NorthWood’s players celebrate on the field following their Northern Lakes Conference championship clincher at Plymouth Friday night. (Photos by James Costello)

PLYMOUTH — NorthWood coach Nate Andrews likened it to the Triple Crown.

Winning Northern Lakes Conference championships is consistently one of the most difficult feats in high school football. But, at least in the case of Friday’s NLC capper at Plymouth, the Black Crunch made it look easy.

Class 4A, No. 1-ranked NorthWood scored a trio of touchdowns in the first seven and a half minutes on the way to a eventual 56-8 win at The Rockpile, capping off both an unbeaten NLC slate and regular season and clinching sole possession of the Northern Lakes Conference crown on the road Friday night.

“The NLC, it is from top to bottom, it’s brutal, and it’s going to get tougher,” said Andrews. “I forget who it was I was joking to that it’s one of the toughest things in sports. You hear about those guys all the time: ‘What’s one of the most difficult things to do?’ Whether it’s the Triple Crown or whatever, and I say it’s to win an NLC football title.”

Bronson Yoder runs for his second touchdown of the night while Josh Miller and Zach Miller trail the play in Plymouth.

Senior do-it-all quarterback Bronson Yoder scored each of the Panthers’ first three touchdowns on runs of 57, 50 and 89 yards. With a full 4:30 still remaining in the opening stanza, Yoder had already rolled up an unbelievable 224 yards on the way to the hat trick in a performance that was impressive even by his lofty standards. Not done yet, he connected with junior back Jaden Miller for a 68-yard touchdown pass at the 2:62 stop of the period as NorthWood jumped out to a 28-0 lead in Plymouth.

Sitting long stretches with his team firmly in control, Yoder finished the night with 231 rushing yards, went 2 for 4 passing for another 68 yards and the TD connection with Miller, caught a 15-yard pass from backup QB Nate Newcomer, intercepted Rockies quarterback Joe Barron in the third quarter and returned it 42 yards and punted twice for 93 yards.

His performance was so spectacular he even managed to make a fan of one of the referees at Friday’s contest.

“When the official comes to you midway through the first quarter and says ‘That guy is pretty good, isn’t he?’ it’s impressive,” said Andrews. “I thought they were executing well up front, something that we didn’t do a week ago at this time.”

Yoder was also quick to give credit to his O line after the contest.

“All credit to my linemen and offensive blockers. They did great today,” he said.

In second place in the conference standings headed into Friday’s NLC finale, Plymouth (6-3, 5-2 NLC) had an opportunity to steal a share of the league championship with a win against NorthWood, but the title game never quite lived up to its dramatic billing. At the end of the first quarter, NorthWood (9-0, 7-0 NLC) had already racked up 292 offensive yards while holding Plymouth to just 38, including negative 3 rushing yards. The Rockies got rolling somewhat in the second half and finished the night with 300 yards of offense, but it was far too little, too late. Barron hit Cole Filson on a screen pass for a 44-yard catch-and-carry to prevent the shutout with 9:48 remaining and Blake Davis ran in the two-point conversion, but it was Plymouth’s lowest offensive output since a 16-6 loss at East Noble in Week 1.

“We knew they were a tough team, but we knew that we were tougher. We decided we would dominate them in our way, and we knew what we were going to do,” said Yoder.

“We came out fairly focused. You never know in pre-game, you never know in the week leading up where your team is at, but it showed that we were pretty focused on the job at hand,” Andrews said.

“The defense did really well. They got a bunch of three-and-outs early on, gave the offense that spark and shut down a lot of different things that they were trying to do.”

Jaden Miller runs in his team’s fourth touchdown in the opening period.

Behind Yoder’s unbelievable numbers, Newcomer went 2 for 3 passing for 38 yards and another TD and ran for 42 yards, while Miller finished with two receptions for 68 yards and a score and a 90-yard interception return, and Ben Mestach tallied 43 run yards in six carries. Mestach also recorded a pair of sacks and nine total tackles on defense, second only to Jake Lone’s 10 tackles.

Plymouth was led by Blake Reed’s 65 rushing yards on 13 carries and Teddy Pratt’s 60 yards on six rushes, while Barron went 15 for 32 through the air for 189 yards but threw a trio of interceptions

It had all the feel of a statement win for NorthWood, which will have to play the Rockies again in next week’s Sectional 19-opener at home in Nappanee. The Panthers know the Rockies will be out for revenge after Friday’s lopsided outcome, but they say they’ll be ready.

“We jumped on them early and kind of put them out of this game, but who knows? They might’ve just sat back and thought ‘Hey, let’s wait until next week,’” said Andrews. “I have no idea where their minds and attitudes are. They’re the only ones that know that, but we’re going to have to stay focused.”

“We’ve definitely got to get focused up because they’re going to come out hot,” echoed Yoder. “They want revenge; that’s for sure. But we know what we can do so we’re going to take care of business next week.”

Head coach Nate Andrews and the Panthers lead the NorthWood faithful in a rendition of the school fight song following Friday’s win.