In soccer, a team’s strength is often determined by its ability to put the ball in the net.

But Northern Lehigh’s strength this season has been its ability to keep the ball out of its net.

Wednesday night, the Bulldogs did what they do best and that’s play defense. The result was a 2-0 Colonial League shutout of Palmerton.

“Our back line was solid all game long,” said Bulldogs’ coach John F. Murray. “We did a good job of cutting down on their shots and scoring chances. We’ve been playing defensively all season because we just don’t have enough firepower on offense.”

The Bulldogs’ defense threw a heavy blanket on top of the Bombers for most of the game - so much so that goalie James Stock faced no shots in the first 18 minutes of the game. The closest Palmerton (5-11) came to scoring in the match was a shot by sophomore, Garrett Warner who barely missed the right post with 11:35 to go in the first half.

At the time, Northern Lehigh (5-9-1) led 1-0 on a goal by Ethan Moore. The junior midfielder found himself alone 15 yards away and left-footed a blast into the upper left corner with eight minutes gone by.

Six minutes into the second half was the only time when Stock had to come up big for the Bulldogs. With his team still holding a slim one-goal lead, Stock stopped a point-blank shot from 10 yards by Bomber freshman Wyatt Spalding.

The Bulldogs added an insurance goal with 5:34 left when Ethan Moore launched a corner kick into the middle of the goal mouth where junior Mike Wilk ripped the ball into the lower left-hand corner.

Bombers’ goalie Dillon Lombardi kept his team close throughout the contest, making five saves.

Afterward, Murray reiterated that his team’s focus was to stop Palmerton’s scoring chances - which his team did by clearing the ball out of its defensive zone with long kicks down the field or out of bounds.

“We play a 4-4-2 formation, and we expect our midfielders to get back to help out on defense,” said Murray. “The success we’ve had this year has been in low-scoring games.”

Meanwhile, Palmerton coach Antonio Orlando was obviously disappointed in his team’s performance.

“We didn’t play well,” said Orlando. “Much of the game we were in la-la land.”

KICKS AND GIGGLES

… Murray displayed a sense of humor throughout the game. When a ball boy fumbled an out-of-bounds kick off his hands, Murray said to him. “That’s why you play soccer.” Another time, after one of his players shouted to Murray to tell one of his teammates to get deeper in the offensive zone, the coach laughed and said, “You tell him. He doesn’t listen to me.”

WHAT’S LEFT

… Northern Lehigh has three games left on its schedule, beginning with a home game on Thursday against Catasauqua. Palmerton has two games remaining. The Bombers are home on Saturday against Jim Thorpe.