Few teams have been able to keep pace with Northwestern this season.

Allentown Central Catholic didn’t just go stride-for-stride with the Tigers on Thursday night.

The Vikings were a step ahead.

An offense that scored touchdowns on its first five possessions, and a defense that wouldn’t budge, lifted Central to the District 11 Class 4A title with a 35-6 victory over Northwestern.

“Now I know what other teams feel like when we’re running the ball and it’s working out really well,” said Tigers’ head coach Josh Snyder. “It’s sort of a helpless feeling. They were getting yards, and they were getting it in chunks. That’s a tough one.

“They outmanned us up front with their size ... it was definitely a challenge. That’s a really good football team over there.”

Jayden Williams carried the ball 14 times for 172 yards for the top-seeded Vikings (6-2).

The senior finished off a four-play, 89-yard drive with a 55-yard touchdown run to make it 28-0 midway through the second quarter. He had 111 yards in the first half.

Williams scored his second touchdown of the game on Central’s first possession of the second half, going in from 10 yards out. Chris Matejcek’s extra point made it 35-0 and put the mercy rule into effect with 7:17 to play in the third quarter.

Northwestern (7-2), the No. 3 seed, entered the contest averaging 44.4 points and 429.5 yards per game and scored at least 35 points in each of its eight games this season. The Tigers gained 215 yards against the Vikings.

Central’s defense was relentless, never letting quarterback Justin Holmes (7-of-24, 92 yards, one interception) get settled in the pocket.

“I think for any quarterback, even one as talented as Justin, I think anytime you can get him to move around and be a little unsure of where he’s going, that’s going to change the complexion of the game a little bit,” said Vikings’ head coach Tim McGorry. “If you just let him stand there and give him scramble lanes, that’s a problem for anybody.

“So I think getting him out of the pocket (was a key), and then we made sure we always had guys going to him when he got out of the pocket. But he’s really tough. He’s an exceptional player.”

Holmes, who entered the game second in the area in passing (1,333) and rushing (962) yardage, finished with 119 yards on 23 carries.

While the junior couldn’t get in sync with his targets, Central found its flow early.

The Vikings polished off a 10-play, 77-yard drive with a five-yard score by quarterback Matt Rauscher on their opening series.

Central took advantage of a short field after Jack McGorry came up with a pick on Northwestern’s second drive. Rauscher punched in his second TD, this time from three yards out as the Vikings went 31 yards in three plays.

The Vikings took over near midfield after the Tigers failed to get a punt off on their next possession. After a delay-of-game penalty, Rauscher hit McGorry for a 50-yard TD to push the Vikings’ lead to 21-0 early in the second quarter.

Northwestern drove deep into Central territory on its final drive of the first half.

The Tigers had first and goal from the 9, but came away with a running play that lost a yard, an incompletion, a rush that netted a yard and an incompletion in the end zone as time expired.

“We had a hell of a drive in the waning seconds of the first half,” said Snyder. “It would have been neat to punch one in there and be down by three scores instead of four.”

The Tigers got on the board late in the fourth quarter when Nick Henry hit Wyatt Ledeboer for a seven-yard score.

Holmes connected with Henry for a 59-yard pass play that got them out of the shadow of their own end zone on the 92-yard drive.

The Vikings made moving the ball up the middle difficult, with 6-4, 320-pound nose guard Lavon Johnson clogging the running lanes and the rest of the Central defense flying to the ball.

“I think we got behind the chains in our first couple of drives,” said Snyder. “When Holmes carries the ball, that gives us an extra blocker, usually Nick’s (Henry) the lead guy. But we were running some speed motion and Holmes was reading the end pretty good and we were getting some good yardage up in there.

“I thought Nick had a couple of hard runs. But when big No. 52 (Lavon Johnson) is in there, and No. 1 (Leroy Johnson) is blitzing ... everybody on their schedule had a tough time running against them. It wasn’t just Northwestern.”

The district title is the first for Central since winning the Class 3A crown in 2012. Northwestern’s last district title came in 2014 when the Tigers were crowned Class 2A champions.

The Vikings finished with 259 yards rushing on 30 attempts. They had only four pass attempts in the game, none in the second half.

Northwestern was without Justin Rodda, who was hurt in a Week 5 win over Salisbury, and also lost receiver Cade Christopher early on Thursday.