EMMAUS — Jacob van Lierop is definitely a team-first kind of player.

He came into the Class 2A state semifinal game against Notre Dame-Green Pond looking to help his team return to the PIAA finals for the second time in three seasons and in the back of his mind, hoped that he would have the opportunity to reset the team’s record for career goals.

After all, he needed just two goals to tie the mark of 101 goals set last season by Matt Johnson.

In the end, Northwestern left Emmaus’ Memorial Field with the win it needed, and in the process, van Lierop got three goals to move ahead of Johnson with 102, and also stretch his team record for goals in a season to 71 as the Tigers pulled off an 8-2 win over Notre Dame to play for the state championship on Saturday.

Van Lierop’s first goal was set up by a high, arching feed from Cole Mertz. The ball went to the far side of the goal, and with goalie Mark Perone directly in front of him, van Lierop ran under the ball and put it off the side of his foot and behind Perone, who was unable to keep it from getting past him.

For the next 20 minutes, the game was a defensive exhibition with both Perone and Northwestern’s Brandon Krapf making big stops to keep it at 1-0.

The Crusaders controlled much of the play and with 8:27 left in the first half, Nico Guet-Cruza launched a shot that appeared to glance off the ankle of defender Nate Kinzel, pushing the shot toward the left where it hit off the post and caromed back into play where it was cleared by Northwestern.

With neither team able to connect for goals, it appeared the game would go into halftime without any further scoring.

The game clock went under the 2:00 mark and Northwestern (27-0) advanced toward the goal with the ball toward the right sideline. Jack Mauro kept the ball from going out over the end line and centered it to van Lierop, who kicked the ball backward to Caelan Stangil.

Perone saw Stangil setting up to shoot with his left foot and moved to his right, but Stangil pulled the ball to the other side and Perone was unable to react in time to stop the shot as the Tigers went up 2-0.

The Tigers made things even tougher when Stangil played a ball into the box, and van Lierop made a spin move around one defender and then fired the ball between Perone and another defender, who both looked to stop the shot but were unable to reach the ball and Northwestern took a three-goal lead with :03.2 left in the first half.

“Honestly, I thought that we did not play very well in the half,” said Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker. “We just capitalized on a couple of mistakes and were pretty aggressive in the last four minutes, so that kind of made up for our not playing very well in the rest of the half.”

The two late goals did nothing to kill Notre Dame’s confidence as it came out and 4:27 into the second half, Isaiah Miles pushed the ball to Paul Hartman. As he did, Krapf came out of the goal to defend a shot, but Hartman beat him with a strong left-footed attempt that cut the Northwestern lead to 3-1.

“Notre Dame came out with a lot of energy in the second half, and they buried one on us,” said Hunsicker. “We knew the next goal in the game was going to be massive, and we were able to get the next one and then picked up our play and got some more. I’m really excited, and I’m happy for the kids.”

The middle portion of the second half saw five goals scored in a seven-and-a-half minute stretch as Mertz, Mauro, Stangil and van Lierop all scored for Northwestern with van Lierop’s goal — his third of the game — being the one that made him the Tigers all-time goal scorer.

The only other goal that the Crusaders (17-7-1) were able to add came when Hartman beat Krapf on a penalty kick, but at the end of the stretch, Northwestern led 7-2 with 15:21 left.

The final goal came after Stangil worked his way around two defenders and put a shot on goal. Mertz came over looking to tip the ball into the corner, but a Notre Dame defender slid to stop Mertz and, in the process, screened Perone who froze as the ball went to his left for an 8-2 Northwestern lead.

“It was a good game, and we did what we needed to do to win. We didn’t keep it as clean as we wanted, but we got the goals and we’re moving on,” said van Lierop. “I knew there was a chance I wasn’t going to get the record, but my team gave me a lot of chances and got a lot of passes to me and created a lot of chances, and I was able to put a couple of them away.”

PREPPING FOR PREP … Cathedral Prep won the 3A championship last season when it defeated Springfield Township 3-2 in double overtime in the finals. The Ramblers were dropped down to the 2A classification this season, and were the runners-up in District 10 this season. They are 18-6 after beating Avonworth 4-2 in the other semifinal Tuesday night.