Andrew Haas laid down the gauntlet to his defense.

“My challenge to them was zero shots, zero shots on goal,” said the Pine Grove girls’ soccer coach.

The Cardinals came close.

Pine Grove’s defense held down a high-powered Northern Lehigh offense - and made a second-half goal stand up - in a 1-0 victory during Thursday’s District 11 Class 1A semifinal.

The top-seeded Cardinals allowed just one shot on goal, and broke a scoreless tie when Hannah Aungst found the back of the net off a cross from Mia Jefferson midway through the second half.

“I’m pretty happy with that,” Haas said of the effort. “I’m really happy with that in 80 minutes.”

Haas lauded the play of his team, which also posted a 1-0 over Palisades in the quarterfinals.

“My defense is stellar,” said the coach. “We’re young, we’re very young. We only have one starter from last year in the back right now. But we talk about defense winning championships, that’s all we try to focus on throughout the offseason. We shut down two good scorers that they have.”

The fifth-seeded Bulldogs, who posted a 5-0 win over Minersville in the quarterfinals, had a shot on goal off a free kick from about 30 yards out followed by a corner in the closing stages of the scoreless first half, but couldn’t convert.

“It was two evenly-matched teams,” said Northern Lehigh coach Jason Reinhard. “We got burned on that one rush. They were a bit more aggressive in that second half than we were, and it showed. We just couldn’t find the right people in the right situations. They did a good job of taking some things away.”

Pine Grove, champions of Division 2 in the Schuylkill League with a 14-0 record, nearly broke through in the first half. Melanie Love took a cross from Aubrey Aungst in the 25th minute, but fired the ball over the net and into the bottom of the football goal post sitting behind it.

The senior had another try four minutes later, but sophomore goalkeeper Dekotah Barthold made the save for the Bulldogs.

Love had a shot on goal with around 24:00 minutes to play in the second half, but Barthold made the save.

Pine Grove finished with four corners and four shots on goal in the second half.

While the disappointment of the defeat will linger for Reinhard and his team, Northern Lehigh could very well find itself in this position again next season. The Bulldogs, who also qualified for the Colonial League tournament, had three seniors in the starting lineup on Thursday - Aiyana Bosch, Danielle Dougherty and Caitlin Kirk - so the bulk of the squad will be returning next fall.

“Some of the younger girls got some hugely beneficial experience,” said Reinhard. “Hopefully some of our injuries get better until next year, and we’ll be a deeper team.

“When you’re the smallest public school in your league, and you’re here three years in a row, it’s a pretty amazing accomplishment. We just want to try to get over that hump.”

COMING BACK

... Northern Lehigh is set to return four of its top five scorers next season. Sophomore Katelynn Barthold led the team with 21 goals and 54 points during the regular season and had a hat trick in the first half of the quarterfinal win over Minersville. Sophomore Nicole Zarayko and junior Victoria Hanna each added 10 goals and sophomore Mikayla Gordon scored four times. Hanna and Kirk each had a goal and two assists against Minersville.

MOVING ON

... Pine Grove will play the district final on Tuesday against Moravian Academy.