Moravian Academy controlled the game early against Northwestern in the Class A field hockey semifinals, but Northwestern regrouped and got back into the game. However, the top-seeded Lions were too much for the Tigers, as Moravian moved on to the finals with a 6-1 win over Northwestern.

Northwestern gave up five quick corners, but kept Moravian Academy from capitalizing on them. Many of Northwestern’s early passes seemed to be picked off by opposing players early in the game, as they struggled to keep the ball away from the front of their net.

Just over 10 minutes into the game, Moravian Academy’s Mayv Clune hit with the first of her three goals.

“It just takes a little bit of time sometimes to get things turned around. After that though, we made it a little bit better game to watch,” said Liz Ache, who is the acting coach of the team, with head coach Lissa Opolsky out on maternity leave.

Before the first half of the game was over, Ashley Pearce scored twice for Moravian to give the Lions a commanding 3-0 halftime lead.

Northwestern (9-8-2) stepped up its play in the second half, but had a tough time breaking through for any goals. Moravian Academy stretched its lead to 5-0 on goals by Clune and Darby de Castro. With just over six minutes to play, Northwestern’s Danielle Schmidt broke free and fired a shot into the goal cage to cut Northwestern’s deficit to 5-1.

“This team really has an amazing attitude, even when it looks like they’re a little bit disorganized,” said Ache. “They have a way of pulling together. They like to set little goals for themselves, which is what gets them going again and it usually works.”

Clune would strike with her third and final goal with just 11 seconds left to play to seal the game at 6-1 for Moravian Academy (20-1).

Moravian Academy will now play Lehighton for the District 11 Class A Championship on Wednesday night. Lehighton beat Pen Argyl 3-2 in overtime in the other semifinal game.

The Tigers’ season ends after making great strides over the past two season.

When this year’s Northwestern seniors were freshmen, they finished with a 5-11 record before falling to 3-13 as sophomores. Last season, they moved to 8-7-1, but were ousted in the first round of districts before coming back this season and reaching the District 11 semifinals.

“This team has come a really long way in just the past couple of years. Five years ago, they didn’t have a win and now they were in the semifinals in districts,” said Ache. “Last year, they hadn’t beaten Northern Lehigh in a while and now, we have that under our belt twice this season. There are a lot of definite improvements as a whole.

“It’s baby steps. You don’t become a district winning, title holding team overnight, it takes a lot of time and a lot of working together.”

Tigers beat Bulldogs in first round

Northwestern’s Allison Costa took advantage of her opportunity with just a few minutes left in the first overtime session in the District 11 Class 1A field hockey quarterfinals against Northern Lehigh last Wednesday.

Costa received a short horizontal flick into the box and knocked home the game winner in sudden-death overtime for the Tigers after a sporadic sequence in the box. The Tigers topped the Bulldogs, 1-0.

“It’s relieving, it was very stressful,” said Costa. “It’s really great to get a win like this over Northern Lehigh. I love this team, we’re all really close and we communicate well.”

Northwestern was the aggressor in the first half, but Northern Lehigh kicked it up a notch after intermission. The Bulldogs outshot the Tigers by an 8-1 margin in the second half.

But Tigers’ goalie Taylor Page was equally impressive as her counterpart, making kick-save after kick-save and playing all of the angles appropriately, making it impossible for NL to cash in despite the plethora of chances.

“Taylor is an excellent goalie,” said Ache. “She’s very aggressive and she did an excellent job. I was just really thankful that the girls were able to pull it together. They utilized all the skills that we’ve been working on all season and we were able to come out with the win.”