Northwestern Lehigh head boys soccer coach Nate Hunsicker stood quietly in front of his team's bench after a 3-1 loss to Central Catholic last Thursday in the District 11 Class 2A semifinal at Northern Lehigh.

Hunsicker was reeling in how the Tigers, the No. 2 seed, controlled most of the contest against the No. 6 Vikings, but just couldn't get the ball into the net.

The Vikings (9-7-4) and Tigers (15-5-1) were engaged in quite a physical contest and eventually something had to give.

The Tigers had more shots on goal, more corner kicks and way more chances than the Vikings. Central made good on three of four shots on goal to come away with the win and eventually the 2A championship by beating Saucon Valley in the final.

With plenty of youth returning, Hunsicker feels pretty good about the future of the program after the successful season that the team had this year.

"We had a very young team this year and I think we surprised a lot of people with how well we did," Hunsicker said. "We're only going to be better next year. We have a lot of starters returning so right now it's a disappointing loss and being the two seed I envisioned us being in the finals. I think we have a great future looking forward."

Both teams battled to a scoreless tie through the first 40 minutes.

"One of the things I said to our guys at halftime was the majority of their offensive game is those quick counter strikes and that's how they found the net," said Hunsicker. "We did have more opportunities, but in the game of soccer you have to capitalize on your chances and they did that."

For the longest time, it looked like Central Catholic's Matt Wagner's goal would stand up, but the Tigers kept battling on the offensive and Brandon Herb managed to tie it at 1-1 with 7:44 left on the clock.

Herb and Boston Furjanic pounded three straight shots at Central goalie Trevor Grigoruk before they finally got one past him.

Wagner, who Central head coach Peter Car said the offense is built around, punched one past Northwestern goalie Kyle Snyder with 5:20 remaining for the game-winner thanks to a perfect pass from Ian Long.

Central added an insurance goal by Tomas Espinosa with 21.4 seconds on the clock.

"It did look like it had overtime written all over it when we tied it up 1-1," said Hunsicker, "but they came back. They're a very resilient team and didn't hang their heads when we scored that goal. They wanted it bad and they got it back. You have to tip your hat to them."

The Tigers finished the contest with eight shots on goal, to just four by the Vikings. Northwestern had a 4-2 edge in corners and a 17-6 advantage on indirect kicks.

Grigoruk had six saves in goal for Central, while Snyder and three saves for the Tigers.

On the season, Northwestern finished with 51 goals and 24 assists, after scoring just 16 goals last season.

Kyle Willis was the leading goal scorer with 11. He added three assists. Boston Furjanic had eight goals and three assists, while Brandon Ettl had six goals and a team-high five assists. Goalie Kyle Snyder finished with 54 saves in goal.