The Tigers proved to be more than up to the challenge against the top-seeded Saucon Valley at Tuesday's Colonial League team wrestling championships.

Northwestern, the No. 4 seed in the four-team event, took an early 10-5 lead after a pin by Jarret White (126) and a major decision by Caleb Clymer (138).

But three straight bonus point wins by Dylan Yonney (145), Nate Harka (152) and Brett Suites (160) gave Saucon Valley a 19-10 lead, an advantage that it would never surrender en route to a 35-30 win.

The Tigers were able to battle back after falling behind, cutting the deficit to as little as three at 24-21 after Quin Moyer's major decision at 220. They were within 30-24 after Matt Peters earned an overtime win at 106.

With district duals later this week, Tiger head coach Jim Moll is hoping the experience of this tournament will benefit his squad.

"I told the guys that they have to learn how to win those matches," he said. "We had two chances to do that in the last few days, with Northern Lehigh on Sunday and Saucon tonight.

"It's good timing because we have, hopefully, rematches with both of those teams coming up at district duals. We'll see Northern Lehigh in the quarters if we get past Williams Valley. And if we beat Northern Lehigh, then we'll see Saucon. So we're hoping that we'll have another opportunity at both of those teams."

The Panthers went on to defeate Northern Lehigh in Tuesday's league finals, 30-21. The Bulldogs beat Bangor in the semifinals before facing Saucon Valley, which went 8-0 in the Colonial League regular season.

N'western-No. Lehigh

The Tigers finally made up their rescheduled match with rival Northern Lehigh last Sunday.

Entering Sunday's the regular season finale, it seemed as if that's all it would take to separate two of the top-four teams in the league.

And in a contest that certainly lived up to its billing, the Bulldogs got the critical wins when they needed them to defeat the Tigers, 34-25, and claim the Colonial League West Division title.

"We knew this could have gone either way," said Northern Lehigh head coach Steve Hluschak, Jr. "We needed some guys to really step up for us to have a chance today, and they did."

After falling behind 16-3 following the first four bouts, the Bulldogs (17-2, 7-1) got five straight wins from Ryan Ferber (145), C.J Young (152), Nate Farber (160), Austin Arnold (170) and Chad Cederberg (182) to take a 22-16 lead.

The run proved to not only be the difference in the match, but also a testament to the team's character.

What was arguably the most impressive of those victories came from Arnold.

With the score tied 16-16 at that point in the match, Arnold scored a 3-2 decision over Andrew Sorensen by executing a well-timed takedown with only 15 seconds remaining in the third period.

Following Cederberg's 1-0 decision over Anthony Fillis in the match that followed, Northwestern (12-5, 7-1) pulled to within three at 22-19 when Alexander Russo topped Stephen Scheib by a 12-5 margin at 195 pounds.

Once again, the Bulldogs responded as Jason Schaffer, gained three valuable points by holding off Jacob Murray to earn a 4-2 decision that pushed Northern Lehigh's lead back to six at 25-19.

The Bulldogs made the most of Schaffer's performance, taking two of the final three bouts as Cameron Kates (285) and Colton Rex (113) closed out the match with victories.

In all, Northern Lehigh won two one-point matches, one two-point bout and two four-point contests.

"They won all the close ones, and that was the difference in the match," said Northwestern head coach Jim Moll. "There were five matches that could have gone the other way.

"But they (Northern Lehigh) won the flip and kind of dictated the matchups. We knew we had to get bonus points where we could, and we missed a lot of those opportunities."

The Tigers started strong with wins by Quentin Bernhard (120), Jackson Bernhard (126) and Caleb Clymer (138) before Northern Lehigh took control in the middle and upper weights.