The Northwestern Lehigh field hockey players missed out on trick-or-treating Friday because they were busy. Before watching their classmates compete in the boys and girls soccer championship games, they had their own title game to play — the first game of a District 11 tripleheader at Palmerton High School.
Tigers coach Lissa Opolsky allowed the players to wear costumes during warmups.
They role-played as their regular selves during the game, scoring in each quarter on the way to a 6-1 win over Wilson for Northwestern’s fourth straight District 11 Class A title and Opolsky’s sixth in a row.
Northwestern (18-5-1), winner of eight straight and two tournaments — including the Colonial League championship two weeks ago — will enter the PIAA Class A tournament as the District 11 champion.
Wilson (12-7-1) will make its second state appearance as District 11’s No. 2 seed.
The game was originally scheduled for Thursday at Whitehall, meaning Northwestern was supposed to have practice Friday.
“Coach [Opolsky] made that call,” said Northwestern senior forward Taylor Langley, who scored two goals. “We were supposed to dress up at practice. To kind of relieve the nerves, she let us have a little fun.”
You know what else relieves nerves? Goals.
Hannah Gober scored the first of her two goals to make it 1-0 in the first quarter. Langley’s first goal put Northwestern up 2-0 in the second, but Carli Apgar scored before halftime to trim the Tigers’ lead to 2-1.
Langley pushed the lead back to two goals at 3-1 in the third quarter, and in the fourth, Northwestern finally found its rhythm. Amelia Birch, Gober and McKensey Miller each scored to stretch the lead to 6-1.
The final score should not have been surprising. Northwestern defeated Wilson 4-1 in the regular season and 5-1 in the Colonial League quarterfinals.
Langley credited the second-half surge to a refocusing at halftime.
“We were able to take a step back at the half and realize what we were doing was not working,” she said. “We went with that and changed what we were doing to get our intensity up and get the ball in the back of the cage.”
“We played offense most of the game; we just did not put the ball in the back of the net,” Opolsky said. “They had almost their whole team in the circle. It was hard to break through. Eventually, we were able to get them moving a little bit and capitalizing.”
Wilson coach Emily Lesoine, in her second season as head coach, still has at least one more game to coach this season, thanks to the Warriors being the No. 2 seed.
“We are not done yet,” she said. “We are preparing more for next week, but we do not know what to anticipate. We know what to anticipate inside our league, but outside of it, we have no idea.”
Wilson 0 0 1 0 — 1
Northwestern 1 1 1 3 — 6
Wilson goal: Carli Apgar. Shots: 3. Penalty corners: 3. Saves: Avery Gaudet 3.
Northwestern goals: Hannah Gober 2, Taylor Langley 2, Amelia Birch, McKensey Miller. Shots: 9. Penalty corners: 10. Saves: Ryan Smolinsky 2.
Tim Shoemaker is a freelance writer.
