The Northwestern Lehigh High School boys soccer team recently concluded its 2022 summer season. The Tigers went 6-0 during the regular season portion of the schedule and advanced to the semifinals of the playoffs before falling to eventual champion Pennridge.

Tiger head coach Nate Hunsicker was pleased with the showing this summer.

“We played really well this summer and were able to give a lot of guys some much-needed experience in various positions,” said Hunsicker. “We had a solid regular season and I’m proud of how we played in the postseason. It definitely put us in a good place and rhythm heading into the regular season.”

The Rams were the only team to get the better of the Tigers this summer.

“They were really big and physical,” Hunsicker said. “They had a striker who was really good. I can’t imagine we see someone tougher than him all season until, fingers crossed, possibly in the state tournament. We showed a lot of resolve to come back and didn’t back down. We had them on their heels in the second half but unfortunately came up a little short.”

Northwestern is always working on its craft together, even outside of organized summer league games. With the season starting in under a month, the summer offseason is the perfect time to train.

“We do a good bit of working out together in the offseason,” Hunsicker said. “We work a lot on conditioning as well as some technical and tactical stuff. We like to try to be as prepared as we possibly can heading into the season. Those first few official weeks fly by before games start so being as prepared as you possibly can helps a lot.”

The Tigers won their six games during the summer season and held a 19-goal differential (scoring 26 goals and allowing just seven).

“We played really well together,” said Hunsicker. “The boys were finding good chemistry with each other and really starting to click. Offensively we are going to be really dangerous this season. With Matt [Johnson] and Josh [Zellner] up top, as well as our three central midfielders, we have a well-balanced attack that is going to keep our opponents on their heels.”

The fall season begins on Aug. 26 for the Tigers and Hunsicker is hoping his team will continue to be successful come the fall.

“We hope to keep building on the success we found this summer and our goal as always is to compete for both a league and district championship,” Hunsicker said. “We have some work to do to get to that point but we have a great group of kids willing to put in the effort to make those goals a reality.”

Hunsicker touched on some of the players that have stood out during the offseason.

“Matt Johnson and Josh Zellner led our team in scoring this summer,” said Hunsicker. “They are going to be a really dangerous 1-2 punch for us this year. They could possibly be one of the best, if not the best offensive combinations I’ve ever coached. And that’s really saying something because I’ve had some great kids through the years. Jack Mauro also did a great job in the midfield for us. He’s our spark plug and a really hard worker. When teams start dialing in on Josh and Matt, he’ll get his chances and showed this summer he’s more than capable of scoring some goals too.”