CATASAUQUA — Sure, Northwestern Lehigh School District might technically be located in New Tripoli.

But the Tiger faithful know it by another name.

And Saturday only strengthened its stronghold in a wide variety of sports, especially soccer.

Northwestern’s boys went back-to-back as Colonial League champs, blanking Moravian Academy 3-0.

And just hours later, the Tigers collected another trophy, with the girls defending their league soccer title.

It capped a week that saw Northwestern win three league championships in as many days, with field hockey delivering the hardware Thursday.

The top-seeded and unbeaten Tigers played to their strength Saturday against the Lions, with stifling defense and sensational scoring from senior Jacob van Lierop, who delivered a hat trick.

“It means a lot,” said van Lierop. “They call our school ‘Title Town.’ We’re always winning titles. For all the people that show up, it’s always great to have an audience and a good crowd. It helps us play a little better. It’s just always fun, and it means a lot, and I hope it means a lot to them, too.”

Northwestern (21-0) put on a show, especially in the second half.

Van Lierop helped the Tigers snap a scoreless tie with 24:30 left in the second half, managing to settle a ball before popping it over the goalie’s head and under the crossbar for a 1-0 lead.

It was the 55th goal of the season for van Lierop, who has been a tour de force for the Tigers this fall.

“He’s a special player,” said Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker. “And he’s obviously having a tremendous season this year; I think he’s three goals away now from setting the Lehigh Valley single-season scoring record, which is just phenomenal. He’s a problem for other teams to match up against. And when teams are keying in on him, it creates space and openings and matchups in our favor for other guys. And we have a plethora of kids who can find the back of the net.”

Van Lierop scored on a penalty kick with 20:16 remaining to push the Tigers’ lead to 2-0.

His final goal came on a tremendous finish with under :30 to play to punctuate another spectacular all-around performance.

“It’s just the team working well together,” said van Lierop. “We don’t have to worry about problems at the back because we have that back line. The midfield is going to keep the ball, and they’re going to get it to me, and me and Cole (Mertz) are going to do our thing up top. We’re going to try to keep it going, keep it rolling, and hopefully we can win it all.”

Moravian (14-7) generated scoring chances past the midway point of the first half, as Hasan Strandzhev hit a shot wide with 18 minutes to play and Selman Eris sent a loose ball in front high and wide a minute later. The third-seeded Lions pressured again in the final five minutes of the half, but the Northwestern defense and goalie Brandon Krapf stood strong.

Northwestern created chances as well, with Zachary Walker sending a ball in front that van Lierop nearly finished with a bicycle kick in the 20th minute.

Van Lierop used fancy footwork to get around defenders and send a ball across the front of the net about a minute later, and Mertz nearly put in a header after a free kick hit the post with 17 minutes left in the first half.

Van Lierop nearly broke through in the ninth minute of the second half, hitting a shot that slammed off the crossbar and went straight down before being cleared by Moravian. Van Lierop had a clever free kick just three minutes later that seemed to hit the post and crossbar to stay out and keep the game scoreless.

Colonial Lg. Semifinal

N’western 6, Wilson 0

Northwestern beat Wilson 6-0 in last week’s league semifinal at Lehighton.

The Tigers wasted no time, as they immediately began to control possession of the ball early and often in the first half. They would finally be rewarded about six-and-a-half minutes into the game when junior Logan Mesics set up senior Jacob van Lierop for the game’s first goal.

It appeared early on that the Tigers’ quick pace and defensive pressure became too difficult for Wilson to keep up with, forcing the Warriors to play at the Tigers’ level, according to coach Nathan Hunsicker.

“I thought we played a really strong first half, and kind of took Wilson out of their game plan early on, and kind of forced them to come out and play a little bit more of an aggressive style than what they would’ve liked,” he said.

That strong first half resulted in Northwestern being rewarded with another four goals.

Almost 19 minutes into the half, senior Nate Kinzel capitalized off a beautiful passing play set up by Van Leirop and sophomore Cole Mertz. Over five minutes later, senior Jack Mauro found the back of the net, and just six-and-a-half minutes later, Mertz joined the goal-scoring party, courtesy of van Lierop.

With a minute and ten seconds remaining in the half, Mesics became the fifth different goal scorer of the game for the Tigers with assists from both Van Lierop and junior Caelan Stangil.

With a goal and three assists, van Leirop continued to rack up the points, and is now up to 54 goals and 23 assists on the season.

While Northwestern dominated on the scoreboard, it was its defense that also shined as it prevented Wilson from recording a single shot during the first half.

Much was the same during the second half, as the Tigers held the Warriors to only one shot on goal, and blocked another shot attempt on the goal line off a corner kick.

With this level of dominance, coach Hunsicker credits the work his team puts in outside of its regular practices and the experience it has with each other.

“I would say it’s not as easy as it looks,” he said. “We work hard pretty much year round, and a lot of these guys play club together in the offseason as well. So there’s a lot of chemistry out there on the field, and it certainly shows. The results speak for themselves.”

“It’s definitely good knowing that we can compete with anyone; knowing that we can put in 80 minutes,” van Lierop said about his team’s performance. “If we play how we can play, we can beat anyone. We have some great talent through the midfield and the back line up top.”

Despite his team’s defense not being tested much in this game, coach Hunsicker is still impressed with how they’ve performed and how important they are.

“If the other team can’t score, and if the other team’s not getting off shots or obviously not having a lot of opportunities to score, it makes winning in the equation happen a lot more often than not,” he said. “Credit to our back line; our goalkeeper Brandon has had a phenomenal season. He wasn’t tested too much tonight, but those guys are the backbone of what we do and integral pieces of our success going forward.”

Coach Hunsicker is already preparing for how much his team will need to be ready on Saturday against a familiar opponent in Moravian Academy.

Northwestern has not lost a game to a Colonial League opponent since the 2022 Colonial League final, where it lost 2-1 in overtime to Southern Lehigh. That loss is one of only two for the Tigers over the last three seasons. Their other defeat came in last year’s state playoffs against Camp Hill. The Tigers are 71-2 over the past three seasons.