Northern Lehigh’s upperclassmen let Minersville know they remembered.

Northern Lehigh’s freshmen gave the Miners something they would like to forget.

It was the perfect combination.

The Bulldogs scored less than five minutes into the game, built a commanding halftime lead, and breezed to a 7-1 victory in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class 1A girls soccer tournament on Thursday.

“Minersville knocked us out of the district tournament last year, so there was some extra motivation for our girls who were on that team,” said Northern Lehigh coach Jason Reinhard. “We talked to our girls about it, and I know they had revenge on their minds.”

The players who were on the field for last year’s district playoff loss included sophomores Victoria Hanna and Jayden Fischer, who scored a pair of goals each last night. Another was senior Sophia Lear, who added one goal.

While the revenge factor might have helped motivate Hanna, Fischer and Lear, it didn’t have any influence on the Bulldogs’ other goal scorers - that’s because Kate Barthold and Nicole Zarayko are freshmen.

“We start four freshman and two sophomores, so we are an extremely young team,” Reinhard said. “Sometimes you worry about underclassmen, especially freshmen, having some jitters for a district playoff game. But they all played hard and played relaxed. I didn’t sense any nerves.

“I’m not surprised by that because they haven’t played like freshmen at all this season. We now have over 70 goals as a team, and around 40 of them have come from our freshmen.”

It didn’t take the No. 3 seeded Bulldogs (13-7) long to jump on top as Hanna scored with 35:12 left in the opening half when she powered the ball home from about 20 yards out.

Northern Lehigh continued to control play and generate chances over the next 20 minutes, but numerous offside calls helped keep them off the board.

Finally, with 14:02 left in the half, Fischer banged in a ball off a Barthold corner kick to make it 2-0. That opened the floodgates as Northern Lehigh scored four times in the span of just 11 minutes to build a 5-0 halftime lead.

“Minersville gave us trouble, especially early in the game, by using a very high offside trap,” explained Reinhard. “We finally started being a little more patient and a little smarter and using our speed to beat the trap. “We can be explosive offensively because we are very fast. You saw that at the end of the half when we scored a bunch of goals in a very short amount of time.”

The Bulldogs added a couple of quick second-half goals, allowing Reinhard to go to his bench early and often.

“This is a nice way to open district play,” Reinhard said. “Our starters all played really well, and because of that we got a lot of playing time for our reserves.”

HELPING OUT ... Caitlin Kirk had two assists for the Bulldogs, while Mikayla Gordon, Lear and Hanna added one each.

GOALIE SHUFFLE ... Dakotah Barthold started in goal for the Bulldogs. She made four saves and didn’t allow a goal before being pulled with a 7-0 lead and about 20 minutes remaining. Hanna went into goal next and Emma Niebell followed her.

FIRE AWAY .. The Bulldogs had a 23-7 advantage in shots.

UP NEXT ... Northern Lehigh will play Moravian Academy in a semifinal round game on Tuesday.