If it’s a district final, Brook Balliet is very likely going to come up with a goal.
As a freshman, Balliet scored the lone goal in a 1-0 Tigers district title game win and as a sophomore scored two goals in a 3-2 win in the big game. Her achievement as a junior was to score the only goal again as Northwestern beat Allentown Central Catholic 1-0 to win its third straight District 11 championship, earning a trip to states.
The two teams were scoreless at halftime but picked up the intensity in the second half. While the first half was slow and deliberate, the two teams played at a much faster and intense pace over the final 40 minutes.
Northwestern head coach Jordan Smith is a patient man and had his players come out with the same strategy they had coming into the game.
“Not a thing,” was Smith’s response when asked what he changed at halftime. “We were playing well on both ends of the field and it was going well for us, so we decided just to leave things the way they were and look for an opportunity.”
With 34:19 left in the game, Paige Bissell sent a pass down the left side of the field to Balliet, who was about 20 yards away from the goal. As the play developed, Balliet changed her strategy and it worked perfectly.
“Honestly, when I got the ball from Paige, I was going to take it to the end line, but I saw the gap was open for me to be able to put a shot on the outside corner,” said Balliet. “It wasn’t my plan until I saw that open gap and took advantage of that.”
The scoring looked like it might be contagious, but Vikettes goalie Lindsey Yen made a terrific leaping save to keep it a one goal game. Yen, who came into play the second half as part of Central Catholic’s goalie rotation, was strong in goal other than letting Balliet’s shot sneak into the far corner.
At the other end of the field, sophomore Olivia Reinhart was matching Yen save for save, fully extending to get a glove on one shot. Another Vikettes scoring chance went by the wayside on a corner kick opportunity. The initial kick came to freshman Charlotte Patterson, who put a shot on goal, but got it high and it clinked off the bottom portion of the crossbar and it shot downward, and thankfully for Northwestern, away from the goal where it was cleared by a Tigers defender.
“That was crazy,” said Rinehart. “We pulled together and got it out. We had a great defensive game, we cleared a lot, and got a lot of defensive stops.”
“Our defense was phenomenal and Liv [Rinehart] played another great game,” said Smith. “You can see the confidence in her building, and she moves well for balls and talks and communicates with the defense and that’s all huge. Then having Abby [Pomajevich] out there as a four-year starter and Syenna [Flores] and Liv, they’re all great.”
The win gave Northwestern gold medals to go with the ones they earned in the Colonial League playoffs and also sent them to the PIAA tournament where they played Holy Redeemer in the opening round and eliminated the Royals with a 5-1 win.
After a 1-1 halftime tie, the Tigers exploded with four goals in the second half. Balliet scored twice and assisted once in the game. Sophia Schaffer, Kherington Yesik and Camryn Fitch scored one goal each in the win.
The Tigers (22-1-0) will now play Trinity (18-3-0) in the quarterfinals on Saturday with the time and location of the game to be announced.