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Segan's four goals lifts Tigers to final

Sarah Segan has had a magical season for the Northwestern girls soccer team.

But Segan's magic isn't performed with a slight of hand; it's performed with a slight of foot.Tuesday in the Colonial League semifinals, Segan turned in another mesmerizing display of footwork.The Tigers' sophomore striker blitzed Bangor with four goals to lead Northwestern to a 6-0 victory at Northern Lehigh last night."What more can I say about Sarah," said Northwestern coach Kelly Bleam. "She is a very, talented soccer player … just an unbelievable goal scorer."But she is so much more than just that. Sarah is an outstanding team player and an outstanding young girl as well. She is a pleasure to coach."Segan, who has now scored 36 goals this season, wasted little time in pulling off her first trick of the night, making the zero disappear on Northwestern's side of the scoreboard just :20 into the game."Getting a goal that quickly was pretty amazing," said Segan. "It all happened so fast I'm not even positive how we did it. I think Ang (Motolese) got it to Sabrina (Mertz) who got the ball to me."We've been playing together for so long now that we know what the other person is going to do. They made some great passes to set me up."Less than five minutes later, Segan struck again after taking a nice feed from Rachel Fisher and driving it home."It's almost impossible when you give up two early goals like we did to a team as good as Northwestern," said Bangor coach Ken Wilson. "We knew coming in we had to play a nearly perfect game to have a chance and obviously we didn't do that."They are a really good team. They might be the best Colonial League team that I've seen in all my years of coaching. They are big, they are fast, and they move the ball around extremely well. I wouldn't be surprised if they won a state championship this season."The score was still 2-0 at halftime, but if the Slaters (13-6) had any hopes of a comeback, they quickly vanished after intermission.If the opening 10 minutes of the half, Segan assisted on a Motolese goal and scored two more herself to put Northwestern ahead 5-0."I was very pleased with our play tonight," said Bleam. "I always worry we score that early in a game that our team might get a little lackadaisical."But that never happened tonight. I have to credit our girls for continuing to work hard and for keeping the pressure on them."McKenzi Divers got the final goal for the Tigers, who finished with a dominating 24-3 advantage in shots.Northwestern (17-0) will face Saucon Valley in the league title game on Thursday at Salisbury beginning at 7 o'clock."We want to win the league championship so bad," said Segan. "We've been trying to focus on taking things one game at a time the entire season. But now that we've made it [to the final] we can finally focus on it."Last year, we lost in the championship game and now we have a chance to make up for that. I can't wait."

BOB FORD/TIMES NEWS Northwestern's Sabrina Mertz (14) goes over the top of Bangor's Maliah Livingston for a header during the Tigers 6-0 win in Tuesday night's Colonial League semifinal.