Pottsville dared Northwestern to throw the ball last week.

Big mistake by the Crimson Tide.

Trying to stymie a potent rushing attack the Tigers possess, host Pottsville stacked the line of scrimmage. By doing that, though, is opened up the passing game for senior quarterback Shane Leh and his talented receivers.

Leh took advantage of the opportunity, completing 14-of-19 passes for 285 yards and five touchdowns to lead Northwestern to a convincing 42-0 victory that kept the team undefeated at 7-0.

That performance earned him the Times News Football Player of the Week.

“As a play caller, I like to say take what the defense gives you, and they really gave us a loaded box,” said Tiger head coach Josh Snyder. “They jumped into ... a 30 front and then they brought their outside linebackers in and they had their two linebackers in there, so they had seven guys in the box and instead of us just trying to jam it in there, we felt like we had matchups with our playmakers on the outside against their d-backs. And as the game was unfolding, it was working well. So we just stuck with the pass and mixed in the run.

“Typically we do the opposite, we run the ball and mix in the pass with our play-action, so it was nice to see that we could do both ... I think Shane has 15 touchdowns to one interception now this season, so if we can keep defenses honest and make them cover us from sideline to sideline, that will open up both the running and passing game for us moving forward. And that game was just how it played out.”

Leh, who has been starting since his sophomore season, echoed his coach’s comments and the skill of his receivers.

“Our play-action game was working pretty well, and that’s what was working for us so we kept throwing the ball and it led to a really good game for us,” said Leh. “Brady had six receptions and took three to the house. That was awesome for him. Michael Lagowy didn’t get much action that night, but previous nights he’s been spectacular, and Mason Bollinger had five or six catches, (and) Shane Hulmes also had a touchdown. All of our receivers are a crucial part of our offense.”

Leh nearly set a team record for passing yards in a game, finishing just seven back of Deven Bollinger’s 292-yard effort from 2016.

Funny thing is the Tigers coaching staff was hoping to get Leh the record, and thought they did, until they went through game film and re-did the stats from the game.

“I’m very well aware of the record and actually we thought he had it ... I actually said to him, ‘Congratulations, you had it,’” said Snyder. “When we were redoing the stats, I was like, ‘Oh, no.’”

The confusion came with the team stats compared to Leh’s individual ones. The Tigers finished with 305 yards passing, but 20 of them were by backup quarterback Trey Snyder.

The mix-up didn’t bother Leh at all.

“I knew I was getting close to it, and my coaches did tell me I broke it, but they counted the total amount of passing yards ... I mean, it’s whatever,” said Leh. “I’m just happy to help my team win. It doesn’t matter about records, it matters about wins.”

Leh has guided the team to plenty of those over his career.

And during that career, his play and on-field savvy have improved tremendously.

“There’s been a huge progression since his sophomore year,” said Snyder. “He had a great sophomore season right into his junior year of getting a bigger hand in the offense and leading us to the state championship, and this year he’s just grown not only mentally but physically. He’s a bigger kid. Things are coming at you pretty quick when you’re a quarterback in the no-huddle offense. You have to set the protection, you have to relay the messages and make sure we’re lined up and sometimes we have multiple shifts and multiple motion. All the while, watching the play clock so we don’t run out of time, and then coming to the sideline and saying what he likes, what he doesn’t like.

“It’s just been a huge transformation from his sophomore year to now. I like to hear what he likes and what he’s comfortable with, and we’re at a point in our relationship that there’s a lot of respect there and I can take what he says and run with it, or try to keep him in the flow of the game and keep him comfortable.”

The Tiger signal-caller is also comfortable running the ball. A hurdler on the track team, Leh hasn’t had the opportunity to do that much after suffering an early-season injury to his shoulder.

But he’s more than content to hand the ball off to either Braxton Lakatosh or Chase Sukanick, who have combined for over 1,000 yards on the ground.

“At the beginning of the season I actually sprained my AC joint so I haven’t been really running the ball as much, but I’m starting to get into the swing of things here more with running the ball.

“Our running backs are doing an excellent job when they have the ball in their hands ... so you haven’t really seen me run the ball much, but I love running the ball, I love getting out there in open space trying to make magic happen.”