With football fever running rampant on the campus of Northwestern Lehigh, the Tiger wrestling team decided to join in on the fun.

Unless you’ve been in a cocoon lately, you know that the Northwestern football team is one win away from a PIAA Class 3A state championship.

The excitement and momentum created by the Tigers’ gridiron success seemed to transfer onto the mat on Wednesday in a Colonial League wrestling match against rival Northern Lehigh.

Unloading with five pins, the Tigers were never in serious jeopardy, defeating the Bulldogs, 45-30. The victory lifts Northwestern to 2-0 on the season. For the Bulldogs, it was their season debut.

“I thought we wrestled well tonight,” said second-year Tiger coach Joe Killar. “The match at 121 with Noah Griffith getting a win for us was big. Noah did a great job.”

Griffith picked up a fall at 1:25 of the match.

“That was a good win, especially because of the pin,” Killar said. “I thought Noah would win, but getting the pin was nice.”

The Tigers looked to be in midseason form at 160, 189, 133 and 139 where they picked up pins.

Nate Geiger led off the match at 160 and subdued Carter Plotsko in a quick match. Geiger slipped out to a quick 4-0 lead, then laid Plotsko to the mat with the fall at 1:48.

Northern Lehigh evened the match with a forfeit at 172 for Chase Moffitt, but the Tigers answered with their second fall of the match at 189 as Luke Fugazzotto blasted his way to a 13-1 lead after a period of action. He then clamped down on Grady Newhard 40 seconds into the second period.

At 215, Northwestern’s Noah Schlofer and Northern Lehigh’s Jack Tosh needed overtime to decide the winner. It was a feisty match for sure, with the wrestlers tied at 1-1 after three periods. Schlofer got the first point in the second period, while Tosh got the tying point in the third. Both wrestlers were in the down position and recorded escapes for their points. In the overtime, Schlofer used a quick move to Tosh’s legs to record a takedown just 15 seconds into the extra session.

Leading 15-12, two straight forfeits enabled the Tigers to go in front 27-12. That soared to 33-12 after Griffith’s pin.

The Bulldogs got an injury win at 127, where Cody Mazzocca had Northwestern’s Kenny Kerekes under wraps before the injury ended it.

Northwestern added its final points on pins at 133 and 139. Trent Croll needed all of 1:05 to pin Kyle O’Connell before William Turner pinned Skyler Loos 59 seconds into the second period.

In the final contested bout of the night, the Bulldogs’ Mason Rothrock jumped out to leads of 4-1 after one period, and 7-1 after two periods against the Tigers’ Katie Brensinger. Rothrock increased the margin to 9-1, before finishing it off with a pin with 13 seconds to go in the match.

“We don’t’ quite have all of our wrestlers where we want to be right now,” Northern Lehigh coach Scott Snyder said. “We’re a very young team with a lot of freshmen and sophomores. Once we find our weights, then we can work things out.”

LINE UP JUGGLE ... The Bulldogs are a few wrestlers away from having a full lineup, forcing Snyder to juggle wrestlers between several weight classes. That will more than likely continue during the early season until Snyder settles on the best weights for his lineup.

Northwestern 45, No. Lehigh 30

160 - Geiger (NWL) pinned Plotsko in 1:48; 172 - Moffitt (NL) won by forfeit; 189 - Fugazzotto (NWL) pinned Newhard in 2:40; 215 - Schlofer (NWL) dec Tosh, 3-1 in OT; 285 - S. Frame (NL) won by forfeit; 107 - Gabri-El (NWL) won by forfeit; 114 - Uricchio (NWL) won by forfeit; 121 - Griffth (NWL) pinned Gosart in 1:25; 127 - Mazzocca (NL) won by injury default over Kerekes; 133 - Croll (NWL) pinned O’Connell in 1:05; 139 - Turner (NWL) pinned Loos in 2:59; 145 - Rothrock (NL) pinned Brensinger in 5:47; 152

- C. Frame (NL) won by forfeit.