Two very similar quarterbacks took different routes to having big nights last Friday.

Quintin Stephens threw for 168 yards and three touchdown passes, but Northwestern Lehigh’s Justin Holmes rushed for 245 yards to lead the Tigers to a 39-28 win over the Falcons.

Northwestern took an early lead when Nick Henry went in from two yards out with 3:30 left in the first quarter, putting the Tigers up 7-0. Salisbury didn’t waste any time fighting right back as its next possession covered 62 yards in just six plays. Stephens hit Chad Parton with a beautifully placed spiral that tied the score with just 24 seconds left in the quarter.

The scoring drives continued as Northwestern used a 57-yard kick return by Cade Christopher to start the Tigers’ next drive at the Salisbury 26-yard line. As the Tigers again drove close to the end zone, Henry finished off the drive by going the final yard. Northwestern would strike again in the second quarter and hold a 21-7 lead.

Just as they did earlier, the Falcons went to work on the next drive with Stephens finding Parton wide open for a 42-yard gain as part of a drive that was finished by Stephens throwing to Josh Brooks on a 30-yard catch-and-run. Brooks found the end zone and the Falcons made it a 21-14 game with less than a minute left before halftime.

“That drive was important for us and we felt pretty good going into halftime down by seven,” said Salisbury head coach Andy Cerco. “We had a few mistakes here and there, but overall, we were happy with the score at that point.”

While Salisbury had played well, it lost running back Gio Hines early in the second quarter with an injury. Hines spent the rest of the quarter with ice on his ankle and foot and didn’t return for the Falcons. The loss of Hines forced Cerco to go with Parton in the backfield more than he would have liked and put more of an emphasis on throwing the ball.

Holmes did some of his damage on the ground to open the third quarter when he ran for 56 yards on the first play of a two-play drive and then went in from 10 yards out on the next play. A two-point conversion - another Holmes run - made it 29-14 in favor of Northwestern.

“He had a big night and we just had trouble with their run game,” said Cerco. “Their front line did a nice job and their two guys [Holmes and Henry] are tough to stop.”

The Falcons had a drive stall at the Tigers’ 16-yard line midway through the third quarter when Taylor Wikert broke up a pass to the end zone and then nearly intercepted Stephens on the next play. Salisbury wound up turning the ball over on downs and Northwestern took advantage of it and moved to the Falcons nine where Andres Garrido kicked a 26-yard field goal.

As time ran down in the third quarter, Stephens hooked up with Parton for 21 yards and then hit Brooks for another 20 to move to the Falcons to the Northwestern five-yard line. This time, Stephens went to Toby Linn in the end zone. A two-point conversion was stopped, leaving Salisbury down 32-20.

Another Northwestern touchdown made it 39-20, but Salisbury again fought back. Stephens returned the kickoff 33 yards, but it was called back by a penalty. Starting at their own 22, Stephens and Parton hooked up four times on a 12-play drive and Parton carried it in from five yards out to make it 39-26. The Stephens-Parton connection worked again on the two-point conversion to cut it to 39-28.

Salisbury recovered an on-side kick, but on the first play of the drive, Henry intercepted Stephens with 3:15 left in the game to lock things up for the Tigers.

“Losing Gio hurt us, but we can’t use that as an excuse because we played well in the second half even though we were a little out of our game plan,” said Cerco. “We can be happy with how we played against a really good team.”