s first possession and then hit Cade Christopher with a 41-yard TD pass the next time the Tigers got the ball.

“It was a really nice start to the season,” said the Kent State-bound Holmes. “I’m excited about what we did offensively ... we put 42 points on the board and I believe we scored on our first six offensive possessions.

“We take a lot of pride in our offense. I have great skill players all around me, and our line did a nice job of opening holes for myself and Dalton (Clymer). It was a great all-around effort.”

Northwestern coach Josh Snyder said despite some unusual circumstances, he was pleased with what he saw from his team.

“With all the weirdness of last year’s COVID-season, we were anxious to get out and return to some normalcy this year,” said Snyder. “But we had the delay to start the game and then the long lightning delay in the second quarter ... so it was a little unusual again.

“I’ve never been part of a lightning delay in all my years as coach, so this was something new to me. But I loved how our kids handled all the distractions and stayed focused. I thought we did a lot of really nice things both offensively and defensively.”

Leading 15-0 with just under nine minutes left in the second quarter, the Tigers didn’t miss a beat despite a delay of almost an hour. On the first play from scrimmage following the lightning delay, Holmes went 23 yards for a score.

The Tigers continued to pile on the points as a Taylor Wikert interception and 40-yard return gave them the ball deep in Raider territory. Christopher eventually turned the turnover into a 6-yard TD run that made it 28-0.

“I thought we had a nice sequence when we returned from the delay,” said Snyder. “Justin switched up a play at the line of scrimmage because he saw something he thought we could attack, and he ran it in for the touchdown.

“Then, we force a turnover on their next possession and a few plays later we scored again to build a nice lead.”

The Tigers weren’t finished yet, however, as Holmes hit Wikert with a 55-yard TD pass with :53 left in the half to make it 35-0.

Tamaqua scored on a long pass from Nate Gregoire to Steven Kostecky on the final play of the half to temporarily avoid the game going into mercy rule. But A 20-yard TD run by Clymer on the opening possession of the second half made it 42-7 and started the running clock.

“I thought we played with a lot of emotion,” Snyder said. “We also executed pretty well on both sides of the ball. There are definitely some things we need to clean up, but for the most part, it was a really good performance for an opener.”

For Tamaqua, the game provided a glimpse of where improvement is needed.

“Northwestern is a very good team and they exposed some mismatches that we were concerned about,” said Bonner. “But we also made a lot of mental mistakes and physical mistakes that we need to clean up.

“We are playing a number of kids who are young and inexperienced and I think that showed. But the mistakes we made are correctable. Our goal is to get better every time we take the field and we’re going to be working toward that goal next week in practice.”

SPEED KILLS ... Both Christopher and Wikert torched the Tamaqua secondary on their long TD grabs. Holmes made note of their speed and how open they were during his postgame interview.

RAIDERS SHOW LIFE ... Trailing 35-0 with less than a minute remaining in the first half, Tamaqua’s offense came up with its two biggest plays of the night on back-to-back snaps. First, Zander Coleman raced 39 yards on a reverse before being tackled with less than a second remaining. The Raiders quickly called a time out and Gregoire hit Kostecky with a 25-yard TD pass on the half’s final play.

EFFICIENT ... Northwestern’s first six possessions produced six TDs on a total of just 28 offensive plays.