WHITEHALL - Saturday’s field hockey championship may have reached overtime, but Northwestern only needed 30 seconds of the scheduled 10-minute period to win their second straight District 11 Class 1A title.

Senior Greenleigh McGehee scored the winning goal quickly to give the Tigers a 2-1 victory over Moravian Academy and send the team back to states for the third straight season.

Throughout the game, the two sides took turns taking momentum back from each other.

The Tigers controlled the momentum, especially early in the game, but couldn’t put together a consistent offensive attack.

One minute into the second quarter, Northwestern put a shot on goal that was blocked by goalie Rosie John to the side of the cage. The ball deflected directly in front of the goal where defender Paige Bush was in perfect position to clear the ball and keep the game scoreless.

Two minutes later, Northwestern had a goal waved off by a high-stick call to again thwart the offensive momentum.

Once the Tigers did find some consistency, they also found a 1-0 lead when Brinley Rex made a nice move in front of the goal and slid a shot past John, putting Northwestern up 1-0 early in the second quarter.

“Throughout the game, Moravian did a really good job of playing to our weaknesses and their strengths. It made for a really good game,” said Northwestern coach Lissa Opolsky.

Moravian Academy opened the third quarter with a renewed offensive effort and put pressure on goalkeeper Maxine Hoffman and the Northwestern defense, which responded and kept the Lions from knotting the game.

With the benefit of repeated corners for Moravian Academy in the second half, the Lions found an opening with 5:10 left in the third quarter when Phoebe Shane threaded a pass to Nikki Chiaradia directly in front of the goal. Chiaradia launched a shot that barely evaded both Hoffman and defender Karleigh Hobel. The ball rolled through the mouth of the cage to tie the game.

The two teams took turns controlling the play through the final 15 minutes of regulation. Both had opportunities that fell short as defensive plays ruled the day.

Moravian Academy kept pressure on Hoffman and the Tigers defense and were awarded eight corners in the second half, but the Tigers repeatedly fought off the Moravian advantages.

“We really wanted to come out strong in overtime and get a quick goal,” said McGehee. “We wanted to go on the attack and try to end it quickly and not give them a chance to put together any momentum.”

Northwestern came out for the seven-on-seven overtime period and immediately moved down the field.

McGehee passed to Tess Ledeboer, who didn’t have a good opening for a shot and fed the ball right back to McGehee. The Moravian defense assumed there was a whistle coming to stop play and froze for just a split second. McGehee used that quick moment to get the ball off her stick and put it into the back of the goal for the game-winner.

“I saw the perfect opportunity to go into the stroke and Tess played a beautiful ball to me for me to tip in,” said McGehee. “It just felt great, it’s crazy, obviously.”

UP NEXT? ... Northwestern will have a week off until they play District 4 champion Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals of the state tournament. With various teams across the area having to drop out of district play because of the rise of coronavirus cases, there is some concern about whether states will be able to be played.

BE PREPARED ... “We’re just going to take it one day at a time,” said Opolsky. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, so we’ll just keep preparing and be ready to play. It’s better to just keep our focus on what we can control and what we need to do.”