On their first two drives of Friday’s game against Wilson, Northwestern gained just 21 yards.

The good news is that was all they needed to score two touchdowns after opening the game with drives starting from the Warriors 10- and 11-yard lines, respectively.

The early field position battle helped Northwestern take a 31-14 win on their home field.

On their opening drive, Wilson (0-4) struggled to gain any ground and punted the ball away.

The kick went higher than it did long and Northwestern opened the game with the ball at the Warriors 10-yard line. It took just three plays for the Tigers to cash in on a three-yard run from quarterback Deven Bollinger.

The next drive started at the Wilson 11 after a short punt and good return. Two plays later, Derek Holmes, who moved to the tight end position this season, scored his first varsity touchdown on a six-yard pass from Bollinger to make it 14-0.

“We preach that: flipping the field,” said Northwestern head 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.”

Bollinger was intercepted for just the second time this season late in the first quarter when Koly Flank stepped in front of Holmes, picked off a pass and went untouched for 35 yards into the end zone to make it a 14-7 game.

Holmes got his second varsity touchdown on the next drive when the Tigers (3-1) went 60 yards in eight plays. This time, Bollinger went deep to Holmes on a 35-yard connection and Connor de Wit stayed perfect on extra points this season to make it 21-7.

The Wilson defense again came up big for the when it forced Northwestern to go three-and-out from their own five-yard line, setting the Warriors up at the Tigers 27.

With a short field of their own, quarterback Ben Hindmarch hit Alec Snyder on a 26-yard pass down to the Tigers one-yard line.

On the next play, Hindmarch scooted into the end zone and the Warriors again closed the gap to a touchdown difference.

“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.

The biggest drive of the game came from Wilson when it drove to the Northwestern 18 but had to settle for a 35-yard field goal attempt. The kick had plenty of distance but was wide left.

On the play, Northwestern was whistled for holding and the Warriors elected to go for it on a fourth-and-one at the eight-yard line. Alec Snyder was stopped for no gain and the Tigers took over on downs.

The Northwestern ground game went into high gear and put together a 16-play, 91-yard drive to lock up the game.

Tyler Lobach capped the drive with a one-yard stroll into the end zone.

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 also had two key sacks to halt Wilson drives.

Northwestern plays at Bangor (3-1) next week.