One thing that Jordan Smith knew coming into Tuesday night’s semifinal game was that Jim Thorpe was aggressive and played a physical style of soccer. With that in mind, he produced a script for his team to follow in the 2A district semifinals. The main themes were aggressiveness of their own and to be ready for Jim Thorpe (17-2-1) to be one of the more physical teams they had faced this season. And oh yes, don’t forget to get an early lead.
The script might not have won an Oscar, but it was written well enough for Northwestern Lehigh (16-5-1) to win its semifinal matchup with the Olympians in a 2-0 game.
The message to top-seeded Jim Thorpe came early when Katie Brensinger delivered a hard hit on a Jim Thorpe player along the sideline, and it set the tone for the rest of the team as they looked to match the physical play of Jim Thorpe.
Just over four minutes into the game Cammy Fitch put a shot just wide of the goal and two minutes later, Sammy Bardonner sent a near perfect crossing pass in front of the net where Brook Balliet made a good play and delivered it easily past goalkeeper Olivia Rosenberger for an early goal.
“I told them before the game, ‘you need to come out and equal their physicality, and if you don’t, I’m going to get the next girl in there,’” said Smith of the game plan against the Olympians.
Balliet’s goal woke up the Jim Thorpe offense and the Olympians put pressure on Northwestern defenders and goalie Naomi Glassberg, who made a sliding stop on a breakaway by Lauren LeKites to prevent her from tying the game.
Shortly after the big defensive play, the offense found an opening and again, it all started with Bardonner, the team’s assist leader, playing a perfect ball to sophomore Paige Bissell, who beat Rosenberger to give Northwestern Lehigh a 2-0 lead with 5:04 left in the first half.
“I saw Paige wide, and I looked for the pass,” said Bardonner of the second goal. “I knew the goalie was going to come out because she had always come out on plays, and it worked perfectly. Paige made a really good shot. We had a great game plan. Our coach told us to come out, be aggressive and we came out, worked as a team and were able to get a good lead on them.”
Going up early and staying aggressive were two keys for the Lady Tigers.
“The early goal that we got was big for us and then Sammy made a great pass to me, and we got the second goal and that took a lot more pressure off us,” said Bissell, a sophomore who now has 11 goals on the season, the second most on the team.
The two-goal deficit was the first time all season that Jim Thorpe trailed by more than one goal. The Olympians had allowed just four goals in their 19 previous games and had never allowed more than one goal in a game before Tuesday night.
Bardonner’s two assists give her a team-high 14 on the season to go with her six goals. Her 26 points are second only to Fitch (56) in scoring for the Lady Tigers.
The win puts Northwestern Lehigh into the District 11 finals, which will be played Thursday night at Emmaus. Their opponent will be Allentown Central Catholic, who downed Palmerton 2-0 in the other semifinal contest. The Lady Tigers are the fourth seed in the tournament, while Central Catholic is the number-three seed and defending state champions.
“I don’t know much about them (Central Catholic),” said Smith. “I told the girls that we either had a chance at redemption against Palmerton (who beat Northwestern in the Colonial League finals) or we would have a chance at knocking off the defending state champion and that’s something to be excited about. We are going to get ready and then give it hell on Thursday.”
The Lady Tigers advanced to the semifinals with a 3-0 win over No. 5 seed Blue Mountain in the quarterfinals. Cammy Fitch scored two goals and sophomore Shelly Shupp picked up the other to knock off the tournament’s top seed and move into the semis.