ALLENTOWN - An early lead is always a good thing, but for Northern Lehigh, that lead unfortunately slipped away.

After a battle with Moravian Academy on Tuesday, the Bulldogs fell 3-1 in the quarterfinal round of the Colonial League playoffs.

The game was played at Salisbury High School, with Moravian Academy the No. 4 seed in the playoffs, while Northern Lehigh entered as the tournament’s fifth seed.

Freshman Katie Barthold was quick to put Northern Lehigh (12-7-1) on top when she scored a goal just over two minutes into the game to take a 1-0 lead.

The advantage, however, was not going to last for long as Moravian Academy (11-4-1) looked to tie the game quickly. Lauren Reid worked her way into position from 30-feet out. As goalkeeper Dakotah Barthold looked to find a better angle to defend the goal, Reid launched a shot over Barthold’s head that took one bounce and went into the net to tie the game.

From there, the two teams battled back-and-forth looking to gain any sort of advantage. Just as one team would mount an attack, the other would respond and regain momentum.

Both teams had some opportunities, but put shots wide of the net or over the crossbar. Both goalies also made athletic stops to frustrate the opposing offense.

“We knew that if we showed up and played tonight, we would have a chance, and getting that early goal was awesome,” said Bulldogs coach Jason Reinhard. “We knew we could get to them, and we knew we could score.”

The teams went into halftime knotted at one, and both (teams) came out playing hard and looking to gain an advantage.

Sophomore forward Victoria Hanna charged to make a play in the midfield while a Moravian player went full speed after the same ball, with the two ending up in a violent collision. Both players were able to get up and continue playing, but a couple minutes later, Hanna was unable to continue and was helped off the field.

“We were already down a starter, and then when she [Hanna] had to come off, that left us really short,” said Reinhard. “We played them much better tonight than we did during the regular season, and I would love to see what our girls would be able to do if we were at full strength.”

Isabelle Tran put Moravian Academy up 2-1 and eight minutes later, Chloe Oudin engineered a nice play off a corner to give the Lions a 3-1 edge. Oudin put the ball into play and called for it to come right back to her. While she had very little of an angle to work with, she was able to put a shot just inside the far post for the final goal of the night.

“I can’t fault how our girls played tonight at all,” Reinhard said. “We’re a very young team, and we were going up against a good, experienced team and we played hard. That bodes well for our future, and I’m proud of our girls. We’ll look to regroup and get back on the field for districts.”

BRACKETOLOGY ... Moravian Academy moves on to the semifinals where it will play top-seeded Northwestern Lehigh (15-1-1) Thursday night, ironically at Northern Lehigh’s field. The Lions and Tigers will play to meet the winner of the other semifinal game between No. 2 Southern Lehigh and No. 3 Palmerton.

DÉJÀ VU ... With the Moravian girls beating Northern Lehigh, and the Northwestern boys beating Palisades to advance to the semifinals, the wins set up a Northwestern Lehigh/Moravian Academy playoff doubleheader. The two schools will meet each other in both the boys and girls semifinal games Thursday.