Northwestern Lehigh came into the 2020 soccer season with a pretty sizable target on its back after winning district gold in two of the last three seasons, including last year.

Through a crazy summer of having practice interrupted by COVID-19 and an abbreviated fall schedule that was tenuous, the Tigers endured and repeated as both district and Colonial League champions.

All of this happened with the Tigers, who are now 16-2-1, having moved up in classification from 2A to 3A for the 2020 season.

“It really was a weird season,” said coach Kelly Bleam after handing out District 11 gold medals to her players last week. “You have to hand it to the girls because they dealt with everything really well, and they never let any frustration or disappointment over everything that was going on affect them.”

While people tend to look first at the offensive attack of a team, Northwestern Lehigh’s success is largely planted in playing exceptional defense. The Tigers allowed just 10 goals through 15 regular season games. They won their two Colonial League playoff games by shutting out Palisades and high-powered Southern Lehigh, outscoring the two teams 5-0. In districts, Northwestern again shutout Southern Lehigh and then beat Pottsville 4-2 in the title game.

“You always hear about the goal scorers and the girls who get the assists, but our defense has been really special this season,” said Bleam. “Our defensive players do an excellent job of limiting opportunities for the other team and when they do get chances, Naomi [Glassberg] has been excellent in turning away shots. She has the ability to allow a goal and not let it ruin the rest of her game.”

Glassberg, the team’s sophomore goalkeeper, has turned in two strong seasons in goal for Northwestern Lehigh and is quickly showing herself to be one of the best goalies in the area. In more than one game, teams like Southern Lehigh have looked to beat her, but have been unsuccessful. Against Pottsville, the best offensive team that Northwestern Lehigh has faced this season, Glassberg allowed two goals, but also made six saves in the game, many of them carrying a high degree of difficulty.

The Northwestern Lehigh offense is a great compliment to the defense and delivered 57 goals during the regular season. In fact, the offense is good enough that Bleam was able to give her players a bit of an unusual pep-talk before playing Pottsville in the district championship game. Rather than preaching about playing a perfect game, Bleam told her players “we’re very likely to give up a goal. They’re a great team with a couple of great goal scorers, so if we give up a goal, we give up a goal.”

A key to Northwestern’s offense is its success rate on set pieces. Sophia Motolese has perfected putting the ball in perfect position off a corner kick, including knowing how to bend it past a goalie. On other kicks, she puts the ball in a great spot and lets her teammates do the rest, such as she did when she put a ball just past the near goal for Lexi Bleam to tip in for a goal against Pottsville.

“We work really hard on our set pieces and making sure that we take advantages of them,” said Bleam. “Sophia works on that [corners] a lot. She has an amazing gift and a knack to take a corner and bend it right into the far post. That’s the third time she’s scored like that this season. She practices it; it’s an awesome threat to have as a team.”

Last season, Northwestern Lehigh reached the quarterfinals of states, and in 2017 went as far as the semifinals. This year’s team may be the best of the three teams that have made recent appearances in states. The Tigers will get a chance to prove that beginning tonight when they open the state tournament against the District 12 champion Archbishop Ryan.