There were times throughout Monday’s District 11 Class 1A semifinal game between Northwestern Lehigh and Pen Argyl that looked like the two teams were practicing their corner plays with the Tigers working on their offense and the Knights working on defending the set plays.

Four times in the game Northwestern had back-to-back opportunities on corners and twice turned them into goals, helping lead the top-seeded Tigers to a 3-0 win over the Green Knights.

The first quarter was a defensive battle between the two clubs.

Finally, with 2:53 remaining in the period, Northwestern put a shot on goal only to have senior goalie Olivia Apostol kick the ball away. Unfortunately for the Knights, the ball deflected right to Cara Thomas who had Apostol blocking her shot to the front, so she looked to take the ball to the far side of the goal but pushed it just wide.

As the opening quarter ran down to under a minute remaining, Northwestern (19-3) was awarded their first corner of the game, which resulted in another corner and finally, a third successive corner for the Tigers.

This time, the execution was flawless as Ella Dangello inserted the ball to Hannah Gober, who got it to Olivia Costa for a shot that sizzled past Apostol for a 1-0 lead with :13 left in the quarter.

Northwestern goalie Ryan Smolinsky put her skills on display in the second quarter when she made an athletic play on a ball to her right to knock the ball away from the goal.

Pen Argyl (9-10-2) tried to play the rebound, but was unsuccessful at returning fire on Smolinsky as Northwestern cleared the ball.

The Tigers were awarded seven corners in the second quarter, and three times turned the first corner into a second chance. On the third of those, Taylor Langley ended the run when she was able to find an opening in a scrum in front of the net and clanged the ball off the back of the cage for a goal and a 2-0 lead for Northwestern.

“In that situation we were just frantically trying to shove any ball you can get to into the goal and trying to get good touches on the ball,” said Langley. “I saw it within reach and just looked to do my part, and was able to get it to go.”

The third quarter turned out to be a battle between the two defenses with both teams finding some opportunities, but neither being able to finish on them. Both goalies also came up with strong plays.

As the final quarter started, Northwestern came out looking to take all of the air out of the Green Knights’ tires by expanding their 2-0 lead.

Just 1:24 into the fourth, Cara Thomas found Olivia Costa — who had a look at the goal and buried her shot to record her 30th goal of the season and seal the victory for the Tigers.

“They were aggressive tonight, so honestly, it was just a lot of battling back and forth,” said Costa of her team’s win. “I am really proud of us for how we played, and we just pushed through the intensity and just happened to get some goals in the net.”

2023 DO OVER … Northwestern and Palmerton (11-7-1), the tournament’s No. 2 seed, met in last season’s District 11 1A championship with the Tigers winning their first title since 2020 with a 3-2 win over the Blue Bombers. Palmerton last won district gold in 2021. Northwestern won both regular season meetings between the two teams this season by a combined score of 9-1. The two rivals did not meet in the Colonial League playoffs.

A CORNER OFFICE … Northwestern was awarded 18 corners in the game, while the Green Knights had just seven corner opportunities. Northwestern also outshot Pen Argyl 18-0 in the game.