WHITEHALL ­— Last season, Zach Creighton’s name was on the Northwestern varsity roster, but he didn’t see a whole lot of time on the field.

This year, the Northwestern junior was an everyday starter for the Tigers at center midfielder. But never did he play a more important role for the team than in Thursday’s district title game.

Creighton’s goal with a minute left in the second overtime gave the Tigers a 2-1 win over Allentown Central Catholic and their third straight District 11 Class 3A title.

“I just got the ball from Sam [Seyfried] in some space, turned around and hit and from there I knew it was in,” said Creighton of his shot from about 35 yards out. “It feels great. It’s definitely awesome for the team getting our third in a row, especially for the seniors.”

Northwestern faced just its second deficit of the season when the Vikings’ Fancois D’Elia got behind the Tiger defense on the left side of the goal and slid a shot past keeper Taylor Wanamaker for a 1-0 lead with 14:28 left in the first half.

While playing from behind is not something the Tigers (22-0) have done a lot of this season, they stuck to the game plan and eventually got the equalizer.

“We knew we had to score at least a goal anyway,” said Northwestern head coach Nate Hunsicker. “We figured we’d be able to get one or two. We stayed cool, calm and collected. We didn’t panic. We knew it was coming. It was just a matter of time.”

That time came with 2:21 left in the first half on a corner. Senior Andrew Goodolf inserted the corner kick perfectly toward the goal where Creighton was shielding Central keeper Ted Zeller, who tried to bat the ball away. It caromed off Zeller and into the net.

“I was in front of the goalie,” said Creighton. “Goodolf played a great curl ball in. The goalie went to punch it out and he ended up punching it into his own goal.”

The teams went back-and-forth in the second half, but neither could find the go-ahead goal until a minute before the game would have gone to penalty kicks.

“We knew it was going to be a fist fight from the beginning,” said Central Catholic head coach Peter Car, whose team finished the season at 13-9. “We battled. We had some good chances, we had some good shots there in the second half and in overtime. Give credit to their goalie. He made a lot of great plays.

“It’s a tough way to lose, again. You have to give Northwestern credit. They made more plays.”

It was the second time in two seasons the teams met for the district title, and third time in three years they met in the district playoffs. The Tigers won last year’s final on a goal late in regulation, and then went on to reach the state title game.

Northwestern graduated seven seniors from last year’s state finalist, but the team proved this year that it’s one that reloads rather than rebuilds.

“As soon as the end of the season came around last year, we knew we were going to lose seven starters,” said Creighton. “We had a really deep squad last year. All of the seven players that stepped in, we knew there were big shoes to fill. We worked really hard in the offseason.”

DOWN THE NUMBER LINE … The Tigers outshot Central Catholic 12-8 in the game. Wanamaker made seven saves. Northwestern had four corner kicks in the game, while the Vikings had five.

ROAD TO CHOCOLATETOWN … The Tigers will open state tournament play Tuesday against District 4 champ Mifflinburg, which beat Athens 1-0 Wednesday for the district title. A site and time has not yet been announced.