Moravian Academy is used to playing a physical brand of soccer.

When the Lions’ physical play combines with frustration, it’s not a good game plan and it ended up hurting the them in Tuesday night’s District 11 2A boys soccer semifinal game at Northern Lehigh’s Bulldog Stadium.

As the game remained scoreless and stretched well past the midway point, Moravian Academy’s frustration grew physical against Tigers players and verbal against the referees.

It proved to be their undoing as the Tigers (23-0-0) got two goals in a little over two minutes late in the game for a 2-0 win and a trip to the district championship Thursday night back at Bulldog Stadium.

The first half of the game was spent with both teams looking for opportunities but finding very few as the defenses were on display. The game was even in every way including both teams having just four shots on goal through 40 minutes.

To start the second half, Moravian Academy (15-8-0) came out aggressively and just 1:18 into the half, Moravian Academy’s Roman Perrucci was given a yellow card for a hit on Jake van Lierop as the intensity picked up quickly.

Northwestern had a couple of opportunities go awry but stayed calm even though their undefeated record and their entire season were on the line. Cole Mertz put a shot on goal that was blocked by goalie James Fitzrandolph and came down just inches in front of the goal line and rolled to the right of the goal.

As players crashed toward the ball, Moravian was able to clear the ball and avoid giving up the first goal of the game. As the half neared the midway point, van Lierop put a shot on goal off of a free kick and watched as it hit off the post and went over the end line.

While the Tigers had every reason to be frustrated, it was Moravian that lashed out. Rowan Watson was called for a foul and it appeared that the referee was not going to give him a yellow card, but Watson complained about the call. The referee gave him a moment to speak his peace but when the complaining continued, Watson was given a red card and ejected. Less than a minute later, Eric Sanchez Josa was given a yellow card and Perrucci vehemently argued the call and was given a red card as well to end his night and his high school soccer career.

Van Lierop, who was guarded tightly by Lions defenders all night, was able to head a rebound off of Fitzrandolph’s hands and headed it back on goal but put it just over the crossbar as the game remained scoreless.

Without two of their starting defenders, Moravian Academy’s defense started to show some cracks and with 12:42 left in regulation, Mertz fired from 20 yards out and put the shot past Fitzrandolph for a 1-0 lead.

“The ball just popped out to me at the end and I thought ‘I have to hit this hard and low so the keeper can’t save it,’ and I got the goal,” said Mertz.

As Moravian attempted to regroup, Northwestern controlled play and was awarded their third corner of the second half and got a shot on goal that rebounded back into play where Logan Mesics, who had also taken a pounding throughout the game, calmly played the ball into the back of the net to give his team some breathing room with a 2-0 edge and just 10:31 left to play.

“We showed a lot of resiliency and a really gutty effort there in the second half,” said Tiger head coach Nate Hunsicker. “It was going to be a tough game and we knew that coming in because they had a chip on their shoulder and for most of the first half, they might have been the better team, but we came out on fire in the second half and they started to lose their composure and from there, it was just a matter of time.”

At that point, the Northwestern defense just went on to finish the shutout, their 14th of the season behind senior goalkeeper Brandon Krapf. Senior Nate Kinzel credited the defense being able to stick together and communicate throughout the game with helping to get the win.

“We worked really well together, all of us on defense played really hard,” said Kinzel. “In the three games we played against them we didn’t give up a goal and allowed just a few shots on goal and that’s just amazing.”

The Tigers have become very familiar with Bulldog Stadium, and it has become sort of a second home for them in the postseason.

They will be back on the turf Thursday night when they face Notre Dame – Green Pond (15-5-1), who defeated Saucon Valley in the other semifinal matchup. Northwestern is making its 11th straight trip to a district final and has won the last five district championships in its classification.

After districts, Northwestern will head into the state tournament which begins on Tuesday. Northwestern won the 2A state championship in 2022 and reached the quarterfinals in last year’s PIAA playoffs.

Quarterfinal

Van Lierop continues to roll in his senior season as he pushed his single season record for goals to 61 with three goals in a 6-0 win over Palisades (9-9-1) to put the Tigers into the district semifinals where they will face Moravian Academy for the third time this season.

Van Lierop is always quick to mention the other players on the team who contribute to his success, and for good reason. Caelan Stangil showed off some of the passing skills that have contributed to Van Lierop’s record setting season when he centered a pass from the left side of the field and Van Lierop never had to break stride as he fired a shot into the goal for a 1-0 lead just 2:24 into the game Wednesday night.

A little later in the half, van Lierop was the one doing the feeding as he got a pass to Logan Mesics about 10 yards in front of the goal and Mesics played the ball into the back of the net.

The junior now has three goals and six assists in four postseason games this season and 14 goals and 13 assists overall.

Even with Palisades focusing on shutting down Van Lierop, he added an unassisted goal with 26:39 left in the first half and then scored on a penalty kick after being taken down in the penalty box.

“In the final game I had a penalty kick, and, in an interview, I said that I always go to my right on PKs. This time, I figured I better go left just in case he saw that,” said van Lierop. “I didn’t connect with it the way I wanted to but it had enough on it to get in. That’s something I have to work on.”

With Northwestern (23-0-0) up 4-0 coming out of halftime, Mesics would add two more assists. The first came with 37:22 left in regulation when he found Stangil in front of the net with the goalie out of position for an easy goal.

On the second he put a pass in front of the goal and van Lierop had to go up in the air and play it with his left foot but was able to score for the third time in the game to close out the scoring with a 6-0 Northwestern win.

“We’ve got our morale really high right now and we are clicking on both offense and defense. We’re not conceding a lot, and we’re scoring a bunch, so everything just kind of mixes together,” said Mesics. “I think that all of us are peeking at the right time. We had a little bit of shaky stuff early in the season, but we’re definitely on the up right now.”

Palisades’ Blake Oglialoro picked up two yellow cards in the second half and was ejected from the game after the second card.

One of the hits came on van Lierop and the other came on Stangil who was waiting to play a ball and was hit from behind by Oglialoro.

Evan Leister had received a yellow card earlier in the game for a hit on Van Lierop as well.

In the semis, Northwestern will replay the Colonial League championship game which they won in a 3-0 game against Moravian Academy.

When the two teams met during the regular season, Northwestern also beat the Lions (14-8-0) 3-0. Moravian Academy had to come from behind to beat Pine Grove on a penalty kick in overtime.

“It’s tough to beat a team three times in one season, but that’s just the way it turned out,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “We just have to play a strong game and stay focused.”