There haven’t been any more surprises for the Tigers as the boys soccer team goes about defending its league, district, and state championships.

The season opened with a big surprise when Pennsbury came into Tiger Stadium and beat Northwestern 4-3. Since then though the Tigers have put themselves right back on track with a pair of home wins in a nonleague game against Upper Perkiomen and then opened the Colonial League portion of the schedule with a win over Palmerton.

Starting goalie Dean Carl, who missed the opener because of an injury, was back on the job against Upper Perk and picked up not just the team’s first win, but its first shutout of the season. Northwestern beat the Indians 4-0 as the defense regrouped after giving up four goals in the opener.

The usual cast of characters were up front for Northwestern with junior Cole Mertz scoring two goals and seniors Logan Mesics and Caelan Stangil both getting one goal in the win.

Palmerton was at least able to get one goal against the Tigers, but the Blue Bombers couldn’t shut down the offense. The result was an 8-1 win for Northwestern.

Cole Mertz has emerged as the scoring threat for Northwestern and picked up four goals and an assist with Mesics adding two more goals to his resume. On the season, Mertz has seven goals and an assist while Mesics has five goals and two assists.

Younger players got into the scoring column with sophomore Logan Shurr and freshman Lyle Good both picking up the first varsity goals of their career. Seniors Egan Boyle and Isaiah Lynch assisted on goals.

The schedule has had Northwestern staying at home for the first four games of the season and for six of the first seven games. The Tigers’ only road game is their longest regular season trip when they travel to Kintnersville to face Palisades on Thursday.

The Pirates played Northwestern tough in the summer league where Northwestern won the championship with a 1-0 win over Palisades in the finals. Before the season, coach Nate Hunsicker mentioned Palisades as having the potential to be a tough Colonial League opponent. In their first two games, Palisades has beaten Quakertown 5-0 and downed Palmerton 6-2.

Notre Dame of Green Pond (2-1 overall, 1-1 Colonial) will challenge Northwestern at Tiger Stadium on Friday.