CATASAUQUA - Jim Thorpe’s boys soccer team might have entered the District 11 Class 3A final as an underdog.

But the Olympians were undaunted.

And on Wednesday, they were undeniable.

Jim Thorpe was unflappable against Southern Lehigh, rallying for a 5-4 overtime victory against Southern Lehigh to claim the program’s first district title.

The Olympians continued a spectacular postseason run with a sensational performance against the Spartans, one that ended with a game-winning goal from senior Ehren Hassler in extra time.

“It’s absolutely huge,” said Hassler, who secured a hat trick with his winning score. “We’ve been working our butt off all season. We hit kind of a slump (at one point). When we hit districts we were the fourth seed, which was kind of not great. And then we beat (top seed) Blue Mountain, and our tide changed.

“We came into this game thinking it’s going to be rough but we’re going to win. And there it was. It was rough, but we won.”

It was whatever Jim Thorpe (13-9) needed it to be to get the job done. The fourth-seeded Olympians were unselfish and unwavering in their effort.

After Southern Lehigh (16-4-2) took a 3-1 lead just past the midway point of the first half, it was Hassler who answered with a pair of goals about 30 seconds apart, the second coming with 15:24 to play in the first half to tie the game at 3-3.

“We’re not the most technically sound team at all times, but one thing you can bet on is that we’re going to play with our whole heart and we’re going to give it all we got,” said Hassler. “We’ve been put in that position where we’re up 3-1 and teams come back against us. So we know it’s possible, we just had to convert.”

The second-seeded Spartans appeared to seize momentum early in the second half when senior Matthew O’Neill scored just under six minutes in to make it 4-3. O’Neill nearly converted a shot a few minutes early.

Each team had chances throughout the second half, with Jim Thorpe coming up with two scoring opportunities off a free kick with around 16:00 to play that found the post to keep the score 4-3.

Southern Lehigh turned up the pressure in the final 10 minutes, but the Olympians’ defense and goalie Liam Off, the Times News/Lehigh Valley Health Network Athlete of the Week, were able to fend off the attacks to keep it a one-goal game.

With 4:44 left in regulation, senior Noah Geiser delivered his second goal of the game for Jim Thorpe, this one a rocket that tied the score at 4-4.

“I absolutely love these guys. A lot of the seniors, we’ve been playing together since freshman year, and we’ve kind of known that our senior year was going to be big for us,” said Geiser. “And we just had to make it happen.”

And they did.

The Spartans pushed for a few more chances in the final minutes of regulation, but again the Jim Thorpe defense and Off were solid to keep it tied.

Southern Lehigh pressured early in overtime, getting a free kick and a corner in the first few minutes, but the Olympians turned it around, generating a free kick and eventually a corner of their own with 2:30 left.

Then it was Geiser, who delivered a perfectly executed throw-in that Hassler finished for the game-winner with 1:10 left on the clock to send the Jim Thorpe side into a frenzy.

“We were actually drilling it in practice yesterday,” Hassler said of the play. “It’s a set piece that we drilled a bunch. In all the drills we did it did not pop loose and I didn’t have a volley. So that was completely new to me. I jumped up and I kicked the ball as hard as I could ... and it hit the back of the net. I just cried. I teared up. It was crazy.”

Maybe there isn’t anything crazy about this championship run for the Olympians. Maybe this is just a blue collar team that doesn’t know how to quit.

“I think this is my ninth year, and we’ve been in districts every year, all nine years. The year we won our Schuylkill League championship (2019) we just had a tough matchup (in districts) so we made it to semis and never made it to the big dance,” said Jim Thorpe head coach Michael Dudak. “But this year, our record doesn’t show it, but this team played real gritty soccer games. And we started out unhealthy, and ended up healthy and had momentum on our side. This is a huge win for us. It’s never happened at Jim Thorpe before. These kids deserve it.”

STARTING STRONG ... Geiser opened the scoring in the first half for the Olympians, firing a shot into the back of the net to make it 1-0 within the first five minutes.

ON A ROLL ... Jim Thorpe opened the district tournament with a dominant 4-1 win over No. 5 seed Bangor on Oct. 21, and followed that with a 3-1 victory over top seed and Schuylkill League champion Blue Mountain on Oct. 23.

BOUNCING BACK ... The Olympians, in their first year of competition in the Colonial League, faced Southern Lehigh once during the regular season, falling 3-1 on Oct. 3. “This team does not hang its head. In our loss to them earlier this season, our one goal was in the last minute-and-a-half of the game, and we were still fighting,” said Dudak. “That’s how this team is. You can’t ask for more than that.”

MOVING ON ... Jim Thorpe will move into the state tournament and face the District 3 runner-up on Tuesday, Nov. 5 in the first round.

SPARTAN SCORES ... Southern Lehigh got three first-half goals after Geiser’s score from Trent Phillips, Tyler Kuchinski and Ismael Magallanes to make it 3-1.