After a strong bounce-back win over Palmerton last week, Northwestern looks to make it two in a row against rival Northern Lehigh. The Bulldogs (5-3) are coming off a 40-7 loss to Southern Lehigh in a game that saw their running game shutdown by a talented Spartan defense.

Usually, the Bulldogs depend on a strong ground game to keep the ball out of the other team's hands while they go about eating up yardage and putting up points. It wasn't until their first possession of the second half a 17-play, 75-yard drive that used up 9:07 off the clock that Northern Lehigh was able to play the type of game that they look to play. Forced into an early passing attack when they fell behind, the Bulldogs sputtered and struggled to gain any meaningful yardage.

The head of the ground game is senior Nate Farber, who has done his share of damage against the Tigers. Last season, Northwestern won the game 28-0, but Farber ran for 169 yards on 31 carries, so the Tigers know just how dangerous he can be.

"He's a hard-nosed, tough runner and the defense has to read its keys and swarm to the football," said Tiger head coach Josh Snyder. "You don't want to try to tackle him one-on-one, you look to gang tackle him and hope to contain him as much as you can. Last week, Southern Lehigh did a nice job against him [Farber carried 16 times for 57 yards] and it changed how they played the game."

Quarterback Chad Cederberg threw for 63 yards last week, combining with Farber to account for the majority of the Bulldogs 174 yards of total offense against Southern Lehigh. Like many quarterbacks, Cederberg is most effective when he's able to mix in the pass with the strong ground game. He does show some poise in the pocket and has a strong weapon to throw to in Ryan Rubio.

"They'll look to establish the run first," said Snyder. "From what we saw of them against Southern Lehigh, if you can disrupt their running game, you can get them out of their comfort zone and force them into different sets. Last week, they even went with a no tight end set at times, which is unusual for their offense."

It's worth noting that the Bulldogs were without offensive linemen Stephen Sheib and Jason Schaffer, who both missed the game with injuries, but will return to play against Northwestern.

Defensively, Southern Lehigh is strong and has allowed only two teams Saucon Valley and Southern Lehigh to put up more than 25 points in a game against them this season. Just like their key losses on the offensive line, the defense was hurt by the loss of lineman David Neff, who will also return against Northern Lehigh.

Meanwhile, the Tigers continue to roll through the season on the strength of strong offensive and defensive lines. Senior Jason Pechacek has been a force to be reckoned with on the offensive line this season, taking over at center. After playing defensively last season, Pechacek was asked to put on weight and get stronger to make the move to center and he complied, which helped the offensive line that was hit hard by graduation.

"He's doing a tremendous job with the nose tackles that he has to go up against and sometimes, he's taking on a linebacker and he handles that well," said Snyder. "Jason had a big game against Palmerton and really plays hard on every snap," said Snyder. "He's so good at kind of quarterbacking that line, with our no-huddle offense and we're even able to have him pull on some plays, which most teams don't do with their center, and he gets out on those plays and leads Frankie [Dangello] and Harry [Hall] and really does a nice job with that."

Northwestern (7-1) looks for a big win on homecoming night as it attempts to make it two in a row over Northern Lehigh.