A wild third quarter of football led Northwestern Lehigh to its fourth straight win, a 55-28 drubbing of Saucon Valley. The Tigers put up 29 points in the first 12 minutes after halftime, gaining 229 yards of total offense in the quarter.

Northwestern came from behind to take a 20-14 lead at halftime, but Saucon grabbed a lead in the second half.

Northwestern’s Justin Holmes hit Nick Henry on a 16-yard touchdown pass on the Tigers next drive, going 69 yards on nine plays with Holmes running in from three yards out to finish off the drive. Andres Garrido added both extra points and the Tigers were up 14-7.

The two teams traded touchdowns late in the second quarter with Northwestern getting a 26-yard run by Henry through the left side of the line. The Tigers went for two, but Henry fumbled on the rushing attempt, leaving the score at 20-7. Saucon Valley’s touchdown came when Mahaffey threw a little high, but Alex Magnotta pulled down the pass and went 16 yards, cutting the Tigers lead to 20-14.

In the third quarter, the Tigers used some trickery. An interference call gave them a first-and-10 at their 36, Holmes handed off to Cade Christopher on an end-around. Christopher pulled up and fired a strike to Henry, completely catching the Panthers defense unaware. The hookup from Christopher to Henry covered 64 yards and gave Northwestern a 28-14 lead.

“It felt great,” said the sophomore receiver turned quarterback for one play. Christopher’s first six catches this season were touchdown receptions, so throwing one was a bit different for him. “That was my first touchdown pass on varsity.”

Christopher struck again when he picked off a Mahaffey pass and returned it 22 yards for a touchdown. The quarter also included two Holmes touchdown passes, one to Michael Rader and the other to Wyatt Ledeboer.

As if he didn’t do enough, Christopher also recovered a fumble by Mahaffey and on the next play, Holmes hit Rader for their touchdown connection as part of the third quarter barrage. Special teams also got their turn in the spotlight in the third quarter when Ledeboer blocked a punt by Alex Magnotta.

“We hadn’t really played a complete game and I wanted that,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder of his team’s performance. “I wanted to sort of have them send a message and play like I know they’re capable of playing in all three phases. At halftime, I said that we have 24 minutes left to do it and they just took it and ran with it.

“I haven’t seen us play that well on both sides of the ball and in the kicking game all season, so that was really nice.”

Saucon Valley would get a touchdown run from Damian Garcia and a 63-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Travis Riefenstahl to Constantine Donahue for two scores.

Northwestern loaded the field with younger players after Ledeboer’s touchdown catch put them up 49-14 with just under four-minutes to play in the third quarter. Austin Sosnovik took over at quarterback and went through the line from two yards out for Northwestern’s final score of the night. Junior Julian Schaffhouser got three second half carries for a total of 64 yards rushing with 44 of them coming on one carry.

“With [Justin] Rodda out, we had guys step up,” said Snyder. “Christopher played a great game and Rader caught that big touchdown pass. Ledeboer got a touchdown this week and Wikert really played a great game. It’s nice when you can have a key guy out with an injury and have other guys just step into new spots without really losing anything.”

The offensive output was especially impressive considering that the Tigers had two touchdown plays called back by penalties. On the first one, an ineligible receiver down field call negated a 74-yard catch-and-run from Holmes to Christopher. After the interference penalty on the Panthers, Christopher struck with his touchdown pass. The other touchdown that was negated was on a 35-yard strike from Holmes to Ryan McDonnell. On that series, the Tigers couldn’t get back into the end zone and had to punt.