WHITEHALL - The number three stood prominent for Lehighton coming into its District 11 Class 1A field hockey title game with Northwestern Lehigh on Wednesday.

After all, it was the Indians third straight trip to the finals, and they were on their third goalie of the season — who isn’t really a goalie.

Somehow, it all came together for Lehighton as it downed the Tigers 2-0 to win its first district championship since 2010.

The two teams played to a scoreless tie through the first half, although Lehighton dominated most of the action.

The Indians then had a pair of goals waved off in the second half — one with 26:00 left and another with 9:20 left. But on the second one, Lehighton got an opportunity to get it right back when a penalty was called on Northwestern. Aleah Nothstein took the penalty stroke and didn’t miss the opportunity, sending it past goalie Alena Smargiassi and giving Lehighton a 1-0 advantage.

“We really needed that opportunity,” said Nothstein. “It was frustrating (at first), but then we realized there was a penalty and we were getting the stroke, and it was the opportunity we needed.”

With just 2:32 left in the game, Mackenzie Hoats intercepted a pass and made a quick move toward the goal and just to the right of the goal. Hoats then put a shot into the right front corner of the goal to put away the victory for Lehighton.

Northwestern struggled to get momentum throughout the game. As it turned out, coach Lissa Opolsky was having trouble keeping her team on the same page throughout the game, which led to some of the issues.

“We didn’t follow our game plan, so with us hitting the ball and staying on our left side of the field, we fed into their game plan and counteracted our own strength” admitted Opolsky. “Every timeout we took, we talked about following the game plan ,and every time we went out there, we went against the game plan, so I don’t know if we were ever mentally in it from the start. Their effort was there, it just wasn’t a smart effort.”

In each of the last two finals, Lehighton wound up with silver around their necks after losses to Moravian Academy. This season, the gold felt much better and was used by coach Vanessa Rimbey as a motivation.

“Before we got here, I had them envisioning putting the blue around their necks and really preparing for it and I am so proud of them,” said Rimbey.

The Indians also had to overcome the fact that they lost both of their top goalies to injuries. Angelina Romito was injured in a car accident about three weeks ago and freshman Shelby Heater suffered a knee injury warming up before a game late in the season. When Rimbey looked around, she saw Ashley Wojton willing to jump into the goalie pads. While she wasn’t particularly challenged against Northwestern, Wojton has played well in goal and the team has confidence in her abilities as they head to states.

GOOD CALLS

... Northwestern received two yellow cards in the game, one for not giving five yards and the other for a push. Opolsky said both calls were legitimate, although she doubted that the push was intentional, but noted that it was still deserving of a card.

THE ROAD BACK TO WHITEHALL

... The PIAA championship — like last night’s District 11 championship — will be played at Whitehall High School. Both the Indians and Tigers will move on to the state playoffs with a goal of eventually returning to Whitehall. The Indians will open the state tournament against the District 3 fifth-place team at a site in District 11. The Tigers will play the District 1 champion at a site in District 1. Both games will be Tuesday.