The Northwestern Lehigh and Blue Mountain boys soccer teams are developing a bit of a rivalry and Thursday night’s district final sure looked like a rivalry game.

Northwestern held on for a 3-1 win over the Blue Eagles (19-4-0), but it got a little tricky in the second half of the game, which was played at Northern Lehigh’s Bulldog Stadium.

Logan Mesics came out firing on all cylinders as he picked up two goals in a span of 64 seconds to put the Tigers ahead 2-0.

Mesics beat goalie Colton Leibold for his first goal and then took a pass from Jake Van Lierop just in front of the goal and headed the ball into the back of the net to make it 2-0. Initially, the goal was announced as being from Nate Kinzel, but after the game, Kinzel stepped up and clarified the scoring, crediting the goal to Mesics.

“I saw the ball coming in and I brought it down and was able to keep my composure and just put it in,” said Mesics of his first goal. “It was good for us to get going early and I think it helped us, especially with how they were playing, and we just went forward from there.”

With Blue Mountain trying to figure out how to stop the Tigers offense, Northwestern got some more opportunities but ultimately would have to wait for another goal. Leibold settled in and saved shots by Matt Johnson and Caelan Stangil and tipped two shots off his fingertips to keep his team in the running.

As the game went on, it was looking like two goals would be enough. In the second half, though, the Eagles closed the gap and made things interesting. As Blue Mountain closed in on a scoring opportunity, Tiger goalie Brandon Krapf came out of the goal and made a feet-first dive to stop a shot coming in from the right side.

The ball went off Krapf’s feet and rolled back toward the middle where Don Hertzog was perfectly positioned and drove a shot high in the goal that got past a Northwestern defender who was coming over to help in goal. The goal made it a 2-1 game and got the Blue Mountain fans back into the game as they cheered on their team.

“We fought hard in that first 10 minutes to get that early lead and that was huge,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “We got a little complacent after that I thought and we didn’t strike.”

Johnson, a senior, noted that the fans did throw things off a little for his team.

“That goal got their fans into the game and some of us, parts of us, were affected, but we all know that as a whole, we’ll get the job done,” said Johnson of a roughly 10-minute stretch of the game that saw the momentum swing to the Eagles.

As the game got later and later, the level of physical play went higher and higher. Van Lierop was given a yellow card with 25:10 left in regulation and the Tigers weathered the storm. Shortly after Van Lierop returned, Mesics was back to his old tricks, but this time on the assist end of a goal. Mesics teed up an easy shot for Johnson when he arched the ball down field. Johnson used his speed to control the ball and beat a defender to score and give Northwestern a 3-1 edge.

The final 15 minutes was a matter of Northwestern playing strong defense to keep their lead at two goals.

Defense is a major component of Northwestern’s success, and it went into high gear late in the game to get gold medals and officially earn a spot in the PIAA tournament where they have the opportunity to defend last year’s championship.

“We have really good relationships with each other,” said Kinzel of the defensive unit. “Our communication is really good, and we just lock it down back there. Plus, everyone defends well, the wingbacks and even the strikers help us out, so it’s always a good team effort.”

Northwestern remains on course to reach all four of their goals that they brought into the season. After falling to Southern Lehigh in the Colonial League finals last season, the Tigers wanted to capture gold in leagues, districts, and states, and do all of that without losing a game. They now have the first two gold medals checked off.

“We’re getting closer and closer, and we had to take two stops on the way to get those medals,” said Johnson. “And now, we go for the repeat from last year and get that state medal.”

The quest to repeat as state champs got underway Tuesday night at Tigers Stadium as Northwestern (24-0-0) hosted Bishop McDevitt and used two goals from Johnson to win 2-1 in overtime and advance to the quarterfinals where they will play Camp Hill on Saturday.

The two goals gave Johnson 101 career goals, making him the first Northwestern player to reach that milestone. On the season, Johnson has 39 goals.