Blue Mountain struck first.

And the Eagles kept swinging.

But Northwestern never flinched.

The Tigers took the fight to Blue Mountain in a heavyweight battle of unbeatens Friday night and had their hand raised after a 28-21 victory in a Colonial-Schuylkill League Gold Division showdown.

“I told them, they’re opening their field up, they are coming off a week where they beat North Schuylkill. They’re going to be riding sky-high and we were going to take their best punch,” said Northwestern coach Josh Snyder. “They were going to come out swinging like Mike Tyson, and we just got to absorb them, and wait, and let that wear off, and then just play football.”

Payton Fasnacht capped Blue Mountain’s first drive with a 43-yard score to give the home team, which was debuting a new turf field, a 7-0 lead with 9:39 to play in the first quarter.

The Eagles forced a punt on Northwestern’s first drive. But the Tigers answered on Blue Mountain’s ensuing possession, as Daniel Jenkins came up with an interception.

Northwestern (3-0) needed three plays to find the end zone, as sophomore Shane Leh connected with junior Landen Matson for the first of three TD passes on a 20-yard score, with Seth Kern’s extra point making it 7-7 with 5:17 to play in the opening quarter.

The Tigers recovered the ensuing onside kick, and senior Devon Hildebrand capped an 11 play drive with a two-yard score, with Kern’s extra point making it 14-7 with 47 seconds to play in the first quarter.

“Of course, we didn’t want to give up that first score,” said Snyder. “They got the ball and drove it right down the field. But we responded, like a veteran group would, and that’s exactly what we have in these guys; experienced line, and guys like (Dalton) Clymer, Devon Hildebrand, those guys mixed in with the young bucks, and Mason (Bollinger) and Shane (Leh) making plays.”

Blue Mountain (2-1) responded, with quarterback Tyler Miller going 65 yards on the first play of the ensuing series before the extra point made it 14-14 with 30.7 seconds remaining.

The next drive showed again what the Tigers were all about, as they put together a 90-yard drive, which ended with Leh hitting Bollinger for a 10-yard score.

Leh found Bollinger for a 44-yard connection earlier in the drive, and had a 12-yard completion to lineman Jared Meck on a tipped pass on third-and-nine from the Eagles’ 24-yard line.

The Eagles drove to the Tigers’ 30-yard line on the next series, but the 14th play of the drive was an interception by Leh at the four-yard line to stop the threat and keep it 21-14 at halftime.

The second half started with another impressive drive for Northwestern, which saw Leh hit Bollinger for a 30-yard score and the Tigers go ahead 28-14 with 6:14 left in the third.

Fasnacht delivered his second score of the game on the next drive, going in from five yards out to make it 28-21 with 3:07 left in the third.

Blue Mountain got good field position on its next drive after a punt from the Tigers put the Eagles at their 45-yard line. They drove to the 13-yard line, but couldn’t convert fourth-and-two as the Northwestern defense came up with a big stop in a one possession game.

“Defensively, we’re not going to keep a team like that scoreless,” said Snyder. “The quarterback’s too talented, the running back’s too talented; they have several really talented players. They’re gonna make plays. They’re gonna do some good things. Our hope was that we just make them work for it; drive the ball.”

Northwestern quickly faced third-and-nine from its own 14-yard line on the next drive. But Leh escaped pressure and found Bollinger down the field for a 41-yard connection to move into Blue Mountain territory.

“I’m just trying to extend the play,” said Leh, who threw for 204 yards. “I have a lineman in my face, it’s natural, I just react to it, and I’m able to find him or any other receiver down there, and it just works. We’ve got great team chemistry and it just works really well.”

“We all just run our routes, and know what to do and execute it,” added Bollinger, who caught five passes for 142 yards and two scores.

The Tigers drove it down to the six-yard line and couldn’t convert a fourth and goal play, but left just 34.2 on the clock. The Eagles took over and managed one first down, but had no timeouts remaining, and a pair of incompletions ended the game.

“Miller and Fasnacht are two excellent leaders and they’re playmakers for us,” said Blue Mountain coach Tom Gallagher. “We lost to a very good Northwestern team. We have nothing to hang our heads about. Some things that we absolutely need to fix and improve on and we will. But we still have a lot to work with and we’re going to find ways to make us even better moving forward.”

Miller finished with 125 yards rushing, while Fasnacht had 105 yards on the ground.

Northwestern will have an extra day of rest before heading to Pen Argyl next Saturday at 1:30 p.m.

The Green Knights are 2-1 this season. They opened with a 49-20 win over Wilson and beat Mahanoy 43-13 before falling to Northern Lehigh 16-12 last Friday night.

Pen Argyl has been pretty balanced offensively this season, with 79 runs and 71 pass attempts.

Senior quarterback Brad Rissmiller has completed 42 of 66 passes for 672 yards and four touchdowns. Seniors Damian Tyminski (19 receptions, 311 yards, 2 TD) and Alex Moser (8 receptions, 185 yards, 2 TDs) and sophomore Mason Soos (10 receptions, 97 yards) are the Knights’ top receiving threats.

Caiden Faust leads the Pen Argyl running game with 148 yards on 28 carries and two touchdowns. Tyminski has run the ball 12 times for 78 yards and four scores.

Junior linebacker Nuallan King leads the Knights’ defense with 19 tackles, while Rissmiller has 18, Tymisnki has 14 and Faust 11.