Coaches will come up with any idea to motivate their players and get them to play their best.

For Palmerton’s Megan Leadbetter, reverting to the past was the thought she had to spark her team.

The Blue Bomber head field hockey coach, who played goalie in college, decided to don the pads at practice and let her girls fire away.

As it turns out, the plan worked to perfection as Palmerton scored a season-high in goals in posting a 6-1 victory over Palisades Wednesday in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 Class 1A playoffs.

“I actually wore goalie pads at practice yesterday,” said Leadbetter. “I came out of retirement for about an hour, but the whole point of it was to encourage them that if they need to score, need to hit the ball hard, if you need to do something to get that ball behind the cage, do it to me. What better revenge do you have against the coach than to take the hardest shot ever.

“Tessa (Sander) did say when she walked off, I was imagining it was you the whole time coach. The same thing with Chloe (Brown), who’s just a freshman.”

Sander registered a first-half hat trick as the fourth-seeded Bombers raced to an early 4-0 lead. Brown added a pair of tallies in the win that lifts her team to Monday’s semifinals against top-ranked Northwestern.

“I think this is the best we’ve played,” said Sander. “We had other great games we played, but never this high in scoring. We always had trouble finishing in the cage, and this game was excellent.”

After a scoreless first 10 minutes, Sander found the cage twice within a span of 34 seconds.

First, she received a drop pass from Ally Herrmann and fired a shot past the Pirate keeper. Moments later, at the 4:15 mark, the senior found the cage again with Ali Green assisting on the goal.

“We just were having trouble finishing this season,” said Leadbetter. “We’ve had so many opportunities, so offensive corner heavy, and we reviewed the stats. We reviewed the proof that we have to finish, and I think Tessa finally took it into her own hands and said, ‘I don’t want my season to be over yet.’ She’s a phenomenal player. She stepped up today.”

Following Brown’s first score of the evening, which came after a feed from Sander to make it 3-0 midway through the second period, Sander blasted a direct shot from near the top of the circle to finish off her hat trick and extend the margin to 4-0.

“We lost to them (2-0) earlier in the season, and we wanted to get the fire started early so we could have some motivation to keep going,” said the senior. “And we really want to make it to the championship this year. We came out super strong.

“We were not fully equipped with all our players (the first time we played them) ... and we were in different positions. We figured out what was wrong and what we had to fix, and we worked on it throughout the season, and I think tonight showed how well. We definitely improved since last time.”

The Pirates avoided a shutout when Hannah Gibson perfectly placed a backhanded shot in the third quarter to give the fifth-seeded visitors some life.

But Palmerton stemmed the tide, and picked up its energy again in the fourth to seal the win.

Ali Green also got off a backhander for the Bombers, and after the Palisades goalie made a save, Brown picked up the rebound and poked it home. Green capped off the scoring with 6:45 left to play when she stick-handled past a few defenders and made it a 6-1 contest.

“I feel health wise, we’re all there, position wise, my younger girls are stepping up,” said Leadbetter. “I think the confidence is there. We have awesome team morale going on now, and that’s something that normally by the end of the season has run its course, but for us it’s all coming together. It’s exciting. They knew coming in tonight that they weren’t done, and I didn’t have any doubt in them.”

RAINING GOALS ... The most goals Palmerton had scored in a game this season was four against Moravian Academy. The Bombers had 21 goals in 18 games, an average of 1.17 per game, before Wednesday’s contest.

UP NEXT ... Palmerton faces top-seeded Northwestern Monday at 5 p.m. at Northern Lehigh in the semifinals. The winner not only advances to the district title game, but also earns a berth in the state playoffs.

Palmerton 6, Palisades 1

Palisades 0 0 1 0 - 1

Palmerton 2 2 0 2 - 6

Goals: Palisades - Hannah Gibson 1; Palmerton - Tessa Sander 3, Chloe Brown 2, Ali Green 1; Assists: Palisades - None; Palmerton - Ali Green 2, Tessa Sander 1, Ally Herrmann 1; Corners: Palisades 4; Palmerton 10; Saves: Palisades - 13; Palmerton - Sarah Sabo 9.

Records: Palisades (8-12); Palmerton (9-10).