Northwestern Lehigh gained early momentum against defending state champion Central Columbia in Saturday’s rematch of the state semifinals from last season, which was won by the Blue Jays.

In their first few trips into the attack zone, the Tigers looked to move down the right side and find openings for sophomore Sophia Schaffer to deliver a crossing pass to the middle of the field, but were unsuccessful.

With just :17 left on the game clock, they found Schaffer down the left side of the field where she put herself into position to launch a shot on goal that found its way to the back of the net for a 1-0 Northwestern win.

Both teams had opportunities in the game, but both goalies put on a clinic.

Central Columbia sophomore Braelyn Moran made 12 saves, while Northwestern junior Olivia Reinhart made 10 stops for the Tigers.

“I thought both goalies were phenomenal today. Liv (Reinhart) is always tough back there and she made some really athletic saves, and their goalie was really good and turned us away a couple times,” said Northwestern head coach Jordan Smith. “They both deserve credit because they’re at the top of their game.”

Northwestern’s defense hasn’t allowed many goals over the past three seasons, but suffered a pair of key losses due to graduation. Seniors Olivia Spatz and Syenna Flores are the anchors of the defense, and Flores was happy with how the younger players fit in.

“We communicated really well today, and I thought we played really well together,” said Flores. “We have a couple new players rotating in, and they all worked really hard.”

Northwestern (2-0) controlled the play early in the game and had a couple of opportunities that either went wide of the goal or were stopped by Moran.

Slowly, Central Columbia gained more momentum as it went on the attack primarily coming at Reinhart from the right side of the field, but it found the same issues the Tigers found at the other end as the Northwestern defense halted plays before they became shots, or Reinhart would step up to make a save.

With the game scoreless at halftime, the play early on in the second half remained balanced until the midway point when Northwestern started to get more pressure on its attack. Paige Bissell put a shot on goal that Moran was able to make a diving stop on to turn away the Tigers.

As time slipped under the 10-minute mark, it was Central Columbia (1-1) with the momentum. With 6:30 left in regulation, freshman Quinlan Blake headed a ball toward the near corner that Reinhart stopped. The Jays’ Haley Bull put a shot off the crossbar, and Joey Devlin fired an open look over the net.

As the game went under the five-minute mark, Northwestern took over control and Schaffer put a shot off the crossbar. With 54 seconds remaining, Brook Balliet was turned away by another athletic save by Moran.

The Tigers came right back on offense, and a pair of sophomores were able to get the game’s only goal as Kherington Yezik passed to Schaffer, who outran a defender to get a look at the goal and put a shot over Moran’s right shoulder.

“Kherington made a great pass and when I got past the defender, I thought I had a bit of an opening. With the time running down, I just took the shot,” said Schaffer. “She (Moran) was stopping a lot of shots, so I just tried to put the shot on goal and hoped I could get it past her.”

FAST START … The Tigers started the season with two wins, having beaten Fleetwood 3-1 on Friday, before downing Central Columbia. The Tigers close out a three-games-in-four-days stretch Monday when they host Blue Mountain at Tiger Stadium. Their first Colonial League game comes Wednesday when they play at Palmerton.

Central Columbia 0 0 - 0

Northwestern 0 1 - 1

Goals: CC - None; Northwestern - Schaffer.