Sometimes the things you take for granted have a way of showing just how important they are.

For the Northwestern Lehigh Tigers Friday night, the little thing was snapping the ball. One fumbled snap turned into an 85-yard touchdown return for Bangor and another became a game ending turnover that wrapped up a 27-21 win for the Slaters to ruin the Tigers’ homecoming.

“We practice this stuff 180 times a week. It just shouldn’t happen,” said coach Josh Snyder of the two fumbled snaps. “The center-quarterback exchange, it all starts there, even in pee-wee football. If you can’t get that done, you can’t execute a play.”

For most of the night, both teams did execute plays and put together a back-and-forth game that was primarily a ground war that resulted in a total of 533 yards rushing between the two teams. Northwestern’s Cade Christopher led the way with 24 carries and 186 yards, while running back Ashton Kluska led the Slaters with 109 yards on eight carries, including a 61-yard dash for a touchdown in the second quarter that put the Slaters up 14-7 at the time.

After the Tigers turned the ball over on downs on the first drive of the game, Bangor went 75 yards for the first score of the night. Quarterback Eric Striba opened the drive with a 40-yard run down the left sideline and carried the ball eight more times on the drive. He went in from two yards out for the first score of the game.

Christopher and Dalton Clymer did the heavy lifting on the ensuing drive when the Tigers tied the game when Clymer had a wide-open lane on the right side for a six-yard touchdown.

Northwestern (6-2) again had to play from behind after Kluska’s big run, but had no trouble evening out the scoreboard again with a second quarter drive that was highlighted by a sliding catch by Devon Hildebrand on the first pass of the game by Christopher. The play picked up 21 yards and gave the Tigers a first-and-ten at the Bangor 19-yard line. Seven plays later, Clymer finished the drive with a four-yard run, making it 14-14.

“When you get into a tight game in October, you have to make plays and be smart and we had some penalties and bad plays that hurt us and those things mean something in games like this,” said Snyder. “We were aggressive and our kids are tough and play hard and I would rather have aggressive penalties than be too soft, but we hurt ourselves in other ways.”

Defenses ruled the day in the third quarter and Bangor’s defense scored the next touchdown when Alex Farensback scooped up a bad snap and went 85 yards untouched to make it 21-14 after the extra point by M.J. Siu.

The Tigers got the ball back and went 65 yards, 49 gained by Christopher, and again tied the game at 21 when Christopher capped the drive with a 30-yard break down the right side with 9:33 left to play.

Earlier in the game, an extra point attempt by Siu was tipped by a Northwestern Lehigh player but limped over the crossbar. After the Slaters went up 27-21 on Noah Hillis’ six-yard touchdown run, Northwestern again went after the kick and blocked it, which appeared to give them the opening they needed with 3:20 left to play.

Northwestern moved swiftly down the field but ran into a fourth-and-seven play and the snap got away from Clymer, and Bangor’s Riley Stapp fell on the ball. Bangor took a knee on the next snap for the final play of the game.

“We knew we were going to have our hands full and we were able to get enough stops to win the game, but the turnovers just kill you,” Snyder said. “We got into a critical situation there at the end and just couldn’t execute.”

BIG CROWD … Over 1,100 tickets were scanned for the annual Homecoming Game. It was the first home game for Northwestern after three road games, the longest stretch that Snyder remembers during his tenure as coach.

AND THEN THERE WERE TWO … Next week’s game against Wilson is Senior Night and is the penultimate game of the regular season. The Tigers end the season with a game at Southern Lehigh in Week 10 before going into district playoffs.