For the third straight season, the Northwestern field hockey team is going to states. For the second straight season it was a 2-1 overtime win over Moravian Academy that wrapped up the District 11 championship for the Tigers.

This year’s overtime didn’t have to go long with the Northwestern offense using just 36 seconds to end the game.

Throughout the game, the two sides took turns seizing momentum. Northwestern controlled play, especially early in the game, but couldn’t put together a consistent offensive attack. One minute into the second quarter, the Tigers put a shot on goal that goalie Rosie John deflected in front of the goal where defender Paige Bush was in perfect position to clear the ball and keep the game scoreless. Two minutes later, Northwestern had a goal waved off by a high-stick call to again thwart the offensive momentum.

Once the Lady Tigers did find some consistency, they also found a 1-0 lead when Brinley Rex made a nice move in front of the goal and slid a shot past John, putting Northwestern up 1-0 early in the second quarter.

“Throughout the game, Moravian did a really good job of playing to our weaknesses and their strengths. It made for a really good game,” said Northwestern coach Lissa Opolsky.

Moravian Academy opened the third quarter with a renewed offensive effort and put pressure on goalkeeper Maxine Hoffman and the Northwestern defense, which responded and kept the Lady Lions from knotting the game.

With the benefit of repeated corners for Moravian Academy in the second half, the Lady Lions found an opening. With 5:10 left in the third quarter, Phoebe Shane threaded a pass to Nikki Chiaradia, who launched a shot from directly in front of the goal. Chiaradia’s shot barely evaded both Hoffman and defender Karleigh Hobel as the ball rolled through the mouth of the cage to tie the game.

The two teams took turns controlling the play through the final 15 minutes of regulation. Both had opportunities that fell short as defensive plays ruled the day. Moravian Academy kept pressure on Hoffman and the Tigers defense and were awarded eight corners in the second half, but the Tigers repeatedly fought off the Moravian advantages.

Northwestern came out for the seven-on-seven overtime period and immediately moved down the field.

Greenleigh McGehee passed to Tess Ledeboer, who didn’t have a good opening for a shot and fed the ball right back to McGehee. The Moravian defense assumed there was a whistle coming to stop play and froze for just a split second. McGehee used that quick moment to get the ball off her stick and put it into the back of the goal for the game-winner.

“I saw the perfect opportunity to go into the stroke and Tess played a beautiful ball to me for me to tip in,” said McGehee of the play. “It just felt great. We really wanted to come out strong in overtime and get a quick goal. We wanted to go on the attack and try to end it quickly and not give them a chance to put together any momentum.”

Northwestern returns to play Saturday when it faces District 4 champion Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals of the state tournament. With various teams across the area having to drop out of district play because of the rise of coronavirus cases, there is some concern about whether the state tournament will be able to be completed.

“We’re just going to take it one day at a time,” said Opolsky. “We don’t know what’s going to happen, so we’ll just keep preparing and be ready to play. It’s better to just keep our focus on what we can control and what we need to do.”