Northwestern’s offense gets a lot of recognition.

And well it should.

The Tigers scored on five of their six first-half possessions Friday night against Lehighton en route to a 42-7 Colonial-Schuylkill League Division A victory.

But while their skill people wow fans and put points on the board, it’s Northwestern’s defense that really sets the tone.

For the fifth straight week, the Tigers didn’t allow any points in the first half. In fact, the Tigers didn’t allow the Indians to cross midfield in the opening two quarters and gave up just 36 total yards.

“I think our defense is right now the staple, the backbone of our team,” said Northwestern head coach Josh Snyder, whose team is 5-0 and has outscored opponents 230-29. “They’ve been really stingy against the run. And last week and this week against the pass, they’ve been really tough.

“We score a lot of points per game, but a lot of that is because our defense is getting us the ball in great field position, plus our return game is really good. Our offensive stats, you know, like yards per game, they’re not going to necessarily jump off the paper. And that’s because we often have a short field (because of the defense).”

Facing that type of opponent is tough enough at full strength, but throw in the fact that Lehighton (2-3) was playing without starting quarterback Jayse Lawrence and the task became even more monumental.

“Obviously, not having their starting quarterback sort of took the wind out of our sails as well,” said Snyder. “We were looking forward to playing against a nice passing team. It’s something different to try to defend. And we’re going to play some good passing teams, so that would have been nice.

“The young kid (Kyden Hauser) that they threw in there did a nice job of running the offense, getting some first downs here and there.”

Northwestern signal-caller Shane Leh, meanwhile, did an even better job directing his team. Coming out in an up-tempo style, Leh completed five passes on the team’s opening drive — the final one a 6-yard scoring toss to Josh Wambold.

The Tiger QB added a 10-yard touchdown run at the end of the first quarter before throwing two more scoring passes — both to Shane Hulmes — in the second. He finished the half with 157 passing yards and the three scores.

“The first three games we didn’t have a need to (throw the ball),” said Snyder. “Last week I think we were 4-of-12, and this week in practice we said let’s try to get the passing game on track and just mix it up a little bit more. We went tempo there to start the game, just to try to get into a rhythm, and I think that really helped Shane.

“I think he got zeroed in there and saw the field pretty well, and I think it’s something that we can continue to improve on.”

Eli Zimmerman’s numbers continue to improve this season as the shifty running back added a pair of touchdowns to up his season total to an even dozen. The senior reached the end zone on a 9-yard run in the second quarter that made the score 21-0, and broke free for a 69-yard tally in the third to end the evening for the Tiger starters.

“There’s no weaknesses on that team,” said Lehighton mentor Tom McCarroll. “That’s why they played in the state championship (last season). They only lost a couple kids, so the expectation for them is probably the same. I told our kids the margin of error is slim against a team like that.

“We battled. We battled, and we’ll continue to battle. We’ll try to put this one behind us and move on because there’s a lot more good football we have this season.”

The Indians avoided the shutout by punching in a score in the final frame. Jacob Ferguson did the honors with a 20-yard burst up the middle.

DEFENSIVE WHIZ … Northwestern’s Bryer Reichard had two sacks and a tackle for loss to lead the team’s defense. “I have to give credit to our defensive coaches because they do a great job,” said the senior lineman. “Week in and week out, we always have a great game plan. We lost a lot of guys at linebacker from last year, but we still felt we had a lot of pieces coming back and could be as talented as last year.”

STAT CHECK … Zimmerman had 160 yards rushing on nine carries, while the team ended with 429 total yards. Lehighton’s Hauser, filling in for Lawrence, completed five passes for 48 yards.

UP NEXT … The Tigers travel Friday to North Schuylkill in a key matchup, while the Indians will be at Pottsville.

N’western 42, Lehighton 7

Lehighton 0 0 0 7 - 7

Northwestern 14 21 7 0 - 42

Scoring Summary

NW - Wambold 6 pass from Leh (Kern kick)

NW - Leh 10 run (Kern kick)

NW - Zimmerman 9 run (Kern kick)

NW - Hulmes 32 pass from Leh (Kern kick)

NW - Hulmes 11 pass from Leh (Kern kick)

NW - Zimmerman 69 run (Kern kick)

L - Ferguson 20 run (Ebbert kick)