MECHANICSBURG – Trailing by three touchdowns late in the first half, Northwestern was looking to repeat what it had done a week before in the state semifinal, when the Tigers came back from a deficit to dominate after intermission.

In Saturday’s PIAA Class 3A Championship game, the Tigers got a late first-half touchdown and had the ball coming out of halftime. But this time the opponent wouldn’t allow a comeback as Belle Vernon shut out Northwestern in the second half to seal its second straight state title, 38-7.

“We didn’t give up,” said Tiger head coach Josh Snyder. “They punched one in. We came back and made it 21-7 with the ball coming out (of halftime). We gave ourselves a chance and an opportunity like I knew we would.

“We have excellent leaders and people that have no quit in them. That’s the true character and the culture of Northwestern Tiger football.”

For the first few minutes of the second half, it looked like a repeat performance was coming. The Tigers got the ball and drove 44 yards to the Belle Vernon 39-yard line. But the next four plays pretty much sealed the win for the Leopards.

A four-yard loss and a 10-yard sack forced the Tigers to punt. On Belle Vernon’s first play from scrimmage in the second half, Penn State-bound running back Quinton Martin broke free down the sideline for a 92-yard touchdown to put his team ahead 28-7 with 5:39 left in the third quarter.

Martin had 38 yards on seven carries before that play.

“I feel like we held Martin in check all game long,” said Snyder. “I felt like for the most part we tackled him well in space. That one explosive play sort of took the last hope out of there. We don’t have speed like that. We just tried to bottle him up as long as we could.”

While that series likely sealed the game for the Leopards, a pair of drives in the second quarter put them in position to seal it in the second half.

The Tigers had an opportunity when Landon Matson recovered a fumbled punt at the BV 37-yard line. They pounded the ball down to the 7-yard line where record-setting running back Dalton Clymer ran the ball four times, including the final time from the 1-yard line, but the Leopards got the stop.

Belle Vernon took over at its own 2-yard line and went 98 yards for a score and a 21-0 lead with 1:48 left in the first half.

“Huge,” said BV head coach Matt Humbert, who was well aware of Northwestern’s comeback over Wyomissing a week earlier in the semifinal. “The Wyomissing game was a little nerve-wracking for us. That was such a battle between those two and then boom, just like that they were able to steal the show in the fourth quarter. We knew they had that capability. For us to get that stand down there and not let them get six points out of it, that was huge.”

Northwestern got the ball back and went 68 yards in five plays and just over a minute of game time. Shane Leh found Landon Matson for a 17-yard touchdown pass to get the Tigers on the board and send the game to halftime at 21-7.

The Leopards made several huge plays in the game, starting in the contest’s first 12 seconds.

Belle Vernon’s Anthony Crews took the opening kickoff 78 yards for a touchdown.

“Quinton Martin was on my side, but we flipped him,” said Crews. “Once we flipped him and they saw that, I knew the ball was coming to me.”

The junior wide receiver wasn’t finished. On his team’s next possession, despite a bobbled exchange, he took a handoff 62 yards for a touchdown and a 14-0 lead with 7:52 left in the first quarter.

“It was a jet sweep; that’s my play,” said Crews. “My quarterback bobbled it. I caught it. I have good vision. I saw it was there. I cut back and I was gone.”

The Leopards piled up 343 rushing yards in the game, with 154 of them coming on two plays. They were able to control the line of scrimmage, grinding out yards while waiting for chances to break big plays.

“They had a couple more players and playmakers,” said Snyder. “They’re a good football team, back-to-back state champs for a reason. Kudos to them. Not a whole lot of holes in their football program. For us to come out and compete with them, I feel good about that.”

FIRST AND FOREMOST….The Belle Vernon scored the first time it touched the ball in each half, with Crews’ return and Martin’s 92-yard scamper accounting for the Leopards’ first touch of each half.

GOOD AT THE GOAL LINE…This was the second straight season that BV made a goal-line stand in the state title game. In 2022, Neumann-Goretti had a first-and-goal from the 2-yard line. BV kept the Saints out of the end zone to preserve a 9-8 lead and win the school’s first football state title. “That’s what we’re known for,” said Crews. “We won a state championship off of a goal-line stop last year.”

SENIOR SEND OFF... Only five seniors will graduate from this year’s Northwestern team, including Clymer, Blaine Snyder, Daniel Jenkins, Devon Hildebrand and Ben Walters. They helped the team win back to back District 11 titles.