ALLENTOWN - The entire Northwestern girls' soccer team stood in disbelief with what had just happened in the District 11 Class AA championship game against Saucon Valley.

It was just days before that the same pack of Tigers watched the Panthers raise the Colonial League championship trophy in front of them.

Now, on the turf of J. Birney Crum Stadium, seniors Anna Fricchione and Sarah Jones, along with the rest of the youthful Northwestern team, had to relive the same kind of heart-wrenching moment at the completion of their 3-0 setback to Saucon Valley in the district title game.

"Obviously, we wanted this really bad," Fricchione said. "We all did. We were playing for our whole season. We weren't playing up to speed, but we played our hearts out. We did what we had to do. Saucon just had us today."

Every single Tiger had left it out on the field that afternoon, but it just wasn't meant to be because of the opposition they had just faced for another time.

It was Northwestern's first district title game appearance since winning the 2007 Class AA gold.

"It comes down to Saucon Valley," said Jones, a midfielder. "They're just an awesome team. They played great. Got to give it to them, they came out and put a lot of pressure on us. They got the first goal and then the PK really set the tone for them.

"Hats off to them. We just didn't do what we needed to do tonight."

After Northwestern had the game's first chance to score off a penalty corner only 45 seconds into the game, the Saucon Valley defense allowed just one shot in the first half.

Meanwhile, the Panthers rattled off three first-half goals. Tori Young, Callie Protchko and Alicia Binn provided the No. 1 seeded Panthers with enough firepower to get by a feisty Tiger pack.

The Panthers defense had its hands full in the second half as Northwestern tried to claw back into the game.

"First half, we were definitely a lot slower," Fricchione said. "The second half we came a lot stronger. We actually held Saucon down. Obviously, since they couldn't score against us in the second half, but we should have played like that the whole game and we didn't."