Now that the Tigers have made it this far without a blemish on their season record, Northwestern girls soccer players admit that they are gunning for an undefeated season and to get the top seed in both the Colonial League and District 11 playoffs, which would set them up for another deep run in states.

On Tuesday night, Northwestern (13-0-0 Colonial, 16-0-0 overall) collected win number 16 on the season, leaving themselves just two wins shy of a perfect regular season as it downed Northern Lehigh 7-0 with Paige Bissell collecting four goals and two assists in the game.

Bissell, who now is the team leader in goals, picked up her first goal 5:56 into the first half when she moved down field, beat defenders and deposited the ball into the right side corner of the net for an early 1-0 lead for Northwestern.

Less than five minutes later, she took a crossing pass from sophomore Sophia Schaffer and again beat goalie Dekotah Barthold for her second goal of the night and 19th of the season.

Schaffer has become a key player on the Northwestern attack and one of her strengths is placing the ball for other players to record goals. With 19:28 remaining, Schaffer again sent a perfect crossing pass in front of the goal and sophomore classmate Amelia Glassberg who never broke stride to put a shot into the back of the net for a 3-0 edge for the Lady Tigers.

“We came out and tried to get on top of them quickly and that was all part of our plan to try to get a couple of early goals,” said Bissell, a senior. “We came out with a lot of intensity, and I think that was a big factor in this win tonight.”

With less than :10 left in the half, Northwestern was awarded a corner kick and Bissell moved quickly to get the ball to the middle of the field and Kherington Yezik took a shot and played her own rebound to record her 15th goal of the season as the clock reached the :01 mark and the scoreboard showed a 4-0 lead for Northwestern Lehigh.

Considering that Northwestern’s defense has allowed just six goals all season, the four goal deficit left the Lady Bulldogs (8-3-1, 10-4-1) with a daunting task ahead of them for the second half.

Things got even more difficult when the Tigers came out firing and Brook Balliet took a pass from Bissell as Barthold came out of the goal mouth in an attempt to cut down Balliet’s angle and instead watched as the ball sailed past her and into the goal for a 5-0 advantage for Northwestern.

Bissell scored two more times in the second half to make it a 7-0 win and leave her with 21 goals on the season for Northwestern Lehigh.

The shutout was the 12th of the season for Northwestern and goalie Olivia Reinhart as the defense continues to play tough soccer and limit the opportunities that other teams get to take shots at Reinhart. Senior Olivia Spatz likes the play of the defense this season and says that the defenders pride themselves on keeping the other team scoreless.

“We focus on wins first, but we want shutouts every game and it’s something that we work for, so we are always glad to get away with a shutout,” said Spatz.

The team is also striving to remain undefeated going into the playoffs and looking to get the top seed in both the league and district playoffs.

“It’s a great feeling to be undefeated,” said Bissell, “especially since we have gone up against some great teams like Moravian, Saucon, and Northern Lehigh. I think it’s important going into playoffs to get that number one seed and being able to skip the quarterfinals.”

With just four seniors, the team is built to win for a long time thanks to younger players working their way into high profile spots. The sophomore class continues to look batter and better with players like Schaffer, Yezik, Dylan Ritter, and Glassberg all contributing to the team.

“We start four sophomores, and we had four starting last season, so they have a full season of experience, and we have two more that come off the bench early for us and they all contribute,” said coach Jordan Smith.