Trailing by a goal at halftime, Jim Thorpe came on strong after intermission to score a 3-1 win over host Palmerton in a District 11 Class 2A Girls Soccer quarterfinal round matchup on the Blue Bombers turf Thursday night.

The Olympians, who defeated Palmerton by a 3-0 score during the regular season, started off slow, getting just three shots on goal in the first 40 minutes as the Bombers played some tight defense.

Things changed in the second half, however, as Jim Thorpe was able to send 12 shots toward Palmerton goalie Megan Green and scored on three of them.

“We were cold,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Tom Condly. “Obviously the conditions weren’t ideal in the first half with the rain and the temperature dropping.”

Palmerton took a 1-0 lead in the first half as Emma Martinez fed Brianna Moore, who broke loose and was one-on-one with Olympian goalie Kate Bos. Moore pushed a shot over Bos with 34:07 left on the clock.

“We started slowly and Moore scored that one in the first six minutes,” said Condly. “We overcommitted. We just jabbed at the ball. She’s a good player and she put in a good shot.

“But we’ve been there before. This was our 19th game, and we’ve been in a lot of tight ones and we knew there was a lot of time left. We talked about it. We knew we would get our game going; we just had to start passing and connecting a little bit and we were going to score.”

Condly said some halftime decisions helped ignite the offense.

“I made some adjustments in the second half. We were a little more defensive in the first half, then we kind of sprung Lydia Wallace in the second half,” he said. “We subbed a little more, and I think their defense was a little tired. Lydia came out strong and took advantage of that.”

“When we need someone to step up, they do. It was another team effort.”

Jim Thorpe tied it up with 27:42 left in the second half as Wallace, one of three seniors on the squad, fed Lauren LeKites who pushed it into the crease.

It was Wallace who scored the go-ahead goal for the Olympians when she fired a shot from 30 yards out and bounced it off the crossbar and into the net.

Nicole Carroll added an insurance goal with 4:40 left on the clock to give the Olympians a two-goal edge.

“They came out strong in the second half,” said Palmerton head coach Dave O’Brien. “They had the momentum after they scored, and we just couldn’t turn it around.

“We got away from our game a little bit in the second half, but I’m just proud of them the way they played and the way they worked. I couldn’t have asked for a better year. With everything going on with COVID-19 and everything we faced, I couldn’t be more proud of them.”

MOVING ON … The Olympians, now 12-7, will now take on No. 1 seed Palisades next Wednesday at a time to be determined. It’s the second straight year the Olympians have reached the D-11 semifinals. The Bombers finish the season at 6-5-1.

STAT CENTRAL … Thorpe had 15 shots on goal, while the Bombers had just four. Both teams each had one corner.