PECKVILLE — Northwestern has seen plenty of pressure-packed situations.

That happens when you reach three consecutive state championship games.

So when the Tigers were locked in a halftime tie with Valley View on Friday night in both team’s season opener, there was never any panic.

While things remained tight in the second half, Josh Snyder’s team made crucial plays in important moments to pull out a hard-fought 28-16 victory.

“We expect to be successful and we expect to win,” said Snyder, now in his 15th season as head coach at Northwestern. “After you’ve made three state championship games you’ve seen just about everything. And there’s no situation you haven’t seen. You have some sort of level of confidence that you’re going to get the job done.

“We just speak positivity to the kids. We speak that we’re going to get this, we’re going to convert it, we’re going to continue the drive, and we’re going to finish the drive in the end zone. ... And when it happens over and over again, the kids really believe in themselves and they believe in the coaches, that they’re going to put them in position to be successful. And that level of expecting things to come to fruition is definitely an advantage to us.”

It’s also an advantage to have talented players on your team, too.

Trey Snyder, starting his first varsity game at quarterback, had the luxury of being able to throw to senior veterans Brady Zimmerman and Michael Lagowy. The three, along with the running of Chase Sukanick, orchestrated a 13-play, 80-yard drive to start the third quarter that gave the Tigers the lead for good.

Tied 14-14 at the break, Snyder connected with Zimmerman twice during the march and completed it with a toss to Lagowy for a 22-yard touchdown that put the visitors ahead.

“I thought Brady Zimmerman and Michael Lagowy, those two guys returning were big,” said Coach Snyder. “Trey did a really nice job of finding people in his first start.”

Valley View countered with its own lengthy drive, moving 83 yards in search of deadlocking the score. But the Tigers stiffened on a fourth-and-goal inside the one, coming through in one of those big-time moments.

“That turned out to be a big deal, stopping them there,” said Coach Snyder. “The momentum thing, if they score there to tie it up it’s a different ballgame down the stretch. But our defense, for as many mistakes as we made, they kept swinging and they kept fighting. And for a lot of guys on that defensive side, this was their first start.”

“Our coaches were telling us to anchor down,” added Zimmerman. “We had to get that stop to win the game. Our defense is a key part of our team, and coming up with that stop was huge.”

The Cougars also came up huge on defense moments later when they tackled Sukanick in the end zone for a safety to make it a 5-point game.

But on the first play after the free kick, Lagowy intercepted a pass to give the Tigers possession again.

Northwestern made the most of getting the ball back, moving 73 yards in 11 plays to take a 28-16 advantage with 2:22 left to play.

While Zimmerman reached the end zone on a 6-yard run, he set up the score with a 22-yard completion on a fourth-down call. Earlier in the drive, Harrison Wertman made a one-handed catch on a third-down play to keep the march going.

“You want to get out of the gate with a win,” said Coach Snyder. “I told our kids coming into this game that this was going to be a tough football game. We know what kind of brand of football they play up here. It’s tough. It’s physical. It’s hard-nosed. They’ve got big boys up here. It’s just an old school game.

“We told them time and time again what type of football game it was going to be, and that’s what it was. I thought they did a nice job against our run but we really capitalized in the pass game.”

Trey Snyder finished with 269 yards passing and three touchdowns. He hit Zimmerman for scores twice in the opening half. His counterpart, Colin Dempsey (actually the Cougars’ backup who entered the game early when the starter got hurt) also had a big game with 216 passing yards and two TDs in the opening half — one of them an 81-yarder to Cash Roe.

GETTING IT DONE ... Zimmerman caught seven passes for 137 yards, ran six times for 37 more and also threw a pass for 24. He also had a sack late that sealed the win. Lagowy ended with nine receptions for 85 yards.

YELLOW FLAGS ... The Tigers hurt themselves with numerous penalties, being flagged nine times for 85 yards.

NUMBERS ... This was the 33rd consecutive regular season win for Northwestern, and the seventh straight on opening night.

N’western 28, Vy. View 16

Northwestern 7 7 7 7 - 28

Valley View 7 7 0 2 - 16

NW - Zimmerman 16 pass from Snyder (Smith kick)

VV - Roe 81 pass from Dempsey (Loff kick)

NW - Zimmerman 43 pass from Snyder (Smith kick)

VV - Evans 14 pass from Dempsey (Loff kick)

NW - Lagowy 22 pass from Snyder (Smith kick)

VV - Safety, Sukanick tackled in end zone

NW - Zimmerman 6 run (Smith kick)