The New Tripoli Bank FC soccer team, comprised of players from Northwestern Lehigh High School, played in the Lehigh Valley Summer Soccer League and came home with a third straight league championship.

The tournament gave Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker some important information about his team and its opponents but doesn’t count as an exact barometer going into the high school season that begins later this month.

“It’s a moderate gauge,” said Hunsicker, whose team is coming off an undefeated season that led to a state championship last fall. “But it’s difficult because some players are on vacation or have other things to do over the summer, so you never quite have a full roster of players. It does help you though to start working on chemistry and get an idea of how you might be able to fill some holes from graduation.”

As for the Tigers summer opponents, Palisades was the only team to defeat NT Bank FC during its 9-1 regular season this summer. The two teams met in the finals with Northwestern downing the Pirates 1-0 to complete the three-peat.

The tournament gave Hunsicker a look of some young players who might provide some help during the upcoming season and an early look at how some players from last year’s team have developed their skills since the end of last season.

“Egan Boyle didn’t get a lot of playing time for us last season and he is one of the guys who really played well for us this summer,” said Hunsicker. “We also have the opportunity to sometimes move some guys around into other roles and we did that with Caelan Stangl, and he played well both as an attacker and on defense, so that’s something for us to think about.”

Boyle and Stangl could both help to fill spots on the defense where Hunsicker is concerned about having a bit of a void this fall.

In addition to the fluctuating roster because of summer activities, the team also has a couple of injuries that could linger into the early part of the season, so it helped the coaching staff to find players who can cover those roles.

“Yeah, we have a couple of guys who are hurt,” Hunsicker said. “I think one of them should be back and ready to go for the season, but the other one probably won’t be back until very early in the schedule. It’s all part of coaching and now we can come back with a game plan to put in place until those guys are healthy.”

The fall practice officially begins Aug. 11 with the season getting underway on August 22.