Perhaps no one told the Midd-West Mustangs that Jacob van Lierop is a pretty good soccer player.

By the time Northwestern and Midd-West reached halftime in their PIAA Class 2A first round game Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium, van Lierop had achieved the rare double hat trick with six first-half goals.

When all was said and done, the Tigers had captured a 9-0 win over the Mustangs to advance to the quarterfinal round of states.

Van Lierop scored early and often, with his first goal of the opening half coming just :18 into the game, and his final goal coming with just :08 left in the first half.

For his opening goal, the senior forward broke down the middle of the field and as goalie Derek Wert prepared to block a hard shot, van Lierop instead hit a little chip shot over him that trickled into the goal.

If his first goal was a chip shot, the second was shot out of a cannon as van Lierop came down the left side of the field and again beat Wert for a 2-0 lead just 4:32 into the game.

Throughout the rest of the half, van Lierop scored from every angle — including on a free kick from 25 yards out.

“The first one was really quick, and the first one always means a little more because it gets you off on the right foot, but I think the free kick was the best one,” said van Lierop when asked which of the goals was his favorite. “I’m not sure that I ever had six goals in a game, unless it was back in youth soccer or something. I know that I had five in a game earlier this season (against Salisbury), but I never had six.”

Logan Mesics snuck in his seventh goal of the postseason between a pair of van Lierop goals as he took on Wert one-on-one and put the ball just out of reach to Wert’s left.

The Tigers (25-0) went into halftime up 7-0, and the second half opened with a running clock.

If there were any goals that were more popular with the fan base than van Lierop’s, it had to be one that came on a penalty kick during the second half.

When Midd-West (15-4-2) was called for a foul in the box, goalie Brandon Krapf immediately sprinted from his position in front of the net to the other end of the field to take on Wert one-on-one.

Krapf, who scored on a penalty kick last season for Northwestern, placed the shot perfectly to Wert’s right. The team celebrated its 8-0 lead to a loud round of applause.

“I asked the coach at halftime if we got a penalty kick if I could take it,” said Krapf with a broad smile. “I hadn’t scored this season, so I at least wanted to get one.”

As it turns out, Krapf takes part in penalty kick drills during practice and coach Nate Hunsicker has been impressed with his ability to get the ball into the net.

“He didn’t even look over at me when the penalty was called, he just started to run to the other side of the field, and I just figured what the heck?” said Hunsicker. “I had promised him that if we got one that he could take the shot. I’m a man of integrity and I didn’t want to break a promise to him, so now I can say that I kept my word.”

To finish the scoring, Jack Mauro caught the goalie out of position and made a nice move to score the ninth goal of the night for the Tigers.

ON TO THE QUARTERS … The Tigers will face Faith Christian in the quarterfinals this coming Saturday. The Lions, who won the District 1 championship, defeated Lancaster Catholic 2-1 to remain undefeated with a 19-0 record. The place and time of the game will be announced later.

REWRITE THE BOOK (AGAIN) … The Northwestern Lehigh record book had a big change after last season when Matt Johnson broke the old record of 81 goals in a career, and also became the first player in program history to pass the 100- goal mark, finishing with 101 career goals. It may be time to do more editing because van Lierop is now at 98 career goals thanks to his 67 goals this season, which is a new mark for goals in a single season.