Northwestern Lehigh showed off its defensive skills Saturday in a 2-0 win over Southern Lehigh to win the Colonial League championship for the third straight season. Each of the other two wins also came over the Lady Spartans.

Through the regular season and postseason, Northwestern has allowed just four goals.

Neither team was able to get into an early offensive groove and when they did get a decent look at the net, both goaltenders (Northwestern’s Naomi Glassberg and Southern Lehigh’s Ava Foran) both made nice saves to keep the game scoreless.

Northwestern Lehigh senior Sophia Motolese came up with a simple strategy. Since it was difficult to work the ball close to the net, why not put up a shot from 35-yards out and see what happens? The shot caught Foran coming out of the net anticipating a shorter play-in ball and wound up going over her head for the first goal of the game.

“We were dropping back a little too far early in the beginning of the game,” said Northwestern Lehigh’s first-year coach Jordan Smith. “Once we got that problem solved, things started to open for us.”

By the second half, the Tigers had started to figure out the Southern Lehigh defense and were able to get better openings around the goal. They outshot the Spartans 7-2 in the second half and one of those shots came from Brook Balliet, who launched a ball that rebounded off Foran. The rebound brought the ball in front of the net, where an alert Kaitlyn Browning was in the perfect position to play the rebound to give Northwestern Lehigh a 2-0 lead and a little margin for error over the final eight minutes of the game.

“Katie [Browning] had played a great ball to me and I beat my defender,” said Balliet of her initial shot on goal. “I was just happy that Katie was there to finish that play. It was good to have an extra cushion. It feels nice to know that you’re ahead and it makes you feel more relaxed, more comfortable.”

If the Northwestern defense was solid before the second goal, it was nearly impenetrable with the 2-0 lead and time starting to wind down. The plan worked as the Lady Spartans had few opportunities to get deep into the attack zone.

“We had some nerves coming in and there will likely be some nerves going into districts, but we’re always there for each other,” said senior defender Sarah Yeakel. “I think especially some of the younger players were feeling the nerves and feeling under pressure. Our seniors have all been here before and knew what to expect, so we really worked to help the younger and remind them of what they needed to do on the field.”

The two teams have dominated Colonial League soccer with Northwestern (17-1-1) beating Southern Lehigh (17-3-0) in the last three games by a combined score of 6-0. Before that, Southern Lehigh won gold with a 1-0 win over Palisades, which gave the Lady Spartans their fourth consecutive league championship.

Northwestern Lehigh enters districts as the top seed and will have a bye through the quarterfinals.

In the semifinals they will face the winner of the game between Bangor and Blue Mountain. During the regular season, Northwestern beat Blue Mountain 1-0 and downed Bangor 6-0 later in the year.