For a while, it looked like Northwestern Lehigh and Saucon Valley were going to take turns running up and down the field.

Then, the Tigers defense settled in and shut down the Panthers offense en route to a 43-15 win.

Northwestern opened with first downs on four straight plays to go up 7-0 and then Saucon Valley responded with first downs on two of its first three plays, giving the impression that the game was going to be a wild one.

Dalton Clymer was the first into the end zone for Northwestern Lehigh as he went seven yards straight up the middle and Seth Kern delivered the point after for a quick 7-0 Tigers lead.

The Panthers started strong on their first drive, including a 28-yard run by Constantine Donahue that got the ball down to the Northwestern 24. After two carries by Jared Rohn, Pete Albano threw an incompletion and on fourth-and-four, the Northwestern defense stuffed another run by Donahue, pushing him back three yards and turning the ball over on downs.

On the 10th play of the ensuing drive, Shane Leh hit Shane Hulmes with a 23-yard strike to go up 14-0 with 2:14 left in the first quarter.

“The coaches are always telling us how hard of a week it’s going to be, so it had me pumped up,” said lineman Blaine Snyder. “It was pretty simple. Clymer is a hard worker and a strong runner and it usually takes two or three guys to take him down.”

Saucon Valley again turned the ball over on downs and the Northwestern offense picked up where they left off on the previous two drives, running the ball with ease. Clymer had a 43-yard run to get the ball down to the three and finished off the drive on the next play, going into the end zone and Kern added the extra point to put the Tigers up 21-0.

Clymer picked up his third rushing touchdown of the night with a six-yard dash into the end zone to go up 27-0. On the extra point, the snap was bobbled but Clymer calmly picked it up and cut down the right side for the two-point conversion and a 29-0 lead.

On the next two possessions, the teams exchanged turnovers when Shane Hulmes recovered a fumble, but Saucon Valley’s Landon Beckowski picked off a pass by Leh to give the ball back to the Panthers with 2:38 left in the half. Blaine Snyder then returned the favor and intercepted a pass by Pete Albano to give the Tigers the ball at the Panthers’ 15 with 1:10 left in the half.

While the safe money would have been to give the ball to Clymer and let him roll into the end zone, head coach Josh Snyder put his team to work and tried some different options that resulted in Devon Hildebrand getting an opportunity to throw only to have the pass intercepted in the end zone.

“You never know down the line when you’re in a tight ballgame, when you’re going to be able to, or have to go to that play,” said Snyder. “We have an arsenal of different looks and things that we can do down there and we want to showcase that a little bit.”

Saucon Valley came out in the second half and on third-and-12, Albano went to the air and overthrew his receiver, leaving Eli Zimmerman with an easy interception at the Panthers 37-yard line. On the first play from scrimmage, Clymer went through the line and zigzagged his way to the end zone and after Kern added the kick, the Tigers were up 36-0.

While the mercy rule made a comeback even less probable, Saucon Valley still looked for points. Albano threw a perfect strike to Jack Robertson who beat his receiver down the right side and was open in the end zone for a 35-yard touchdown.

Northwestern quarterback Shane Leh went to work and found an unlikely target when he hit tight end Brendan Miller in the end zone for a 20-yard score and a 43-7 lead.

With time running down, Saucon Valley put together a nice drive to go 64 yards, ending the drive with a two-yard run by Beckowski. Robertson took a handoff and went into the end zone for the two-point conversion to make it a 43-15 game.

Northwestern moves to 6-0, while Saucon Valley is now 3-3. The Tigers are on a collision course with Southern Lehigh for the last week of the season. The Spartans are also 6-0 as the two teams will battle for supremacy. The issue is keeping the players focused on staying undefeated to reach that game.

“We stay pretty focused,” said coach Snyder. “We don’t let the guys start thinking too far ahead. There’s a lot of work to do and a lot of things to work on between now and then.”