Northwestern Lehigh kept its quest for an undefeated season intact Tuesday night when it downed Northern Lehigh 7-0 at Tiger Stadium in New Tripoli.

The Tigers used four goals from Paige Bissell — including two in the first 11 minutes of the game — to roll to the victory, their 16th of the season.

Bissell, who is now the team leader in goals, picked up her first score 5:56 into the first half when she moved down field, beat defenders and deposited the ball into the right side corner of the net for an early 1-0 lead. Less than five minutes later, Bissell took a crossing pass from sophomore Sophia Schaffer and again beat goalie Dekotah Barthold for her second goal of the night, and 19th of the season.

Schaffer has become a key player on the Northwestern attack, with one of her many strengths being placing the ball for others to record goals.

With 19:28 remaining, Schaffer again sent a perfect crossing pass in front of the goal and sophomore classmate Amelia Glassberg never broke stride to put a shot into the back of the net for a 3-0 edge for the Tigers.

“We came out and tried to get on top of them quickly, and that was all part of our plan to try to get a couple of early goals,” said Bissell, a senior.

“We came out with a lot of intensity, and I think that was a big factor in this win tonight.”

With less than :10 left in the half, Northwestern (16-0; 13-0) was awarded a corner kick, and Bissell moved quickly to get the ball to the middle of the field. Kherington Yezik took a shot and played her own rebound to record her 15th goal of the season as the clock reached the :01 mark and the scoreboard showed a 4-0 lead for Northwestern.

Considering that Northwestern’s defense has allowed just six goals all season, the four-goal deficit left the Bulldogs (10-4-1; 8-3-1) with a daunting task ahead of them for the second half.

Things got even more difficult when the Tigers came out firing. Brook Balliet took a pass from Bissell as Barthold came out of the goal mouth in an attempt to cut down Balliet’s angle and instead watched as the ball sailed past her and into the goal for a 5-0 Northwestern advantage.

Bissell scored two more times in the second half to make it a 7-0 win, and in the process give her with 21 goals on the season.

The shutout was the 12th of the season for Northwestern and goalie Olivia Reinhart as the defense continues to play tough soccer, and limit the opportunities that other teams get to take shots at Reinhart.

Senior Olivia Spatz likes the play of the defense this season, and said that the defenders pride themselves on keeping the other team scoreless.

“We focus on wins first, but we want shutouts every game, and it’s something that we work for, so we are always glad to get away with a shutout,” said Spatz.

The Tigers are also striving to remain undefeated going into the playoffs, and looking to get the top seed in both the league and district playoffs.

“It’s a great feeling to be undefeated, especially since we have gone up against some great teams like Moravian, Saucon, and Northern Lehigh. I think it’s important going into playoffs to get that No. 1 seed and being able to skip the quarterfinals,” said Bissell.

A SPECIAL GROUP … The sophomore class has continued to play well throughout the season with players like Schaffer, Yezik, Dylan Ritter and Glassberg all contributing to the team. “We start four sophomores, and we had four starting last season, so they have a full season of experience. We have two more that come off the bench early for us and they all contribute,” said coach Jordan Smith.

SEE YOU SOON? ... Both teams have wrapped up spots in the league and district playoffs and could meet again in the not-too-distant future.