CENTER VALLEY - Three years ago, Northwestern Lehigh went to Center Valley and downed Southern Lehigh to become co-champions of the Colonial League.

Friday night, the league title was not up for grabs, but the two teams were still playing for gold - the Gold Division championship of the Colonial-Schuylkill League.

With a commanding 45-7 victory, Northwestern (8-2) captured the division title and momentum going into district playoffs.

The Tigers avoided disaster after recovering their own fumble on the game’s opening kickoff, but the play left them starting from their own five-yard line.

Northwestern surprised the Spartans with a hurry-up offense and the offensive line dominated Southern’s defensive line to open some running lanes.

While Northwestern may have been using a hurry-up offense, they sure took their time doing it and wiped seven minutes off the clock with 19 plays.

Cade Christopher and Dalton Clymer did most of the heavy lifting on the drive, which ended with Christopher going in from 22 yards out, breaking a couple tackles along the way. The extra point was no good, leaving Northwestern up 6-0.

Southern Lehigh (8-2) was without quarterback Avery Koser and turned to sophomore Christopher Fritts but relied heavily on the legs of leading rusher Cade Sawyer.

On a second-and-10 play, the snap sailed over the backfield and was recovered by Dalton Clymer to set the Tigers up with a first-and-10 from the Spartans 28-yard line.

Even with the short field, the drive stalled, and Kian Osborne came on to nail a 32-yard field goal, his first attempt of the season, to give the Tigers a 9-0 edge.

Thanks to a pair of interference calls, Southern Lehigh completed a 94-yard drive in 12 plays when Sawyer ran over the left side and into the end zone to cut the lead to 9-7.

On the ensuing drive, Northwestern came right back as Christopher hit a pair of 11-yard passes, first to Devon Hildebrand and then to Clymer before he used his legs to go 45 yards dragging a tackler with him for the last couple yards, making the score 16-7 at halftime.

Southern Lehigh got the ball to start the second half and was driving until Fritts had a pass intercepted by Ty Meck.

“That play was designed by the coaches, and they set us up perfectly. I played a little deeper than I normally would, and Blaine Snyder tipped the pass, and it came right to me,” said Meck of his first interception of the season.

Just two Northwestern Lehigh plays gobbled up the short 31-yard field that Meck’s interception gave the Tigers as Clymer went in from 14 yards out to make it 22-7. Northwestern went for two and used a nifty play where Clymer handed to Hildebrand, who hit Austin Sosnovik in the end zone and made it 24-7.

Clymer added an eight-yard touchdown run and Christopher got his fourth of the night when he went in from 39 yards out to put the game away midway through the fourth quarter. Clymer’s run put him over the 1,000-yard mark for the season in rushing.

“It’s amazing. It’s a huge milestone marker for me,” said the junior running back. “I have been waiting a long time for it and to hit that in the championship game is huge.”

The Northwestern defense held the Spartans to just 112 yards of total offense and eliminated any hopes that Southern Lehigh had of running the ball through the middle. Six times, Spartans runners were thrown for losses when they ran into the line of scrimmage against the Tigers defense.

“We have been playing together for 10, 11, 12 years. We are best friends and tonight we showed our chemistry,” said Meck of the Northwestern Lehigh defense.

BACK HOME AGAIN ... Northwestern Lehigh’s win boosted them ahead of Notre Dame Green Pond in the District 11 3A rankings and into the second spot. That gives Northwestern Lehigh a matchup with seventh-ranked Jim Thorpe (3-7) next Friday night at Tiger Stadium in the district quarterfinals.

KICK IT GOOD ... Osborne’s 32-yard field goal was his first attempt of the season. Later in the game he attempted a 38-yarder that was just shy of the goal post. At the start of the season, Seth Kern was the team’s kicker, but he suffered a thumb injury in week one and has missed the rest of the season.