The Northwestern boys lacrosse team wrapped up the first half of its regular season schedule Tuesday with a 14-5 loss to Parkland.

Defense has been a big story all season for Parkland. Opponents average just over seven goals per game against them while the Trojans offense averages over 11 goals per game. That was the story in the meeting of the two teams as Northwestern struggled to get clear looks at the goal and when it did, wasn’t able to get a high percentage of its shots past goalie Owen Fehnel.

The Northwestern defense played well against Parkland. The Trojans got six first-quarter goals in the game as the Tigers fell behind 6-1.

“Our defense got better as the game went on,” said Northwestern head coach Chris Corpora. “But Parkland came out very aggressively and got us down early, which hurt,” said Corpora. “They’re a good team and it’s tough to come back against them.”

Whenever a team holds the combination of Tyler Kaas and Kendall Wikert to one goal, they’ve done something right. Even holding the duo to 13 total shots is an accomplishment and Parkland was able to do both of those things. Wikert scored a goal on six shots while Kaas was limited to just seven shots and was unable to score in the game. Brayden Uricchio found himself limited to just three shots but was able to get two past Fehnel for Northwestern.

“We didn’t have a lot of real opportunities to get high-leverage shots in the game,” said Corpora. “We had some good looks, but not enough to make an impact, plus their guy [Fehnel] played really well for them.”

The second quarter was much more competitive although Parkland still extended their lead to 9-3 going into halftime.

Halftime gave Parkland the opportunity to make a couple small adjustments and they stayed aggressive even with a solid lead. The second half played out much like the first, as the Trojans moved up to 8-4 this season while the Tigers are now at 5-4.

In addition to Wikert and Uricchio’s goals, Northwestern got a goal from Grayson Christman in the game. The sophomore has become a key part of the Northwestern attacking scheme. He scored three goals recently in a 12-6 win against Saucon Valley. Kaas totaled four goals in the win with Wikert and Uricchio both getting two and Trey Snyder notching a goal for the Tigers.

Kauker also had a big game in goal against the Panthers when he turned in a 13 save performance, including stopping five shots on goal in the final quarter of the game.

Northwestern has averaged 10.4 goals per game and has allowed 8.7 goals per game, which doesn’t leave much of a margin of error for the Tigers. The strength of the Tigers’ schedule is stronger in their last nine games than it has been to open the season.

The Tigers still have undefeated Easton (10-0), the only District 11 team without a loss this season, on their schedule. There are also two games against Moravian Academy (7-2) that have to be played. The combined record of their first half opponents is 44-49, a .473 winning percentage.

The second half of the schedule has teams with a combined .610 (47-30) winning percentage. The Tigers are currently third in the district standings, ½ game behind Central Catholic in the 2A classification. They trail Moravian Academy, the top team in 2A, by two games.