Josh Snyder and his Northwestern Lehigh football team are no strangers to playing in big games.

This season alone the Tigers have knocked off Southern Lehigh in the regular season finale to win the Colonial-Schuylkill League Gold Division championship, and then in districts, plowed through the 3A classification with games against Jim Thorpe, Notre Dame Green Pond and top-seeded North Schuylkill. They handled each opponent, and for the first time since 2014, came away with a district championship to show for their efforts.

In each of the past two seasons, the Tigers (11-2) reached the 4A finals before falling to Allentown Central Catholic, but this time they decisively beat the preseason favorite North Schuylkill to garner gold.

“We have always taken the mentality that we have to take each week (one week) at a time and fight our way through,” said Snyder. “We have had a lot of success, but just couldn’t get that win we needed the past couple of seasons, which is nothing to hang our heads about. We always fought hard, but just came up a little short in the end. This season we put that behind us and I am so happy for these kids that they were able to advance.”

With the regular season and districts now behind them, Northwestern takes the next step into the PIAA playoffs. The quest begins Saturday afternoon in Philadelphia when the Tigers go up against Neumann Goretti, the District 12 champions, in the Class 3A quarterfinals.

Saturday’s game will be unusual in that the Neumann Goretti Saints are part of what is the oldest public school versus Catholic school Thanksgiving Day game in Philadelphia, and played South Philly High School on Thursday, adding a 26-20 win to their record. Just how well the Saints will respond to having one day off between games will be interesting to see.

The quarterfinal round game between Northwestern and Neumann figures to be a battle between two impressive defenses. The Saints (8-3) have allowed just 114 points in their 11 games this season for an average of just over 10 per game, while the Tigers have allowed just 15.7 points per game.

There is little chance that the game plan for Northwestern will change much aside from the few bits of trickery that coach Snyder likes to add along the way. The plan has been run the ball right, run it left and run it up the middle, simply daring the opposing defense to stop them from chewing up yardage. In fact, in the last two games, the rushing attack has been so potent that the Tigers have put up just four passes in each of those two games, relying instead on the combination of senior quarterback Cade Christopher and junior running back Dalton Clymer to eat time off the clock and keep the chains moving. The two have amassed over 3,000 yards rushing on the season, and there is no reason to go away from what has worked.

“Our offensive line has done a really good job of opening some holes for us, and Cade and Dalton have the athletic ability to run the ball and make some big plays,” said Snyder. “We always emphasize run first on offense, and with the combination of the big blockers up front and two guys who can run the ball a lot for us, teams have struggled to try to shut us down.”

In comparison, Neumann Goretti has rushed for just under 1,600 yards as a team this season, with senior Shawn Battle (791 yards) leading the way on the ground. Battle is coming off his biggest day of the season, having rushed for 214 yards against South Philly on Thursday. The Saints offense is led by junior QB Mekhi Wharton, who has thrown for 1,342 yards and 15 touchdowns. The problem comes in knowing who to defend because Wharton spreads the ball around with Battle and senior Denim Smith having nearly identical stats, with a combined 54 catches and 913 yards. The attack is not limited to just Smith and Battle though, thanks to another senior receiver, Anthony Zungolo, who adds 19 receptions and 300 yards to the team totals.

“Their passing game is different from ours in that they like to run a lot of shorter routes, and don’t go for the big play too much. Their quarterback isn’t too mobile, and he prefers to throw the ball,” said Snyder. “We have to get some quick pressure on him and try to get in his face a little to disrupt things.

“We’re looking at this like we look at pretty much every game. We just have to play our type of game and play to our ability, and we should be OK.”