The Northampton girls soccer team’s reign as district champions came to an end in the district playoffs at Andrew S Leh stadium as they were knocked out in the quarterfinals 3-0 by Nazareth, recently.

The Blue Eagles came into the game as the second seed boasting a 19-1-1 record with their only loss coming against Parkland in the EPC title game. Nazareth had ousted the K-Kids from the EPC tournament a week earlier by the same score.

It looked like Northampton might be able to taking an encouraging 0-0 tie into halftime. However, Madison Jankowski struck a perfect cross to Katie Deaner who buried the ball into the net 1:15 before the horn sounded.

The timing of the goal sent the Kids into the half on a down note and Nazareth never let them gain momentum. Ashley Baltz cleaned up a rebound just 1:58 into the second half to double the Blue Eagles’ lead.

Maddie Ott notched the final tally with 23:48 left in the game.

Northampton was never able to generate any sustained offensive pressure. Brielle Szoke, the Kids’ lone EPC All-Star, forced the Nazareth keeper to make a tough, sliding save at the 32:43 mark of the first half. That was their only shot on goal until they were awarded late free kick in the Nazareth half, already down 3-0.

Northampton had struggled offensively down the stretch following a season-ending injury to dynamic forward Alayna Hahn on September 30.

“In the first half I actually thought that we had a little bit better of them. Just a little bit. And then that goal. Oof. That goal was really nice, opportunistic and you have to give them credit for capitalizing on that. And I think we responded not as well as we could have,” lamented head coach Trajano Bastidas.

Bastidas gave his final thoughts on his first season at the helm of the Northampton program.

“They’re a wonderful group of girls,” he said. “Just very proud of them. One of my favorite parts was watching them learn, watching them grow as players and as people. You can see the emotion here how close they’ve grown. It’s been an honor and a privilege to coach them.”

Nazareth would get revenge in the District 11 title game with a 1-0 win over Parkland.