When Northwestern coach Josh Snyder brought his team out to the field for the second half of their game against Pen Argyl, he sensed that something just wasn’t right. His team held a 21-7 lead, but for some reason, the feeling just didn’t seem to be there for the second half even though Snyder couldn’t quite put his finger on what the problem was. After the second half of play, he still wasn’t sure exactly what happened or why, but he did know that his team had lost to Pen Argyl 35-21.

“I said it right away when we came out of the locker room, that I didn’t like the feel of us at all,” said Snyder. “I just didn’t like our intensity. Something wasn’t right.”

Whether it was his team having to adjust to playing on a Saturday afternoon, or something else, Snyder didn’t look to use anything as an excuse.

“They made plays, it just came down to that,” he said. “Maybe it was the Saturday afternoon thing or something else, but the bottom line is just that [Pen Argyl] made plays and had two big interception returns and we didn’t make enough plays; no excuses,” said Snyder.

The two interception returns came after Pen Argyl had tied the score 21-21 with 4:11 left to play in the game. Tadd Barr pulled down his first interception of the season and returned it 66 yards for a touchdown. A little over a minute later, Nick Guerro picked off Deven Bollinger, returning it 22 yards for the clinching touchdown that put the Green Knights up 35-21 with under two minutes left in the game.

Northwestern scored on tits first drive of the game when Bollinger hit Trevor Cunningham on an 84-yard pass play down the sideline to go up 7-0. On the ensuing kick-off, Guerro fumbled the ball. Tyler Lobach picked it up and scampered six-yards to put the Tigers up 14-0.

On the next drive, Pen Argyl came up short on a third-and-six play, but Northwestern was called for a facemask that gave the Knights a fourth-and-one and they converted with a three-yard run by quarterback Logan Ruppert. On the next play, Logan Sterner ran six yards for Pen Argyl’s first score of the game to make it 14-7.

“That was a big play [the penalty], but it was a legitimate call and you have to hand it to them, because they took advantage of it,” said Snyder. “That’s a much different situation if it’s fourth-and-six instead of fourth-and-one.”

The Bollinger to Cunningham connection worked again on the final play of the second quarter, when Cunningham pulled in a Bollinger pass and went 61 yards for the touchdown as time ran out, with the Tigers up 21-7.

Unfortunately for Northwestern, Cunningham went down after catching one pass in the third quarter with a suspected concussion. Snyder wasn’t sure of his eligibility for the game against Saucon Valley.

With the Southern Lehigh Spartans (3-2) losing to Saucon Valley Friday night, Northwestern missed an opportunity to go a game up in the West Division. Instead, the two teams are tied going into week six, with Southern Lehigh hosting Bangor (1-4) and Northwestern hosting Saucon Valley (5-0). The Spartans and Tigers meet October 14 in New Tripoli.