Early on, the Class AA Eastern Conference championship game looked like it was going to be a story of missed opportunities and back-and-forth battles. Then, North Schuylkill appeared to find a groove before Northwestern fired back in the second half to claim a 19-18 win and their first Eastern Conference title in the school's history.

It looked like the Tigers would jump out to an early lead, but a costly penalty and two incomplete passes stalled their drive that started in Spartans territory. The Tigers wound up turning the ball over on downs and then fumbled it away on their next possession, giving North Schuylkill momentum.

That's when it looked like the Spartans were going to take over and perhaps, runaway with the trophy.

A 48-yard pass from Bobby Grigas to Glenn Weist set up a two-yard run by Matt Smarkanic to put North Schuylkill up 6-0 after their extra-point attempt failed. On their next set of downs, the Spartans started at their own 47-yard line and seven plays later, Grigas hit sophomore Tevin Murray with a 26-yard touchdown pass as the Spartans took a 12-0 lead. They opted to go for a two-point conversion, but Northwestern shut down the attempt, which would wind up being a key stop in the game.

The Tigers' Harry Hall started to pick up yardage running directly at the Spartans, but they could only get as close as the 14-yard line. A a field goal from Brandon Miller was Northwestern's only points of the first half, cutting North Schuylkill's lead down to 12-3. Hall finished the night with 60 yards rushing, putting him over 1,600 yards on the season, an astounding total for a sophomore.

"I'm just glad I was able to do this for our seniors," said Hall. "They deserve this."

The second half belonged to the Tigers. Taylor Breininger's 31-yard kick-off return set up Northwestern with the ball at its own 46-yard line. From there, Frank Dangello connected with Alex Bobbyn on a 38-yard touchdown pass to make it a 12-9 game when the extra-point attempt failed.

It looked for a while like the Spartans would regain the momentum when they again got into the end zone, but again missed the extra point, leaving them with a nine-point lead.

Northwestern is known for long, time-consuming drives. The Tigers put together a drive lasting almost nine minutes that produced another field goal from Miller, this time from 20-yards out. It drew the Tigers to within striking distance at 18-12. That's when the defense got onto the highlight reel when it shut down Spartan senior running back Austin Hummel on the next drive. Hummel sat out the first half due to disciplinary reasons, but threatened to take over when he entered the game in the second half.

The winning drive started at the Northwestern 46-yard line. This time, the drive was short and sweet. It opened with a 49-yard pass connection from Dangello to Cam Richardson that took the Tigers down to the North Schuylkill five-yard line.

Uncharacteristically, the Tigers running game was shut down and on third-and-goal, Dangello looked right and then came back to the left side of the field to find Richardson in the end zone to tie the game.

From there, Miller, who hit a game-winning extra-point to beat previously undefeated Catasauqua two weeks earlier, did it again, nailing the kick to put the Tigers up 19-18.

Dangello threw for 185 yards on the night, making him Northwestern's single-season and career passing leader and he still has a season to play. Earlier in the season, Dangello became the Tigers most prolific touchdown thrower and finishes the season with 17 touchdown passes.

The junior quarterback felt there was something special about this team from very early on this season and credited the seniors for providing the leadership that was needed for this team to be so successful.

"We knew we could be good," admitted Dangello. "We should have been in districts, but we weren't and right now, this is justice because the seniors went out the right way."

The defense again stepped up and was able to contain the North Schuylkill offense on back-to-back drives thanks to interceptions by Richardson and Bobbyn that sealed the Eastern Conference championship for Northwestern.

"It was absolutely crazy," said Bobbyn of his interception. "What a heck of a way to end the game and what a heck of a way to end the season. I was in the right place at the right time. Sometimes that happens."

The senior leadership was key for the Tigers this season and coach Josh Snyder believes that the seniors on his team were a special group of players.

"I've been around football for a long time as a player and a coach and you just don't get a group of seniors like this very often," explained Snyder. "They just willed this team to never give up throughout the year. Even last year, these guys stepped up as juniors and really took charge and it was a tough year, because we got beat seven times, but these guys never gave up."

Members of the team and coaching staff pointed to Northwestern's comeback win over Notre Dame as a point in the season when things really started to click for the team. Jake Najarian was a big part of both the offensive and defensive lines and led the team with six sacks and agreed that the win over Notre Dame was a big win for the Tigers.

"The win over Notre Dame where we toughed it out in the fourth quarter, we really knew we had special things coming for our team, we were able to turn things around and it resulted in a championship," said Najarian.