Northwestern’s second-half troubles continued against Southern Lehigh last Friday when the Spartans came New Tripoli and beat the Tigers 21-8.

Like other recent games, Northwestern got off to a fast start when Tyler Slifer recovered a muffed punt to set up a first-and-10 at the Spartans’ 16-yard line. Northwestern went for the two-point conversion and Deven Bollinger hit Caleb Clymer in the end zone to put the Tigers up 8-0 with 4:57 left in the first quarter.

“That was a big play for us, to have the short field and be able to take advantage of recovering the football down there gave us momentum,” said coach Josh Snyder. “We’ve talked about having to take advantage of opportunities, especially against good teams, and that was big.”

Southern Lehigh came back late in the second quarter and got on the board when Logan Edmond hit Zach Mohr with a 20-yard pass down the sideline that ended in the Tigers’ end zone. Mohr shook off a number of tacklers on the run to make it an 8-7 game heading into half-time.

The Spartans got the kickoff to open the third quarter and drove 82 yards, with Tim Walter breaking open a 40-yard run, which was extended even further by a personal foul penalty on Northwestern, giving the Spartans a first-and-ten at the Northwestern 26-yard line. Five plays later, Luke Strauss pushed the ball over from two yards out and Calvin Hearst’s extra point was good to give the Spartans their first lead at 14-8.

After Northwestern went three-and-out, Southern Lehigh again put together a strong drive, this time parading 75 yards in less than three minutes to stretch their lead to 21-8. Strauss capped this drive with a 29-yard run, and Hearst added the extra point.

The Tigers tried to mount a comeback, but the Southern Lehigh defense stopped their drives. In the middle of the fourth quarter, Northwestern got to the Spartans’ four-yard line on 13 plays, but couldn’t find the final four yards and turned the ball over on downs.

Northwestern looked to make the game closer when it got the ball back with just under three-minutes to play, but on the first play of the drive. Bollinger was intercepted and the rally was ended before it even had a chance to get going.

“I’m not really as upset with this loss as I was with some of the others, because overall, we played well,” said Snyder. “They had to come up with some big plays against us to win and sometimes teams are going to be able to do that against you. Our effort was there, but we just couldn’t get them to break.”

The Tigers, who are already without Anthony Colucci because of an injury, also lost Clymer and Phil Dangello to injuries against Southern Lehigh. Both players would finish the game on the sideline sporting crutches.

“It looks like Dangello’s is an MCL injury and Clymer’s could potentially be even worse than that,” said Snyder. “We’ll have to wait and see what the trainers say, but to potentially lose those two with a couple games left would be tough, because we’re not very deep at the skill positions.”

Northwestern’s struggles against the ground game continued with Southern Lehigh rushing for 274 yards in the game, including 194 yards from Strauss.

The loss dropped Northwestern to 4-4 on the season and eliminated them from reaching the District 11 Playoffs for the first time since 2013 when they went on to become Eastern Conference Champions.