Coming into the season the plan for the Northwestern Lehigh girls soccer team was to win the Colonial League, districts and then drive deep into the PIAA playoffs.

Part one was accomplished and part two is one step away from becoming a reality after Northwestern beat North Schuylkill in the District 11 2A semifinals.

The Tigers put up eight goals and held the Spartans in check throughout the game for an 8-0 win at Northern Lehigh’s Bulldog Stadium Tuesday.

The Tigers (23-0-0) defensively had two concerns coming into the game in Spartan freshmen Addie Urban and Lilah Helwig. The duo combined for 63 goals and 42 assists through 18 games this season as part of a team that two seasons ago won just three games.

Northwestern was up to the task and kept both players in check throughout the game and limited North Schuylkill (14-5-0) to just three shots on goal.

Meanwhile, the Tiger offense found some cracks in a defense that started strong but withered throughout the game.

The first goal of the game was born out of what appeared to be a non-play when Sophia Schaffer was able to use her speed to track down a ball that appeared to be heading out of bounds.

As she prevented the ball from crossing the end line, she quickly pivoted and found Brook Balliet in front of the net and got the ball to the senior who put it into the right corner of the net for a 1-0 lead.

It took nearly another 20 minutes for the second goal, and it came in an unexpected way. As Northwestern looked to work the ball down, sophomore Dylan Ritter took a feed from Syenna Flores and put a shot on goal from about 30 yards away that surprised even goaltender Maddie Moyer. The surprise shot combined with Moyer being screened by other players allowed the ball to float easily into the goal and Northwestern was up 2-0.

After having to wait for that goal, the next goal came just under a minute later when Paige Bissell played a rebound back on goal and fed it past Moyer to expand the breathing room for Northwestern.

Before halftime, Schaffer reached a career milestone when she sidestepped Moyer, who had come out of the goal to cut down the angle and put the ball into a wide open net for her 50th career goal and a 4-0 Tigers lead.

Rules call for a running clock to begin if a team takes a six-goal lead and the Tigers seemed destined to speed up the clock when they scored twice in the first seven minutes of the second half.

The first was a perfectly played header from sophomore Alexis Kercher and then Northwestern switched to some longball when Bissell put a ball into the top left corner of the goal from 35 yards away for the 6-0 lead, which kicked in the running clock.

Marlyse Delillo found a spot just under the crossbar and hit it from 35 yards out and Schaffer tacked on another goal when she fired on goal from 20 yards out and stretched the lead to 8-0.

“As a senior this feels pretty good and it’s my fourth year to get to play in the finals, so that’s an amazing feeling and I’m really proud of this team and all of my teammates,” said Bissell.

When it was all said and done, the Tigers outshot North Schuylkill 17-3 and collected nine corners while not allowing the Spartans a corner in the game.

“Anytime you can get to a district final it’s a great feeling and to do that by a score of 8-0 you know that you were able to put a lot of balls in the back of the net it must mean that you’re playing pretty well,” said NWL head coach Jordan Smith of his team’s performance in the semifinals.

The shutout was the 17th of the season for the Tigers and junior goalie Olivia Rinehart.

“It always feels great to get a shutout and keep that zero on the board,” said Rinehart.

Northwestern and Central Catholic (20-1-2) will meet in the district championship for the third straight season with the Tigers winning both of the previous matchups.

Last season, Balliet scored the lone goal in the game for a 1-0 win and the fifth straight district title for the Lady Tigers.

“They just won the EPC which is a tough task, and they present a lot of physicality, and their speed and technical skill is very good,” said Smith. “They have a lot of good players but so do we.”

Quarterfinals

For Northwestern, the goals were coming in bunches in their District 11 quarterfinal game against Pine Grove (10-8-0) and the result was a 10-0 win.

First came three goals within two minutes of each other, then two goals in a minute and a half, and a third outbreak that saw two goals scored in 20 seconds.

The two teams were just 2:26 into the game when Paige Bissell delivered a picture perfect feed to Sophia Schaffer as the sophomore came down the right side and Schaffer fired a shot past goalie Alyssa Moyer for the early lead.

Just 1:26 later Northwestern played the ball in off of a corner and Bissell again provided a strong feed, this time to Brook Balliet as Northwestern took a 2-0 advantage.

The final goal in the early barrage came less than a minute later as Bissell went from giving the feed to taking the feed when Dylan Ritter placed the ball directly in front of the net and Bissell played a high bounce to pop the ball over Moyer who dove to attempt a save.

“We knew Pine Grove has some really good players, so we came out with a lot of energy and intensity,” said Balliet, who is a senior. “I think it’s important to get early goals like that to get us into our flow and allow us to relax a little and not have to push later in the game.”

With a 3-0 lead just under five minutes into the game, Northwestern wasn’t ready to relax just yet.

Balliet put a shot on goal that rebounded off of Moyer and came out to Schaffer, who calmly put a shot back on goal and out of the reach of Moyer.

Only 42 seconds went off the clock when Bissell picked up her third assist and Balliet recorded her second goal of the night when Balliet took a pass just in front of the goalie and made a quick move to get her shot past her for a 5-0 advantage before the first half had reached its midway point.

The Pine Grove defense had trouble matching the speed and keeping containment on passes and it led to another goal when Amelia Glassberg put a pass to the middle of the field where Schaffer was left wide open and the shot went just past the outstretched hand of Moyer, who had to dive to attempt the save.

The next outbreak of goals came with 5:50 left in the first half when Glassberg again used her passing skills to get the ball to Bissell, who placed a shot perfectly just under the crossbar and just above Moyer’s fingertips. At the 5:30 mark, Schaffer added her fourth goal of the night to send the game to halftime with Northwestern up 8-0.

“Our team has a lot of energy, and we definitely build off of each other and I think that makes us a great team. We have great chemistry and are always pulling for each other,” said Schaffer, who as a sophomore is in her second postseason as a starter for the Lady Tigers. “Having last years’ experience behind me and knowing what to expect has really helped me this season. Now, I can just rely on my skills and not be nervous at all.”

Just to round out the scoring, Kherington Yezik was assisted on a goal by Emily Kistler just past the midway point of the second half and Syenna Flores nailed a penalty kick with 6:02 left in regulation to make it 10-0.

“I was impressed with our unselfish play tonight, I thought that was amazing. Just their ability to move the ball side to side and work on and do some of the things that we talked about doing against Pine Grove was great. They did it flawlessly and it showed on the field,” said coach Jordan Smith.

The win gave Northwestern a ticket to the district semifinals to face North Schuylkill in the 2A semifinals. The two teams have not met this season but that doesn’t appear to be much of a concern to the players.

“We know we are going to be seeing better teams each game and teams that we aren’t familiar with, but we also know that we can rely on our abilities and just go out and play hard,” said Balliet of the upcoming challenge.

The Spartans were runners up in the Schuylkill League.