Nick Henry put the medal around his neck and looked into the eyes of his teammates one more time.

It wasn’t the way the Northwestern senior envisioned his team’s final send off, a 35-6 loss to Allentown Central Catholic in the District 11 Class 4A final.

But it was an opportunity Henry didn’t take for granted.

“It meant the world to me,” Henry said after breaking the huddle with a group he calls family. “To come up the past four years, for them playing under me and for me trying to be a role model for them, it just meant everything to me.”

In the last four years, the Tigers have gone 30-14.

But significant roster turnover, including the graduation of record-setting quarterback Deven Bollinger and the entire offensive line following the 2019 season, made repeating that success this fall anything but certain.

Throw in an unpredictable offseason caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and it would have been easy to think Northwestern might struggle to find its footing.

The Tigers never missed a beat.

Northwestern’s offense led the area in points (44.4) and yards (429.5) per game for the second consecutive season entering Thursday’s contest. The Tigers scored over 50 points on three occasions, including in a 54-19 victory over Lehighton in the District 11 Class 4A quarterfinals two weeks ago.

“A lot of these kids are first-year starters as seniors and juniors,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder. “We lost a whole lot. And they’re undersized and they don’t have a whole lot of experience. But I think if you would have asked me if I would have been happy with this outcome at the start of the season, I would have probably been pretty pumped up about that.

“Getting here, running through the Colonial League undefeated, playing a really tough nonleague opponent and our kids just really battled. They did all year.”

The Tigers’ only loss during the regular season was to Berks Catholic in Week 2.

“The coaches always say there’s no stars on the team, everybody plays together,” said Henry, who is looking at playing baseball in college. “We are 11 as one. We knew Central might be bigger, stronger and faster, but we knew we were playing as a team. We knew (were) going to do everything possible, and we came out and played with full energy.

“It wasn’t the outcome that we wanted. But we kept playing hard even though we’re down and we never gave up.”

The program has been on a steady rise the last three years, going 9-3 in 2018 and 10-2 in 2019 before finishing 7-2 this season.

Those marks came on the heels of a 4-7 campaign during the 2017 season and a 5-6 mark in 2016.

“Nick Henry and Owen Coffield I think are the only two returning starters from that group,” Snyder said of his senior class, which has around a dozen players. “Those are program kids. They’re not necessarily kids that shine throughout their careers, but they got opportunities late just because they were behind some other really good football players.

“They had a heck of a senior season. They were able to get on the field and make plays and lead us and above all, they were just a really fun group of kids that loved to play football. There’s not a single kid in that senior class that’s going on to play college football. That tells you something about our program. That tells you something about the type of kids that we have at Northwestern. They enjoy it and they give us their all. They stay in it throughout their four years, whether they’re maybe starters or not. Everybody on our team, they all have a job, and they all have a spot on the team and not one is any more important than the other.”

And it’s a culture that has built a foundation for sustained success.

“That’s definitely something that we’ve been trying to do around here since 2012 when we took over the program,” Snyder said. “That’s been our motto, that we don’t want to have I’s or me’s or single out anybody. Our star kids are selfless kids, and they just want to give all the credit to their teammates anyway.

“They just keep battling and playing hard for each other. And I think this year was really indicative of that.”

Each year might bring a new cast of characters. But it’s the same effort that has been a hallmark of Snyder’s teams during his tenure at his alma mater.

And it’s the mentality Henry knows will exist in the future.

“The coaches said this year that we don’t rebuild, we reload,” said Henry. “I hope in the next few years they do that. They know that they’re going to be a good team no matter what. So I just hope that they do really well in the future.”