Through the first two seasons of lacrosse at Northwestern, the offense could never quite measure up to what the defense was accomplishing.

This season, the offense is pulling together nicely, and the two parts of the team are helping to lead the team to what could prove to be a breakthrough season.

The latest example was a 17-2 win over Pleasant Valley Friday at Tiger Stadium.

Leading the way offensively was sophomore Blaine Snyder, who finished his day with five goals. Chipping in was senior Drew Sabo, who scored three times, and junior Austin Sosnovik, who had two goals. In all, 10 different players scored for the Tigers.

“We have all been growing up together and playing lacrosse, so I know them personally and I know what they like and what their strengths are and what their weaknesses are, so I know what to do to put them in the right spot and they know the same things about me,” said Snyder. “That growing together has helped us.”

Andrew Collins, Cade Christopher, Ethan Bailey, Devon Hildebrand, Taylor Wikert, Hayden Gabel and John Conti all scored single goals in the win over the Bears.

“Last year we had a phenomenal defense, but we didn’t have the offense to go along with it because we were so inexperienced and had a bunch of underclassmen,” said coach Marcus Janda. “Those guys are one year further on with experience, and they know the system for another year now and are coming through for us.”

It was Collins who got the scoring underway midway through the first quarter and Sosnovik, Sabo and Christopher all put the ball in the goal for the Tigers (7-4) in the first quarter to give Northwestern a 4-0 lead. The Tigers stretched their lead to 8-0 before Pleasant Valley got on the board when Gavin Baumann got his first of two goals of the game with 4:30 left in the second quarter. By halftime, the lead was at 12-1.

Hayden Gabel put the game into the mercy rule when he put Northwestern up 13-1 with 7:06 left in the third quarter. Two of Snyder’s five goals came in the fourth quarter and Conti added his goal late in the game to make it 17-2.

On the defensive side, goalie Bailen Smargiassi put on a show in goal for the Tigers. The sophomore was credited with 10 saves in the game as the Bears (1-10) struggled to get anything past him.

“Ever since the beginning of the program we were always kind of going downhill, but now we have more experience and we are getting up there,” said Snyder. “The younger guys want to do well for the seniors that went through the start of the program when we were struggling a lot more. It feels good to get them these wins even over some of the bigger EPC teams.”

Northwestern played a tough Parkland (9-2) team recently and battled them before falling 11-7 and have split two meetings with a good Nazareth (7-6) team, falling 11-7 in the first meeting only to come back and get a 9-8 win in their last meeting.

Janda and his players had two goals coming into the season: make it do districts and handle their games against Colonial League opponents. With nine wins needed to make districts, the Tigers are almost there, and they have gone undefeated against other teams from the Colonial League.

“We are a younger program that’s starting to take those next steps and we are finding ways to win games, so I think we are taking that next step forward,” Janda explained.

A big test will come on Tuesday when the Tigers take on Southern Lehigh (4-5). The two teams will play twice in a little over two weeks down the stretch. Northwestern also has a game against Allentown Central Catholic (8-0) and another against Emmaus (8-3) among their final seven games.

A SPECIAL GROUP ... Friday was senior night at Northwestern as the Tigers saluted their eight senior players. Janda admitted that he started to tear up a little when the players were introduced because this year’s seniors are the first group of freshmen that went through the program all through their high school years. The players missed playing their sophomore season, which was canceled because of COVID.

A FUTURE PLAYER? ... Janda and his wife are expecting their second child together. The couple also has two other children and Janda is hoping that with one son already and the possibility of another on the way, he will have a couple extra players in the future. “I need players, so I’m doing what I can,” said the proud father.