“We practice this stuff 180 times a week. It just shouldn’t happen,” said a frustrated Northwestern Lehigh coach Josh Snyder following his team’s 27-21 home loss to Bangor in week eight of the high school season.

Snyder was talking specifically about two bad snaps that led to six points for the Slaters and then stalled a potential game-winning drive with time running down.

For most of the night, both teams did execute plays and put together a back-and-forth game that was primarily a ground war, resulting in a total of 533 yards rushing between the two teams. Northwestern’s Cade Christopher led the way with 24 carries and 186 yards on the night, while running back Ashton Kluska led the Slaters with 109 yards on eight carries, including a 61-yardd dash for a touchdown in the second quarter that put the Slaters up 14-7 at the time.

Quarterback Eric Striba was a thorn in the Tigers’ side, just as he was in last year’s matchup between the two teams. Striba started the opening drive for Bangor with a 40-yard run down the left sideline and carried the ball eight more times on the drive, capping the charge with a two-yard touchdown dash.

Cade Christopher and Dalton Clymer did the heavy lifting on the ensuing drive when the Tigers tied the game up when Clymer had a wide-open lane on the right side for a six-yard touchdown.

Northwestern (6-2) again had to play from behind after Kluska rattled off a 61-yard run that was stopped only by crossing the goal line. The extra-point by MJ Siu put the Slaters on top14-7.

Never the type of team to panic, the offense went to work again for Northwestern Lehigh on an impressive drive highlighted by a sliding catch by Devon Hildebrand on Christopher’s first pass of the game. The play picked up 21 yards and gave the Tigers a first-and-ten at the Bangor 19-yard line. Seven plays later, Clymer finished the drive with a four-yard run, making it 14-14.

After a scoreless third quarter, mistakes started to get in the way for Northwestern Lehigh.

The Bangor defense would be the next ones to score when Alex Farensbach scooped up a bad snap and went 85 yards untouched to make it 21-14 after the extra point by Siu.

“When you get into a tight game in October, you have to make plays and be smart and we had some penalties and bad plays that hurt us and those things mean something in games like this,” said Snyder. “We were aggressive and our kids are tough and play hard and I would rather have aggressive penalties than be too soft, but we hurt ourselves in other ways.”

The Tigers got the ball back and went 65 yards, 49 of which were gained by Christopher, and again tied the game at 21 when Christopher capped the drive with a 30-yard jaunt down the right side with 9:33 left to play.

Earlier in the game, an extra point attempt by Siu was tipped by a Northwestern player but limped over the crossbar. After the Slaters went up 27-21 on Noah Hillis’ six-yard touchdown run, Northwestern again went after the kick and blocked it, which gave them the opening they needed with 3:20 left to play.

Northwestern moved swiftly down the field but ran into a fourth-and-seven play and the snap got away from Clymer. Bangor’s Riley Stapp fell on the ball and Bangor simply took a knee on the next snap for the final play of the game.

“We knew we were going to have our hands full and we were able to get enough stops to win the game, but the turnovers just kill you,” Snyder said. “We got into a critical situation there at the end and just couldn’t execute.”