The first drive of the game and the first drive of the second half told the story as unbeaten Northwestern Lehigh downed Scranton Prep 27-6 in the quarterfinal round of the PIAA Class 3A state football playoffs on Friday night at Tiger Stadium.

The opening drive of the game saw the Cavaliers (12-2) march down the field to the Northwestern 20-yard line. But the Tigers’ defense bit down hard, and forced a turnover on downs when a fourth-and-four play was stopped cold.

“They kind of came out and punched us in the mouth, but we really just put our foot down and didn’t let them get much more,” said Northwestern’s Blaine Snyder, who had a strong defensive night. “Our scout team does a great job of getting us prepared during the week.”

To start the second half, it was the Northwestern offense that did the punching. The Tigers went 70 yards in 12 plays and ate up over five minutes off the clock on their scoring drive.

Shane Leh hit Devon Hildebrand with a 27-yard pass down the middle of the field to get to the one-yard line. Hildebrand made the play by coming back to catch the pass that was slightly underthrown after being held up by the wind. On the next play, Dalton Clymer finished off the drive by taking the direct snap and going just to the left of center for the touchdown. The score came with 6:47 left in the third quarter and extended the Tigers’ lead to 20-6 when Seth Kern added the extra point.

“That was big for us because we messed up a scoring opportunity late in the second quarter, so I told the guys at halftime that we had to come out and put together a drive,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. “They did just what we needed them to do on that drive ... ate up time and got us into the end zone.”

Prep leads early

Scranton Prep got the first score of the game on its second drive of the game.

After Northwestern went three-and-out on its first possession, Prep started near midfield and quarterback Louis Paris broke through the middle of the Northwestern line to go 59 yards for the score. The extra point was no good, leaving it a 6-0 game in favor of the Cavaliers.

The Tigers (14-0) bounced back when Leh hit Shane Hulmes with a seven-yard TD pass and Seth Kern added the extra point for a 7-6 Northwestern Lehigh lead with 11:52 left in the second quarter.

Hulmes then went to work defensively when he recovered a fumble at the Tigers’ 42-yard line. Six plays later, it was Clymer getting his 27th rushing touchdown of the season as he went in from seven yards out and made it 14-6 in favor of the Lions.

Big second half

After Northwestern’s opening drive of the second half put them up 20-6, the Tigers closed out the scoring with 1:35 left in the game when Clymer went in from one yard out and Kern’s kick made it 27-6.

Knowing that the Cavaliers had to put the ball in the air, Eli Zimmerman put himself in a perfect spot to pull in his ninth interception of the season. The Tigers then took over and needed just two plays to run out the clock.

“Every week we have a great game plan and switch things up because everything can’t be the same and it’s thanks to the coaches that we can come up with things that work,” said Hildebrand. “We just play our tails off and this is the outcome.

“I love every one of these guys and I’m proud to be on this team,. Just another day in the office as we say on the sidelines. We just treat every game as a normal game and go one at a time and move on.”

BITTERSWEET STAT … The Crusaders’ Quinten Palermo came into the game needing 51 yards rushing to reach 1,000 for the season. He picked up 56 yards to get the milestone but his season and high school career ended with Scranton Prep’s loss.

MORE NOVEMBER FOOTBALL … The Tigers will play District 3 champion Wyomissing next week in the Class A semifinals. Wyomissing beat Danville 48-27 last night. The game date and location will be announced over the weekend.