CENTER VALLEY — Northwestern Lehigh and Southern Lehigh came into their week seven matchup with the Spartans in the driver’s seat for a Colonial League title. When the night was over, the Tigers had put themselves behind the wheel with a 36-34 win.

Quarterback Deven Bollinger led an impressive offensive showing, but with his legs, not his arm. Bollinger ran for 139 yards on 21 carries, reaching the end zone twice on the night. Bollinger threw for just 75 yards, but completed big passes when he needed to.

Both teams scored on their opening drives, with the big play for Northwestern coming on a 37-yard pass from to Paul Huff to tie the game at 7-7. Southern Lehigh looked to drive again, but Dom Harding stepped in front of a Noah Vogeler pass for an interception to give the all back to the Tigers at their own 40-yard line. From there, it took just seven plays for the Tigers to reach the end zone with Nick Henry going over from two-yards out to give Northwestern a 14-7 edge.

“We were looking run first because they’re a heavy run team, but I saw a crosser and I jumped in and caught it; it felt great,” said Harding. “It gave us a lot of momentum and we went down and scored.”

The teams combined for a pair of 13-play drives with the Spartans going 63 yards and the Tigers going 80 yards. Cam Fisher went in from two yards out for Southern Lehigh while it was Henry picking up his second TD run of the night, also going in from two yards out to regain the lead at 21-14 with 22 seconds left before the half.

Northwestern ate up almost four-minutes of the clock to start the third quarter, at one point picking up first downs on three straight plays, two on Bollinger runs of 14 and 16 yards. Bollinger also came up with a big play on a fourth-and-one. He was forced to scramble, but found a small opening to feed a pass to Henry, who pulled it in for a three-yard gain and a first down to keep the drive going. Bollinger eventually ran in from there. Nick Henry took the handoff on the conversion attempt and made it through the middle of the line to put Northwestern up 29-14.

Southern Lehigh’s next drive ended with Asher Smith going into the end zone on a 32-yard run, but the extra point was no good, leaving Southern Lehigh needing two scores.

“Our goal was literally to score on every drive. We didn’t quite do that, but we only came up short once,” said coach Josh Snyder. “We knew they were going to have a tough time stopping our offense.”

Another successful drive for Northwestern ended with Bollinger going over from one-yard out and Andres Garrido added the extra point to put the Tigers up 36-20 with 10:29 left in the game. Once again, Southern Lehigh would come right back, going 59 yards with Cam Fisher and Hunter Hughes carrying the bulk of the load. Fisher went in from six yards out and Smith pulled in a pass from Vogeler for the conversion to bring Southern Lehigh within eight.

Things still looked good for the Tigers since their offense hadn’t been stopped all night, but the Spartans defense stepped up and forced a punt. Southern Lehigh took over at its own 13-yard line with 3:07 remaining. On a third-and-10, Vogeler hit Fisher on a screen that turned into an 87-yard catch-and-run for the Spartans and made it 36-34. Vogeler looked to throw for the conversion that would have tied the game, but was flushed out of the pocket and stopped short of the goal line. Northwestern got the ball back and ran the clock out.

“Harding’s interception was huge. That play gave us the opportunity to get the ball back and get an extra score before halftime and then have the ball coming out of the half. To me, that was a big difference in the game,” said Snyder, who also noted the fourth down play from Bollinger to Henry as being a key.

WATCHING THE SCOREBOARD... The Tigers are suddenly big fans of the Wilson Warriors who host Saucon Valley today. The Panthers are 5-1 and need a win to keep pace with the Tigers and Spartans, who are both 6-1. Northwestern and Saucon Valley play next week at Tiger Stadium.

GADGETS ... A couple weeks ago Justin Holmes hit on a flea-flicker throw for 44 yards to Justin Rodda. Holmes again got a chance to throw this week, but overthrew the intended receiver. Snyder also had lineman Connor Snyder lined up in the backfield on a number of plays, handing him the ball once for a five-yard gain.