The streak is over.

Northwestern exploded for 30 first-half points and broke a 33-game losing streak in a 30-14 football win over Leola-Frederick during the Lake Region Conference Classic at Dacotah Bank Stadium on Friday evening.

“It was an amazing feeling,” said Northwestern’s Will Clemens following the victory. “I want to do it again.”

Clemens had his finger prints all over his team’s first win more than four years. He was able to get out in space where he ended up scoring on touchdown runs of 43 and 29 yards.

“That was awesome,” Clemens said. “Thanks to my blockers, though. I had some great blocking up front.”

He also picked up a key block from Brecken Halverson on the edge to spring him for his first TD run.

“Any time a guy makes a big play in football it’s because eight other guys did their job,” said Northwestern coach Clayton Randall. “You can’t just single out one guy, but what I can say about Will is, he’s got some things that make him hard to defend, and our coaches have done a good job of learning how to use him to give him the ball in spaces.”

Northwestern’s biggest play in the opening half occurred when Jarren Haven fired a 79-yard pass to Halverson. Talon Miller capped the first-half scoring on a short run.

So what changed in the opening half from previous contests for the Wildcats?

“They’ve been doing exactly what we asked them to do,” Randall said, “and I guess what you saw tonight is the result of them just continuing to believe that if we do this at this level consistently, that we can get a result that we want.”

The Titans did not go away however, keeping Northwestern off the scoreboard in the final two quarters, while scoring two touchdowns of their own in the fourth period.

“It felt good to cut the lead and making it look not as bad as it was,” said Leola-Frederick’s Jace Thorpe. “We held them to no points in the second half which is good.”

The Titans made a few adjustments on both sides of the ball at halftime.

“We tried doing some different things with a new formation that we tinkered with,” said Leola-Frederick coach Jeff Kosters. “We felt like with our athletes in space we could do some things against them.”

The main athlete was Thorpe, who scored both of his team’s touchdowns and finished with 66 yards rushing and 92 yards receiving, including a juggling 73-yard TD pass from Quinn Huettl in the final minutes.

“I just tried to keep concentration on the ball through the catch,” Thorpe said.

While the contest marked his first game at the Northern State facility, Thorpe’s brother Westyn is a member of the Wolves and the has attended many games at the stadium in the past.

“It feels like home here. We come here all the time,” Thorpe said. “We always tailgate for Northern games.”

While the Titans were able to finish strong, they were unable to overcome a shaky first half against the motivated Wildcats.

“They were hungrier. They wanted it. They were having fun,” Kosters said. “They were flying around and we just frankly, the first half we were sleepwalking.”

Their first win in 34 tries has the Wildcats fired up for the rest of the season.

“It put us up on that pedestal, where we believe we can win now,” Clemens said. “We have that behind us where we got over the slump. We got the skunk out of the boat. We’re ready to go.”

And now lies the next challenge as Northwestern attempts to start a streak in the other direction.

“For these guys that have been at it for 33 straight, it’s more about them than me. I’m happy for them,” Randall said. “Now we’ve got a whole new set of challenges to manage. How do we respond after a win and I’m excited to find out.”

Northwestern (1-2) 16 14 0 0 – 30

Leola-Frederick (0-2) 0 0 0 14 – 14

NW – Will Clemens 43 run (Carson Reppe pass from Jarren Haven).

NW – Clemens 29 run (Haven run).

NW – Brecken Halvorson 79 pass from Haven (Haven run).

NW – Talon Miller 7 run.

LF – Jace Thorpe 12 pass from Quinn Huettl.

LF – Thorpe 73 pass from Huettl (Gabe Ketterling run).

OFFENSE: Northwestern rushing 30-146 (Clemens 4-72), passing 7-10 for 145 (Haven 7-10 for 145), receiving (Halverson 1-79), first downs 9; Leola-Frederick rushing 33-132 (Thorpe 9-66, Ketterling 7-36), passing 5-13-2 for 134 (Huettl 5-13-2 for 134), receiving (Thorpe 4-92, Jaxon Ellwein 1-42), first downs 11.

DEFENSE: Northwestern, Halverson 7 tackles, Colton Lefforge 4 tackles; Leola-Frederick, Howard Sumption 10 tackles, Thorpe 9 tackles, Ian Nickelson 5 tackles.