On Monday, the Northwestern Lehigh boys soccer team finished the Colonial League portion of its schedule in perfect fashion with a win over Catasauqua. The next night, the Tigers headed to Kutztown for a nonleague game and finished their regular season schedule with a win and an 18-0 overall record.

The wins wrapped up the top seed in next week’s league playoffs.

It was another big week for Jake Van Lierop, who in an earlier game against Wilson (8-3-1, 11-5-1) scored his 47th goal of the season to set a new Northwestern Lehigh record for goals in a single season.

In the 7-0 win over the Rough Riders (0-13-0, 4-13-0), Van Lierop scored three times and added two assists. Caelan Stangil came up with two goals and two assists, while seniors Jack Mauro and Nate Kinzel both scored for Northwestern.

With the perfect league record and the top seed wrapped up, the Tigers boarded a bus to Kutztown (16-2) as Mauro and sophomore Cole Mertz each contributed a goal in a 2-0 win over the Cougars.

Van Lierop finished the season with 50 goals and 20 assists for 120 points in his senior season. The Tigers finished with three of the top four points earners in the Colonial League with Van Lierop first with 120 points while Mauro finished third with 47 points on 11 goals and 25 assists.

Finishing just behind Mauro was Mertz with 17 goals and 10 assists for 44 points. The only other player in the top four was Moravian Academy’s Hasan Strandzhev with 76 points.

In the state rankings, Northwestern is second in Class 2A behind Faith Christian Academy from District 1, which covers the area around Philadelphia.

The league playoffs begin with the quarterfinals on Monday and will feature eight teams up from the previous six teams in previous seasons. As the top seed, Northwestern would have had a bye in previous seasons but will host Jim Thorpe (6-7-0, 10-8-0) the number eight seed in the league.

The semifinals will be played on Wednesday and would again be a home game for the Tigers. The Colonial League Championship game will be played at Catasauqua Middle School on Saturday, Oct. 19.