With the Colonial League playoff format expanded from six teams to eight teams, the bye through the quarterfinals for the two top teams in the league was eliminated this season.

That put top-seeded Northwestern in action Monday night as it faced eighth-seeded Jim Thorpe at Northern Lehigh’s Bulldog Stadium.

The extra work didn’t seem to bother the Tigers as they put up a 7-1 win over the Olympians to advance to Wednesday’s semifinals.

Early in the game, you could almost feel the Northwestern offense sizing up the Olympians defense and deciding the best ways to attack.

As the game approached the midway point of the first half, the Tigers struck when senior Jake Van Lierop sailed a shot to the right side of the goal and put it past goalie Liam Off for a 1-0 edge with 22:02 left in the half. As usual, Van Lierop was not done as he continues to stretch his program record for goals in a season and pushed it to 52 when Logan Mesics placed a pass right into Van Lierop’s stride and he again beat Off for a 2-0 edge.

“We struggled a little bit with our finishing early on, but we had a lot of chances,” said head coach Nate Hunsicker. “We just had to keep our composure a little and we were able to find the net and get a lead.”

Jim Thorpe’s defense, which had been playing Van Lierop very tightly, even increased the pressure, so Van Lierop changed strategies and went from goal scorer to being the assist man.

With 5:45 left in the first half, Van Lierop found Mesics to return the favor on the earlier goal as Mesics scored his 12th goal of the season. Just a minute later, Van Lierop picked up his 22nd assist of the season, this time sending the ball to senior Jack Mauro, who picked up his 12th goal of the season as well, giving the Tigers a 4-0 lead going into halftime.

The Olympians gave themselves some momentum with 26:37 left in regulation when freshman Blaze Flyzik went one-on-one with Northwestern goalie Brandon Krapf, who came out of the goal to cut down the angle. Just as Krapf went into a dive to stop a shot, Flyzik was able to pop the ball over Krapf and bounce it into the goal for what would be the lone score for Thorpe.

Before the momentum had a chance to grow, Northwestern put down the uprising less than a minute later as Van Lierop struck again and squeezed a shot between Off and the left corner of the goal for his 53rd of the season and a 5-1 advantage for the Tigers.

The combination of Van Lierop and Mauro connected again five minutes later as Mauro took a feed from the senior forward and this time beat Off by going to the right side of the goal for a 6-1 edge midway through the second half.

“It means a lot defensively that our offense is so strong,” said senior defenseman Nate Kinzel. “We had that one slip up where we let a guy through, but because we were already up 4-0, it didn’t mean too much. Then, our offense comes right back and gets another goal, so it helps a lot to have those guys be so strong.”

As the clock continued to wear down, defenseman Austin Bittenbender worked his way into the offensive zone and found himself with a scoring opportunity and didn’t miss when he and Mauro executed a give-and-go and Bittenbender added his second goal of the season and capped the scoring in the 7-1 Northwestern win.

The Tigers defense allowed just three shots on goal for Jim Thorpe in the game, while the offense had 20.

“There’s a lot of communication between us back there between the three of us and the midfield. We were watching number 18 (Noah Geiser) pretty much and the midfield picked him up a lot, so that made our job easier,” said Kinzel.

A TICKET TO CATASAUQUA … Northwestern is now one win away from reaching the Colonial League finals, which will be played Saturday at Catasauqua’s Alumni Field. In the semifinals, the Tigers will face fifth-seeded Wilson, who knocked off fourth-seeded Notre Dame-Green Pond Monday night to advance.