After some struggles during the early and middle portion of the schedule, Northwestern Lehigh played well down the stretch to get some momentum going into the District 11 playoffs. That momentum was quickly wiped away when Allentown Central Catholic beat the Lady Tigers 18-7 in the district semifinals Monday at Emmaus’ Memorial Field.

The Vikettes took an early lead and every time the Tigers attempted to mount a comeback, the Vikettes quickly flexed their muscles to put down the uprising and then went on to build on their lead.

Central Catholic appeared ready to run away with the game right from the start as they scored three goals in the opening five minutes of the game.

Northwestern settled and picked up the next two goals to make it 3-2 with 3:24 left in the opening quarter. Freshman Olivia Fagan was undaunted by playing in her first postseason varsity game and got her first goal of the game off of a free play following a Central Catholic penalty. Fagan then came right back to score again off an assist from Olivia Costa for the second score of the game.

“I was really pleased with how the girls kept fighting back,” said coach Jess Bahnick. “They played really well down the stretch, and we came in looking for a big win and they showed some determination out there and that’s what I have come to expect of them this season.”

The Vikings went back to work and just :40 after Fagan’s second goal, Abigail Aemisegeo got her first goal of the game and Central also used a perfectly executed set play with Kate Raymond passing from behind the net to Katie Seiler, who was cutting toward the net and put a shot on goal that squeaked past Emma Yanders.

The two would hook up on the same play in the second quarter as Central Catholic opened a 7-2 advantage with 10:38 left in the second period.

If the Vikettes thought they had put the Tigers away, they were wrong. Costa moved across the front of the goal and used a defender as a screen for her 62nd goal of the season and Cara Thomas followed that up just :31 later when she scored on a free play, cutting the Vikettes lead to 7-4.

Again, Central Catholic looked to put an end to the rally and scored the next seven goals in the game, including Seiler picking up her 100th career goal early in the third quarter. Seiler ended the game with six goals against Northwestern Lehigh.

“We had a tough time winning draws today,” said Bahnick. “Seiler is really good at winning draws, and she got the better of the battle today. You have to hand it to her because Olivia [Fagan] has done a great job for us, but we couldn’t win enough of the draws to stay in the game. When we got that control, we did well, but just couldn’t win enough of them.”

Central Catholic held an 19-9 advantage on draws in the game.

The Tigers have some skilled players who will compete for the job of handling draws next season.

Costa has 125 career draw controls and Fagan had 84 draw controls in her freshman season. Meanwhile, Costa will come into next season with 122 career goals, within reach of the 200-goal milestone if she can put together a strong senior season.

Down 14-4, Olivia Spatz picked up a goal for the Tigers with 1:55 left in the third quarter and Costa and Thomas closed out the game with a pair of late goals but not before the game was out of reach.

Northwestern is a young team with just three seniors – Jillian George, Jayden Gillette, and goalie Emma Yanders, who finished the season with 185 saves to give her 267 career saves with Northwestern. Yanders committed to playing at Lycoming College after graduation.

Northwestern Lehig’s season came to an end with the loss. The team went 7-11-0 in 2024.