The seniors on the Northwestern Lehigh boys soccer team have earned three Colonial League championships, four District 11 championships, and two state championships since joining the high school team four years ago.

Two members of the Class of 2025, Jack Mauro and Jake van Lierop, can now add All-State honors to their list of achievements. The Pennsylvania Soccer Coaches Association released this years team recently and the two Tigers were on it.

“It’s such an honor to make all-state,” said van Lierop. “We have such phenomenal kids here and my teammates were all awesome to work with and if they weren’t as good as they were, I wouldn’t have had the season that I had, and we wouldn’t have a state championship.”

Van Lierop had a record-breaking season in 2024 with 74 goals, which is the most ever by a Northwestern player and puts him third in the state for goals in a season according to the PSCA. He also stands as the top goal scorer of all-time at Northwestern with 105 goals, which he accomplished in 103 varsity games.

Coming into the season, van Lierop had 31 career goals through three seasons, which he had spent as a midfielder. With Matt Johnson graduating, the Tigers needed someone to take his spot as a forward and with his speed and ball handling skills, van Lierop was given the chance to move up front. The results were instant as van Lierop scored three goals in the season opener and had surpassed all of his previous seasons when he scored his 32nd goal of the season in just the 10th game for the Tigers.

For van Lierop, finding out about his selection to the all-state team didn’t come in any formal fashion from the PSCA or even from his coach. Instead, it came from his biggest fan.

“My mom had found it online and called me,” said van Lierop. “It kind of caught me off guard but it was a great, great feeling.”

As for his future, van Lierop is not sure where he will attend college, but he is sure that he will continue his soccer career at the next level.

For four seasons, Mauro was the steady hand in the middle for Northwestern. He played the role perfectly and finished his high school career with more assists (65) than goals (54).

Mauro was the guy in the right spot at the right time and did whatever it took to help his team to a win whether it was dishing off the ball to someone else or finishing off a play himself. For his senior season, Mauro scored 16 goals and had a career-high 30 assists.

“It was just such a great season,” said Mauro. “We have a core group of guys who have played together for a long time and we all kind of know each other so well that it makes it so much easier. Getting named to the all-state team was a bit of a surprise, but I figured I had a thought mainly because we had such a great season. We all put in a lot of work and it’s really an honor to have made the team.”

“Both of those guys are really deserving of being on the all-state team,” said Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker. “They put in the work, and they’ve done everything we have asked of them. They helped to set the bar pretty high for this team and then helped us reach our goals.”