ALLENTOWN - Northwestern Lehigh took another step toward a District 11 championship Tuesday night when it beat Blue Mountain 2-0 in the Class 3A girls soccer semifinals at Parkland High School.

The Colonial League champions now move into the finals for a meeting with Pottsville, who downed Southern Lehigh in the other district semifinal game.

Early on, Northwestern controlled the play, and it looked like it might have an early goal when Kaitlyn Browning came down the middle of the field on a breakaway and put a shot on goal that was stopped by goalkeeper Alex Warke.

The near miss ignited Blue Mountain (13-9), who started to control possession and unleashed a couple of shots on goal with one sailing over the crossbar and the other being stopped by goalie Naomi Glassberg.

Just over the midway point of the first half, Northwestern was awarded a free kick and Sophia Motolese delivered a beautiful ball to Browning, who was able to put a shot past Warke to give the first goal to the Tigers. Both teams showed their defensive skills for the rest of the half, and they went into halftime with Northwestern up 1-0.

“In the first half, we were just creating chaos for ourselves, and I told the girls at halftime that chaos creates mistakes and confusion, and we can’t play that way,” said Tigers head coach Jordan Smith. “We were breaking ourselves down before they were breaking us down. At halftime, I got them together and we were able to talk about some things. We came out and played an excellent second half after that.”

The intensity for both teams picked up in the final 40 minutes, and play became more physical as neither team backed down. A collision turned into a minor skirmish in the midfield when Northwestern’s Kate Edgar and Blue Mountain’s Lexi Phillips ran into each other looking to make a play. To stop anything before it could get started, both players were given yellow cards. They had only been back on the field a few minutes when Sophia Motolese was given a yellow card as well.

In the 25th-minute of the second half, Quinn Conrey was positioned perfectly to play a deflection from Brook Balliet to give Northwestern (18-1-1) its second goal and a 2-0 edge.

“I saw Sammy [Samantha Bardonner] was taking the cross and it came over and Brook headed the ball. At that point, I was coming toward the post, and I just focused on getting a good touch on the ball,” said Conrey of the goal that she placed just inside the far post.

With a defense as good as Northwestern’s, Hunsicker was able to shuttle players in and out to keep fresh legs on the field. The plan nearly produced a third goal when Bardonner took a corner kick that Warke tipped up that ran along the crossbar, but fell into an open space and was cleared by the Eagles.

“We were a little worried about how we played, particularly in the first 20 minutes or so, but after that, we started to click and everyone was picking it up and we had the adrenaline pumping,” said Conrey of the team’s play.

THE BEST OF THE BEST ... The finals will have the top two seeds with Northwestern, the top seed, facing second-seeded Pottsville in a rematch of last year’s district finals. Only the District 11 champion advances to states this season, so the Tigers will hope for the same result as last year when they beat the Crimson Tide 4-2.

PICK YOUR POISON ... As for an opponent in the finals, Northwestern was going to face either Pottsville or Southern Lehigh. While they are more familiar with Southern Lehigh - they downed the Spartans twice this season, beating them 2-0 early in the regular season and then in the Colonial League finals - Smith noted how difficult it is to beat a team three times in one season. Instead, they will face a team that they are less familiar with in Pottsville, who will be coming in looking for some revenge for last year’s loss in the finals.