HAMBURG - Last year the Tigers were making history.

This year, they're just doing what they do.For the second straight season the Northwestern boys soccer team is headed to a PIAA semifinal game. The Tigers beat Daniel Boone 2-0 Saturday at Hamburg High School to advance to Tuesday's matchup with Gettysburg and come just two wins from a Class 3A state championship."It's special to get here again," said Tiger senior Dominic Mertz. "I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world."When you get closer and closer to the final, you start to realize what you're possibly going to accomplish with maybe winning it all. But making it to the semifinals last year will help us stay cool and collected this year."The Tigers stayed cool Saturday against the Trailblazers, who missed on some opportunities in the first half before Mertz and Sam Seyfried scored second-half goals to propel Northwestern (22-0-1) to the win.Mertz put his team in front with 33:44 left in the first half when he took a pass from Jonathan Blaine and lofted a shot over Blazers keeper Stephen Williams, who got a finger on it but not enough to deflect it away from the goal."We got a free kick and Jon hit a really nice long ball," said Mertz. "It just hit the perfect bounce over the defender and I was right there and it barely went over the keeper. He nipped it but it went in."Daniel Boone (14-9), the third-place team out of District 3, tried to climb back into the game but the Tiger defense and keeper Kyle Bellhorn were too strong. The senior stopped all nine Blazers shots and his team limited the opportunities for Jamie Burns, the No. 3 leading scorer in Berks County with 28 goals on the season."He's a great talent," said Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker. "He's hands down the best forward that we've seen all season long. We didn't want to give him an opportunity. We did a great job closing out and talking in the back and limiting his chances."Seyfried gave Northwestern some late breathing room when he scored with 4:12 left in the game, giving his team a two-goal cushion.Kenny Gawelko kept the ball inbounds and got it to Noah Seng-DeLong, who found Gawelko in front of the goal where he beat Williams, who tried to challenge."It was a really good counter attack opportunity," said Seyfried. "We switched the ball twice and he found my feet and just stuck it."I tried to be unexpected with where I was going to place the ball near post."While the first Northwestern goal might have lit a spark for the Blazers, the second Tiger goal extinguished Daniel Boone's hopes."Each team had quality chances, and should have, and could have, put one in the back of the net, but it's not always that easy," said Hunsicker. "Dominic made a heck of a play to flick that one past the keeper and put it in the back of the net. Sammy getting the second goal definitely sealed the deal for us. You could see their spirits definitely dropped after that."HISTORICAL GETTYSBURG …The Tigers will face District 3 runner up Gettysburg, a 2-1 (3-2) winner Saturday in penalty kicks against District 1 champ Radnor. Last year Northwestern made program history by beating Gettysburg in the quarterfinals and reaching the state semifinal for the first time.MORE LEBANON, PLEASE ...Sandwiched between last Saturday's quarterfinal and a potential trip to this weekend's state title game, the Tigers return to the site where they tasted victory in last year's state quarterfinal playoff as they'll face Gettysburg Tuesday at 7 p.m. at Cedar Crest High School in Lebanon. Northwestern beat the Warriors 2-0 last year before falling to eventual state champ Lewisburg in the semifinal.