CENTER VALLEY — It might be easy to see all the mercy rule victories and wonder if Northwestern’s football team is battle-tested.

The Tigers have blitzed through the regular season, and looked dominant doing it

But this is a team that knows what it takes to win when the stakes are high and the lights shine bright.

Northwestern showed it in a run to the state championship game a year ago. And the Tigers answered the bell again Friday night against Southern Lehigh, scoring a pair of fourth quarter touchdowns to cap another unbeaten regular season with a 23-17 win over the Spartans to claim a Colonial-Schuylkill League Division A title.

Northwestern (10-0) held a 10-0 lead at the intermission, but Southern Lehigh got a big kick return to start the second half, and a 16-yard touchdown run from Sean Steckert on the first play from scrimmage to trim the deficit to 10-7.

The Tigers forced a three-and-out on the next Spartans (8-2) drive, but muffed the ensuing punt, which put Southern Lehigh at the Northwestern 23-yard line. Noah Tapler would boot a 27-yard field to tie it at 10-10 with 5:51 left in the third.

“At halftime, Coach (Josh) Snyder was just saying that we’ve been in worse situations,” said senior Eli Zimmerman. “As an example, last year against Wyomissing, 17-7 we were down 10 points at halftime in a state semifinal game … so we kind of just took that to heart. We knew what we did last year, and we just turned it up in the second half, played assignment football, and got the win.”

After Southern Lehigh (8-2) tied it, the Tigers put together a 75-yard drive that ended with Mason Bollinger scoring from nine yards out to put Northwestern ahead 17-10 with 9:42 left in the fourth quarter.

Entering Friday, the Tigers’ average margin of victory was 42.7 points, and they had outscored their last three opponents 141-0.

“Our games haven’t been that close, but they’ve still prepared us for games like this,” said Bollinger. “We haven’t really played four quarters, but we got it done tonight and were able to keep it rolling, got the momentum back up and got it done.

“I can’t thank the line enough. They’ve been blocking well, and I can’t do anything without them.”

Southern Lehigh drove to the Northwestern 29-yard line on its next possession. The Spartans took shots near the end zone on third and three and fourth and three, but both times Seth Kern came up with huge plays to break up a completion and give the ball back to the Tigers with 7:00 remaining in the game.

“I feel pretty confident,” Kern said of his defensive plays. “You kind of have to have confidence, or else you can’t really make plays like that. You have to believe in yourself there.

“I came out slow, it started off pretty bad. But I stayed locked in and have teammates around me that pick me up, we all pick each other up and keep our heads in the game.”

Northwestern delivered a haymaker on the first play of its ensuing possession, as Zimmerman bolted 71 yards for a score to push the lead to 23-10 with 6:47 to play in the game.

“He’s very special,” Snyder said of Zimmerman. “He’s 5-foot-nothing, weighs nothing, but he’s just got a ton of heart. And a ton of energy. A lot of our playmakers just simply weren’t making a lot of plays early in the game. And at one point I just sort of thought to myself, we’ve just got to keep feeding Eli. And I told him to not get frustrated with a two-yard gain, a three yard gain, four yard gain, because the next one is going to be 50. The next one’s gonna go. And that’s exactly what happened. He just kept grinding, the linemen just kept fighting.

“And it was something new. We were just so used to scoring almost at will with big plays, and they made us work for it. And I think that’s good for us. I think that’s a good test for us, and I’m happy with how things played out on the scoreboard.”

Zimmerman, who entered the night averaging 14.93 yards per carry and is listed at 5-8, 160 pounds, finished the night with 238 yards on 26 rushes (9.2 ypc). He also added three catches for 45 yards.

After Southern Lehigh scored on a touchdown pass from Colton Sams to Andrew Olesh with 2:22 left to trim the deficit to 23-17, Northwestern recovered the onside kick and was able to run out the clock.

HEADS UP … After the Tigers recovered the onside kick late in the game, Zimmerman broke off a 32-yard run on the third play from scrimmage but alertly slid down at the Spartans’ 14-yard line, allowing Northwestern to keep the possession — and clock — going without giving Southern Lehigh another chance at the ball.

SCORING PLAYS … After a scoreless first quarter, the Tigers broke through with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Shane Leh to Bollinger on fourth and goal. Josh Wambold also added a 27-yard field in the second period to make it 10-0.

SO CLOSE … While Tapler connected for a 27-yard field goal in the second half, he nearly booted a 55-yarder in the first quarter, but just hit the crossbar.

NICE GRAB … Shane Hulmes had a nice interception in the first half for Northwestern, grabbing the ball with one hand and pulling it into his body to secure it.

Northwestern 23, So. Lehigh 17

Northwestern 0 10 0 13 - 23

So. Lehigh 0 0 10 7 - 17

NW - Bollinger 8 pass from Leh (Wambold kick)

NW - Wambold 27 field goal

SL - Steckert 16 run (Tapler kick)

SL - Tapler 27 field goal

NW - Bollinger 9 run (Wambold kick)

NW - E. Zimmerman 71 run (kick failed)

SL - Olesh 7 pass from Sams (Tapler kick)