Opponents of the Northwestern Tigers (22-0-0) can’t wait for Jake van Lierop to graduate next spring.

The senior continues to simply slice and dice his way through defenses as he continues to build on his school record for goals in a season. After adding three more goals Wednesday night in the District 11 quarterfinals against Palisades, van Lierop stands at 61 goals and counting for the season as Northwestern downed the Pirates 6-0 to move closer to its goal of a district championship.

Van Lierop is always quick to mention the other players on the team who contribute to his success, and for good reason. Caelan Stangil showed off some of the passing skills that have contributed to van Lierop’s record-setting season when he centered a pass from the left side of the field and van Lierop never had to break stride, as he fired a shot into the goal for a 1-0 lead just 2:24 into the game.

A little later in the half, van Lierop was the one doing the feeding as he got a pass to Logan Mesics about 10 yards in front of the goal and Mesics played the ball into the back of the net. The junior now has three goals and six assists in four postseason games this season, to go along with 14 goals and 13 assists overall.

Even with Palisades (9-9-1) focusing on shutting down van Lierop, he added an unassisted goal with 26:39 left in the first half, and then scored on a penalty kick after being taken down in the penalty box.

“In the final game I had a penalty kick, and, in an interview, I said that I always go to my right on PKs. This time, I figured I better go left just in case he saw that,” said van Lierop. “I didn’t connect with it the way I wanted to but it had enough on it to get in. That’s something I have to work on.”

With Northwestern up 4-0 coming out of halftime, Mesics would add two more assists. The first came with 37:22 left in regulation when he found Stangil in front of the net with the goalie out of position for an easy goal. On the second he put a pass in front of the goal and van Lierop had to go up in the air and play it with his left foot, but was able to score for the third time in the game to close out the scoring with a 6-0 Northwestern win.

“We’ve got our morale really high right now and we are clicking on both offense and defense. We’re not conceding a lot, and we’re scoring a bunch, so everything just kind of mixes together,” said Mesics. “I think that all of us are peeking at the right time. We had a little bit of shaky stuff early in the season, but we’re definitely on the up right now.”

Palisades’ Blake Oglialoro picked up two yellow cards in the second half and was ejected from the game after the second card. One of the hits came on van Lierop, and the other came on Stangil who was waiting to play a ball and was hit from behind by Oglialoro. Evan Leister had received a yellow card earlier in the game for a hit on van Lierop as well.

TIGERS AND LIONS AGAIN… After beating Moravian Academy during the regular season, Northwestern beat the Lions (14-7-0) to win the Colonial League championship last Saturday at Catasauqua’s Alumni Field. With the Tigers beating Palisades and Moravian Academy coming from behind to beat Pine Grove on a penalty kick in overtime, the Tigers and Lions meet again in the district semifinal game which will be played Tuesday at a site and time to be announced.

“It’s tough to beat a team three times in one season, but that’s just the way it turned out,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “We just have to play a strong game and stay focused.”