In the real estate market, it’s all about location, location, location.

For the Northwestern football team, the same was true against Wilson, as two early possessions deep in Warrior territory made a big difference in the Tigers’ 31-14 win over Wilson on Friday night.

Thanks to a Wilson punt that went higher than it did long, the Tigers opened their first drive at the Warriors 10-yard line and cashed in three plays later on a three-yard run by Deven Bollinger. A second Wilson punt was returned to the Wilson 11-yard line, and on the second play of the drive, Bollinger hit tight end Derek Holmes on a six-yard pass to make it 14-0 in favor of Northwestern.

The Warriors defense put them on the board late in the first quarter when Kolby Flank stepped in front of Holmes and picked off a pass and went untouched for 35 yards into the end zone to draw the Warriors to within a touchdown at 14-7.

“We preach that; flipping the field,” said Tigers’ coach Josh Snyder. “We push our guys to make things happen and get field position and then take advantage of those opportunities and that was a big part of the game for us tonight.”

Northwestern (3-1) came right back on its next possession and went 60 yards in eight plays on a drive stretching from late in the first quarter to into the early part of the second quarter. The big play came on the final play of the drive when Bollinger hit Holmes on a 35-yard pass play and Connor de Wit added the extra point to make it 21-7.

Location would again play a part in a score, but this time for Wilson. A punt by Lorenzo Sigue rolled down to the five-yard line where Northwestern started its drive. The Wilson defense came up big and the Tigers went three-and-out with the Warriors (0-4) taking over at the Northwestern 26. With a short field to work with, quarterback Ben Hindmarch hit Alec Snyder on a 26-yard pass to the Tigers’ one-yard line and then took the ball into the end zone himself on the next play. Robert Switek added the extra point and Wilson was back to within a touchdown at 21-14.

“You have to hand it to them because they were never really out of this one, even when we got those two early scores,” said Snyder.

“They kept coming back at us. At halftime we just let our guys know that they had to play tougher than they were playing up to that point.”

The second half started as a defensive struggle until Northwestern got into position for de Wit to connect on a 27-yard field goal to go up 24-14.

Wilson had its most impressive drive of the game on the next possession, and marched down to the Northwestern 18-yard line. When the drive stalled, Robert Switek attempted a 35-yard field goal that had plenty of distance but sailed wide left. Northwestern was called for holding on the attempt giving Wilson a fourth-and-one at the Tigers’ eight-yard line and Warriors coach Chris Labatch put the offense back on the field but Snyder was stopped for no gain and the Tigers took over on downs.

From there, a 16-play, 91-yard drive ensued and the Tigers went up 31-14 when Tyler Lobach went in from one-yard out. The drive left just over two-minutes on the game clock and Wilson went three-and-out on their next drive and Northwestern ran out the clock.

HOLMES SWEET HOLMES

... Derek Holmes had what Snyder called “the game of his life.” The senior went from playing guard as a sophomore to center last season and now to tight end. He not only caught his first two touchdown passes of his varsity career but had two key sacks to halt Wilson drives.

ROUGH SLEDDING

... The game was marred by a number of players slipping on the wet, mushy turf at key times. On one run, Deven Bollinger made a cut that would have likely carried him far down field but his feel went out from in under him negating an even bigger gain.

LINE DRIVES

... Wilson punter Lawrence Sique doesn’t worry about getting hang-time on his punts. Many of his kicks barely clear the linemen but he has a knack for getting the ball end-over-end and getting big roles. The majority of his yards came after the ball had hit the turf. Northwestern punt returners had a difficult time fielding his kicks.