It’s one of the most common cliches in the history of sports.

And on Friday night, Northwestern proved it to be true once more.

Facing a high-powered North Schuylkill offense in the District 11 Class 3A title game, the Tigers once again demonstrated that defenses really do win championships.

Josh Snyder’s team frustrated the Spartans time-and-time again throughout the contest and forced two key turnovers in posting a 34-14 victory for the program’s fifth district crown and its first since 2014.

“Beside the two big plays (they had for touchdowns), we really stifled them,” said Snyder. “They couldn’t do much in the way of running the football or passing the ball, or sustaining any type of drives.

“We also had two huge turnovers there. You have to make plays to win championship ballgames, and we did that tonight. I’m proud of our guys for that.”

The top-seeded Spartans actually made a big play less than a minute into the contest when quarterback Trevor Minalda connected with Joey Flail on an 83-yard scoring pass that put Northwestern in an early hole.

But except for that play - and a 44-yard score right before intermission on a gadget call - the Tigers kept North Schuylkill’s potent skill players mostly in check.

“Our defense doesn’t get enough love,” said junior linebacker Dalton Clymer, who made plenty of big hits. “We came up huge tonight. Everybody worked their butts off. The coaches’ game plan was executed perfectly. Props go to them, and props go to us. Everybody did a great job.”

After the Spartans jumped out to their quick 6-0 lead, Northwestern forced back-to-back three and outs, and induced a third straight punt on their next possession. By the time they got the ball again, they were trailing - and would continue to trail for the rest of the game.

The Tigers tied the contest midway through the first frame when Cade Christopher tossed a screen pass to Clymer, who slipped away for a 26-yard touchdown.

Christopher, who had a huge night offensively with 214 yards rushing, was anxious to make his presence felt after the team fell behind. He was covering Flail on the Spartans’ first touchdown play.

“I actually let up that (first) touchdown,” said Christopher. “He burned me a little bit, but I promised I would not let that happen again. We just had to overcome that early adversity. They’re a good team, so they were going to make big plays. We just had to overcome them.”

While Christopher may have been burned for a big play on defense, he more than made up for it. His 27-yard run led to a Clymer 1-yard tally with 8:04 left until halftime to give his team a 14-6 lead, and after the defense coerced a fourth straight punt, he escaped for a 58-yard TD run that put the Tigers up two scores.

“Any team that’s winning a district championship has a stud, and Cade’s ours,” said Snyder. “He’s our playmaker. The ball’s in his hands 90 percent of the time. At this point of the season, he’s feeling it. The team’s feeding off of him. He’s making plays in the passing game, and in the running game.”

North Schuylkill did mange to trim the margin to 21-14 right before intermission when the Spartans ran out of a Wildcat formation and Flail tossed a 44-yard touchdown pass to Collin McGee.

“Our guys just got caught up in the fact that they went Wildcat and we were just too aggressive, and they made a play,” said Snyder.

“They scored there, but I still had complete confidence there,” said Clymer. “Going into the half, I said to the guys we’re up a score and we get the ball. We still have momentum, and we’re still plugging away. It was a setback and it was unfortunate, but it made no difference in my mind that we would be able to come back out and make plays.”

Snyder and Co. countered the trick play with one of their own on the first possession of the second half. After the Tigers stuck to the ground, moving the ball methodically with 10 rushing plays, freshman Mason Bollinger looked like he was running a jet sweep. But instead, Bollinger threw back to Clymer - who had taken the snap - for a 10-yard touchdown and a 28-14 advantage.

“That’s one that we put in this week,” said Snyder of the play. “Coach (Dave) Kerschner came up with that. I have to give him credit. We were in a situation where we were going to go for it regardless, but we pulled the trigger on that play. They were very aggressive flying to our motions, the speed sweep was working so well for us.

“For Mason, that was the second big pass he had the last two weeks. He had the New Tripoli Special (against Notre Dame) and that one to Clymer. I have to say it hadn’t looked that good in practice all week, but it worked really well tonight. I wasn’t able to see the connection from my vantage point, but when the official’s arms went up I was pretty pumped.”

Snyder had to be more the pumped moments later.

North Schuylkill looked like it would answer that score, driving to the Northwestern 1-yard line. But Eli Zimmerman pounced on a fumble to end the Spartans’ drive.

Late in the fourth, with the Tigers maintaining their two-score bulge, North Schuylkill again tried to reach the end zone but the Northwestern defense again came up big.

On a short pass from Minalda to McGee, senior Ty Meck ripped the ball out of the receiver’s hands and returned it 72 yards for the game’s final score and an exclamation mark on their district title.

“I’m exhausted,” said Snyder, whose team lost the past two years in the district championship game. “I told the kids I don’t have much left. We coached our tails off, and they played their tails off. We’ve made a habit of making it to championship games, and we’re not ashamed of losing them. We left it all out of the field the past couple years, but we came up short and that was nothing to be ashamed of.

“You just have to bounce back and eventually if you keep swinging and keep fighting and keep practicing ... these kids are deserving of one. I’m super proud of this community, this town, this school district for what we’ve been able to accomplish in our little niche in New Tripoli, Pennsylvania.”