Friday night was somewhat of a David versus Goliath issue for Northwestern. The Tigers took the long trip to Kintnersville to put their young group of players up against Palisades, which has looked like a Colonial League title contender through it’s first two games of the season. The outcome was a 46-0 loss for Northwestern, dropping the Tigers to 0-3 on the season.

The Pirates never left much doubt as to their approach. They ran the ball over and over again, mixing in just five passes on the night. Jared Colletti had the longest run of the night when he went over left tackle and down the sideline for 79 yards. The Pirates also had rushing touchdowns of 11, 12 and 13 yards from quarterback Ethan Brader.

Colletti’s 79-yard dash went down the left side of the field for his second touchdown of the night, putting Palisades up 20-0 with 7:19 left in the second quarter. By the time his night was done, Colletti amassed 122 yards rushing on just six carries, while Trey Gretzinger finished the night with 93 yards, including a 46-yard run that put the Pirates on the Northwestern three-yard line. On the next play, Gretzinger went up the middle, making it 34-0 and the romp was on for Palisades.

“We had some missed tackles and some breakdowns, but they also have a couple of special runners,” said Tiger head coach Josh Snyder. “I thought overall that we played pretty well, especially considering what a good team they are, but we definitely made some mistakes here and there that hurt us.”

One of the five passes Brader threw went to Andrew Nickles, who broke a tackle and ran for a 56-yard touchdown reception.

The inexperienced offensive line of Northwestern had a tough time opening holes for the ground game. Last week’s leading rusher, Jayden Allen, was stopped almost cold on most of his attempts, but did break free for a 20-yard carry in the second half. Allen finished with 14 yards rushing. Caleb Clymer carried the ball four times for 12 yards, as Palisades was able to shut down the Tigers ground game throughout the night.

The Northwestern passing game didn’t fare much better, with Deven Bollinger going 4-11 in the air for just 51 yards in the game.

“We knew we were going to have a tough time offensively because their defense is so strong, and we’re so young up front,” said Snyder. “We had some good drives though and I thought that we had some momentum early, we just couldn’t take advantage of some things.”

Hunter Miller, who nailed a 39-yard field goal in week two, came up just short on a 45-yard field goal with about two minutes left in the game. The kick was down the middle, but came up a few feet short of the crossbar. Miller also handles the punting for Northwestern and averaged just over 39 yards per punt in the game, including a 50-yarder that nailed Palisades down on their own three-yard line.

Northwestern has another road game this week at Wilson before returning to Tiger Stadium for homecoming next Friday night against Pen Argyl (0-3).