BETHLEHEM - For Northwestern Lehigh, winning the District 11 boys lacrosse championship was a community event.

A large crowd turned out for the game, and it wasn’t just parents and students. A large contingent of players from the youth program were on hand, as were a number of former players.

Those in attendance saw the Tigers - in just the program’s fourth season of varsity lacrosse - beat Allentown Central Catholic 8-6 in the Class 2A title game on Thursday at Lehigh University.

“I remember telling those guys that were back here celebrating with us that they wouldn’t be here playing when we won our first championship, but I would never let the team forget the lessons and the hard work they put in,” said coach Marcus Janda. “They were living through this team tonight.”

The same two teams met for the championship last season - the first trip to districts for Northwestern - and the Vikings were the team to pick up the win and continuing their season.

Not coincidentally, it was Austin Sosnovik - the program’s all-time leader in goals and points and also school’s single-season leader in goals and points - who got the first goal with 9:12 left in the first half.

Then came the Vikings.

The rest of the quarter saw Central Catholic add three goals to take a 3-1 lead at the end of the first quarter.

Rather than seeing images of last season’s 13-3 loss to the Vikings in districts, there was a new script written. The Tigers would hold Central Catholic to just three goals the rest of the way with one in each remaining quarter. That gave a revamped offense the opportunity to put together a comeback.

The new offensive scheme put junior Devon Hildebrand in a better position to score goals and it worked, as Hildebrand picked up his 10th goal of the season just 16 seconds into the second quarter, before Blaine Snyder tied the game at 4-4 just 15 seconds later.

“That change worked well for us,” said Sosnovik. “We didn’t want to be the same team that we were when they saw us the first time, and we wanted to come out with new sets and catch them off guard, and I think we did a good job of that.”

Central Catholic got its goal, and the Tigers fired back with two of their own, the first from Sosnovik before Cade Christopher put them ahead 5-4 with 6:29 left.

The Vikings tied the game for the fourth time in the third quarter. But once again, Northwestern Lehigh grabbed the lead back when Christopher got his second goal of the game and 30th of the season to give Northwestern a 6-5 advantage.

Central Catholic won the faceoff to open the final quarter and found a quick score when Nick Pomajevich - who earlier scored the 100th goal of his career for the Vikes - got his second of the game and the game was again tied with 11:20 left to play.

A penalty called on Central’s Dane Kauker gave the Tigers a man advantage, and there was Sosnovik again to put Northwestern on top with just 6:53 left in regulation. Not to allow his big brother to have too much of the spotlight, junior Stone Sosnovik added his 23rd goal of the year to provide a little insurance for Northwestern Lehigh and move the score to 8-6 with 4:37 left in the game.

Much of the credit for the win goes to goalie Bailen Smargiassi, who made 15 saves for Northwestern. The junior has already made 200 saves in his high school career, and has another season to add to that total.

“My brother (Noah) was on the team two years before me, from the beginning, and I was on the team for one year with him. He pushed me a little further and pushed me harder,” said Smargiassi. “This is for him, this is for all the alumni, this is for us, this is for coach Janda and all the other coaches. This is for the whole program.”

THE NIGHTCAP ... The Tigers’ celebration had to be cut short because the field had to be cleared for the 3A championship – which was won by Freedom. The Patriots beat Parkland, 9-7.

UP NEXT ... There is still work to be done for Northwestern, which will make its first-ever trip to the PIAA tournament, which gets underway June 6. The opponent and site for the first-round game has yet to be determined.