Every week, Northwestern knows it’s going to get an opponent’s best effort.

On Friday night, that best effort nearly resulted in a Tiger loss.

Blue Mountain went toe to toe with the defending Class 3A state champions, but a key turnover and an impressive drive late allowed Northwestern to escape with a 34-28 victory.

“We have a big target on our back and everybody’s going to give us their hardest,” said Tiger senior Mason Bollinger. “We’re not invincible and we have to learn to keep our heads up when (things aren’t going our way).

“They play us hard every year, so we knew it was going to be tough. But we had a lot of self-inflicted wounds and we had to learn to recover from those, and just play more team ball. We had to play four quarters, but we’re happy with the win.”

With the Tigers (4-0) clinging to a six-point advantage in the fourth quarter, Bollinger got off a huge 57-yard punt that prevented the Eagles from gaining good field possession. Still, Blue Mountain managed to move the ball and worked its way to the Northwestern 32 in hopes of getting a go-ahead score.

But a fumble — the game’s only turnover — gave the Tigers the ball back with 7:18 to play. The Eagles (1-3) would never touch the ball again.

Bollinger snared a 15-yard catch on third-and-10 despite the ball being tipped to keep the drive alive, and then he reeled off an 18-yard gain on a direct snap to move the chains again. Later in the march, Chase Sukanick converted a fourth-and-3 with a 10-yard pickup that helped run out the clock.

“The defender did a nice job getting a fingertip on it, and I’ve seen him (Bollinger) make some crazy catches,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “That was maybe one of the most important ones of his career. He’s been making plays for us for a number of years now, and we feed on him to make plays when it matters. … He had a heck of a game down the stretch. Big players make big plays in important situations, and he’s certainly a big player for us.”

“They converted on big downs and that’s what you have to do in that situation, and they did and we didn’t,” said Blue Mountain mentor Chuck Kutz. “Certainly a team that is of that caliber you can’t give up big plays and we did that — whether it was the punt blocked, whether it was giving up some deep touchdowns or a fumble late when you’re in their territory and it’s four-down territory. It comes back to bite you, and it did that.”

While Kutz was disappointed in the plays that didn’t go his team’s way, the Eagles definitely had ones that did. And that nearly allowed his club to pull off the upset.

After Northwestern opened the game with a 64-yard scoring drive, which ended with Brady Zimmerman’s 1-yard TD run, the Eagles tied the score when Chase Guers fielded a punt after it bounced and raced 79 yards to the end zone.

The Tigers regained a 14-7 lead early in the second when Shane Leh hit Bollinger with a 26-yard scoring pass. That advantage was short-lived as Blue Mountain quickly knotted the score on a 66-yard strike from Cohen Kirby to Kole Luckenbill.

The back-and-forth continued as the two teams traded scores again on their next possessions. Zimmerman took a toss from Leh and got free for a 75-yard tally, but the Eagles answered. A 50-yard kickoff return by Sonny Amato gave his team great field position, and the Eagles capitalized with a 7-yard TD run by Reese Miller.

Northwestern managed to take a lead to the locker room when Michael Lagowy blocked a punt deep in Blue Mountain territory right before halftime. Shane Hulmes powered into the end zone from the one with 15 seconds on the clock to make it 28-21.

The second half started like the first one ended as the teams exchanged scores. Braxton Lakatosh broke loose for a 67-yard touchdown run before Kirby directed a 59-yard drive that concluded with his 9-yard TD pass to Frankie Russo.

After that, the defenses took over. Neither team scored the rest of the way.

“In the first half it was a marathon, and in the second — after the first two scores — the defenses both settled in and make some nice stops,” said Snyder. “It was a tale of two halves that way. But our kids were gritty. I was really impressed by getting that last stop. We got the ball back … and sort of went into our double tight set and we were able to grind off minutes off the clock, and secure a win.”

STATS … Leh threw for 246 yards, with 231 coming in the first half. His only completion of the second was the important 15-yarder to Bollinger during the last drive. Lakatosh added 152 rushing yards on 15 carries. For the Eagles, Kirby hit on seven passes for 116 yards.

UNCHARACTERISTIC … The Tigers were flagged eight times in the game and didn’t execute at times. “We had a number of penalties … and that’s not Tiger football,” said Snyder. “And we miss connected on a number of scoring opportunities that we just don’t normally miscue on those. … I thought our lack of execution kept them in the game.”

N’western 34, Blue Mtn. 28

Blue Mtn. 7 14 7 0 - 28

N’western 7 21 6 0 - 34

NW - Zimmerman 1 run (Sukanick kick)

BM - Guers 79 punt return (Hoover kick)

NW - Bollinger 26 pass from Leh (Sukanick kick)

BM - Luckenbill 66 pass from Kirby (Hoover kick)

NW - Zimmerman 75 pass from Leh (Sukanick kick)

BM - Miller 7 run (Hoover kick)

NW - Hulmes 1 run (Sukanick kick)

NW - Lakatosh 67 run (kick failed)

BM - Russo 9 pass from Kirby (Hoover kick)