It’s been their strength all season.

And on Friday night, it got the job done one more time.

Northwestern’s powerful offensive line, coupled with the hard running of Dalton Clymer, was too much for Notre Dame to handle as the Tigers ended up gaining a 43-21 District 11 Class 3A semifinal victory.

The win not only lifts Northwestern into the championship game against Palmerton (12-0), but it improves its record to 12-0 - the first time the Tigers have ever had that many wins in a season.

“The O-line, what can I say about them? They were our anchor all night up front,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “They controlled the line of scrimmage.

“We wanted to establish the run, and unless they can take it away from us, (we wanted to) keep at it.”

The Tigers set the tone early, putting together two lengthy drives the first two times they had the ball to gain a lead they never relinquished.

Snyder’s team opened the game with a 15-play march that resulted in a 3-yard Shane Leh touchdown run. After the Crusaders lost a fumble on their third play from scrimmage, Northwestern put together an 18-play trek that ended with a Clymer 2-yard tally and a 14-0 advantage.

“To win, we knew the line had to control the line of scrimmage and we had to have big drives like that that finished in the end zone, and that’s exactly what we did tonight,” said Clymer, who ended the evening with 190 yards rushing and three touchdowns.

“We say every week that there’s really never a game plan, but we knew coming in that our strength was going to be our line in this game, so we knew that running the ball would have to be out strong suit. If you want to call that our game plan, then call it our game plan, but we knew that’s what we had to do to win, and that’s what we did.”

Notre Dame quickly countered with a Danny Darno 31-yard scoring pass to AJ Lozano to cut the gap in half, but the Tigers got that score right back when Eli Zimmerman broke free down the left sideline for a 58-yard sprint to the end zone.

A key sack of Darno by Ben Walters and a big punt return by Seth Kern gave Northwestern another scoring chance before halftime - and the Tigers capitalized.

Clymer ran three times out of four plays, with the final one a 1-yard plunge that pushed the margin to 29-8.

“We were chunking them a little bit yard-by-yard, first down by first down and really sucking the life out of the clock,” said Snyder about the first half. “Our offense had (42) snaps in the first half, and they only had the ball a little bit.

“There was a bit of a momentum shift in the second half, but ultimately we got stopped on only two drives tonight. We scored every other time we had the ball. When you do that, more likely than not you’re going to come out victorious.”

Like Snyder said, there was a change of momentum early in the second half.

Darno, who threw for 197 yards and had a stretch of 12 consecutive completions, moved his team down the field for two scores to close the gap to 29-21.

First, he fired a strike over the middle to Alex Clark just before getting hit for a 24-yard TD. Then, after a failed fourth-down attempt by the Tigers, he directed his team on an 80-yard drive that ended with his 10-yard scoring run early in the fourth quarter.

“It came uncomfortably close for my liking,” said Clymer. “We knew we were going to get the best from that team, that’s a fantastic group over there and credit to them.

“But in the end, it came down to who wanted it more tonight. Our defense stepped up when it needed to. It wasn’t perfect, we gave up some home run shots and some big plays, but in the end we rallied back to get it done.”

The Crusaders actually got their hands on the ball with a chance to force a tie, but Northwestern forced a three-and-out by getting pressure on Notre Dame’s talented QB. The Tigers then created some breathing room, with Clymer doing all the damage.

The senior ran six straight times, the first a 26-yard gain in which he carried tacklers and the final one a 6-yard dive into the end zone that extended the margin to 36-21 with under five minutes to play.

Northwestern tacked on a final score with two minutes left, as Mason Bollinger got the call on five straight carries. His 3-yard TD run secured the victory.

“I’m just excited, happy that our guys battled through some adversity and some momentum shifts, and the way we responded was outstanding,” said Snyder. “Very businesslike. Nobody got upset. We just got right back to work. That’s what veteran teams with big-game experience do, and we’re back to the championship and we’re excited to be there.”

Clymer finished with 35 carries, including 24 in the first half. “We want to be careful with him,” said Snyder. “Too many is too many. And when it felt like he had 25 at halftime, I told him in the locker room that we were going to be careful, he said ‘I’ll take 25 more in the second half.’”

Danny Jenkins intercepted Darno on Notre Dame’s final possession. It marked the 12th straight game this season the Tigers have had a pick.