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DELANO — Northwood’s football team won its first of two consecutive CIF-SS titles last season before dropping a close game at home in the CIF Southern California Regional Championships.

On Friday, the Timberwolves traveled nearly 200 miles to the Central Valley to change their fortunes in regional games.

Adam Harper and teammates accomplished their mission.

Northwood made a fourth-and-1 stop on its 24-yard line with 2:23 remaining in the fourth quarter and turned to Harper to run out the clock and clinch a 10-7 victory against Robert F. Kennedy High School in the Division 4-AA regional final to advance to the state championship game.

Last season, Northwood won the CIF-SS Division 11 title before falling to Righetti 14-7 in the CIF Southern California Regional final.

“We wanted to do better than we did last year,” said Harper, who rushed for 130 yards and a score on 21 carries. “We weren’t going to come up here and just take a loss. We had to dig deep at the end of the game. They were pounding the ball. We were tired but we knew we just had to make one play.”

Northwood (14-1) became the first Irvine Unified School District team to advance to the state finals. It will travel to Northern California to face host Escalon on Saturday, Dec. 10. Escalon (12-3) defeated Pleasant Valley 42-20 in the Northern regional final Friday.

The SoCal title Friday was another major feat for a Northwood program that had never won a section title before 2021 and now has multiple championships.

“It’s probably as big as one of our (performing arts) concerts,” Northwood coach J.C. Clarke joked about his school’s strong academic and arts reputation. “It’s big. These kids have a lifetime of memories.”

Northwood will certainly remember the fourth-down stop in the final three minutes of Friday’s game.

Kennedy (11-3) struggled with its passing game all night but completed a 37-yard pass on third-and-17 to reach the Northwood 33. The Thunderbirds then went back to their ground attack that seemed to be wearing down the Timberwolves, but lineman Michael Lopez surged to made the tackle on a fourth-and-1 run.

“First-year player,” Harper said of Lopez, one of several two-way linemen for Northwood. “Finally got him to play football and he’s been huge for us.”

Northwood, which won the CIF-SS Division 8 title last week, took a 10-0 lead into the fourth quarter. The Timberwolves nearly made it more more but Kennedy stopped Harper’s run on fourth-and-1 from the Thunderbirds 7 with 4:33 left in the third quarter.

Kennedy then sliced Northwood’s lead to 10-7 on a 4-yard TD run by Gamiez Helm with 9:48 left in the fourth.

The Timberwolves’ defense held from there behind a defensive line that saw Lopez, Jan Abuelsad, Joe Harper and Tao Sun playing both ways. Adam Harper also recorded double-digit tackles at safety and teamed well with linebacker Danial Kamal.

“Defense wins championships,” Kamal said.

Northwood opened a 7-0 lead in the first quarter by capitalizing on an early miscue on special teams.

After the Kennedy dropped a snap on a punt attempt to give the Timberwolves the ball at the Thunderbirds 26, Adam Harper scored four plays later on a 15-yard run with 3:34 left in the first.

Harper scored moments after Kennedy was flagged for being offside on a field goal attempt by Northwood.

The Timberwolves extended their lead to 10-0 early in the second quarter on a 37-yard field goal by Karim Yowkeem, whose boot narrowly cleared the crossbar.

The field goal arrived on the same possession in which a long TD pass by Eugene Miyata was negated by a holding penalty.

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The Timberwolves’ defense produced interceptions from Admad Kazi, celebrating his 18th birthday, and Joseph Harper in the final four minutes of the first half but couldn’t capitalize.

Both defenses played well but Northwood found a way to secure the victory.

“From the very beginning of the season, we knew we wanted to do something big,” Adam Harper said. “This game was very similar to last year (in the regional final). That was a one-score game. We were the one making the play this time and it was huge.”