Tuesday night’s semifinal matchup between Northwestern Lehigh and Saucon Valley was the third time this season that the two teams have met.

Panthers coach Trent Seibert tried to mix things up a little to open the game, but the plan didn’t work the way that it did when he drew it up.

The plan was to play with four backs to help the defense, but the Tigers weren’t fooled by the new wrinkle.

Northwestern kept its undefeated season intact with a 9-1 win over Saucon Valley at Palmerton High School’s Bomber Stadium.

“You always have to analyze how their defense is playing, and they were playing a flat-back four, and when they do that, those long diagonal balls are effective. Especially with the speed that we have, we were able to utilize that and put a couple into the back of the net,” said coach Jordan Smith.

“I thought we played a phenomenal 80 minutes in all phases of the game and all levels on the field. Possession was very crisp, and we did a good job of finding the open player.”

Amelia Glassberg was the first Northwestern player to take advantage of the formation when she played a long ball down the field to Kherington Yezik, who launched her shot from about 20 yards away from the net, but saw it sail past goalie Alaina Jacavage. In the next four minutes, Marly DeLillo took a couple of turns being the one to exploit the opening as she first fed Sophia Schaffer with a ball that made its way past the defender, allowing Schaffer to put Northwestern up 2-0. DeLillo’s second assist came on a ball that she sent to the same area with Glassberg in pursuit of the defender. Glassberg won the foot race to the ball and beat Jacavage to make it 3-0 in favor of the Tigers with 25:24 left in the first half.

“It was really exciting; I was really happy to contribute to the offensive path tonight,” said DeLillo. “They really filled the middle, so I just saw the outside and saw she was open, so I put the ball down to her.”

While Saucon Valley was unable to score against Northwestern in its regular season meeting, they have been the only team to score against them in the postseason.

Senior Tesia Mikuta was the one to score for the Panthers in the Colonial League semifinal game and her classmate Elliot Policare kept her team from being shut out in the latest meeting when she fired a shot from the left side to cut Northwestern’s lead to 3-1.

To guarantee that Policare’s goal didn’t lead to a momentum shift, Northwestern added a fourth goal just two minutes after Saucon Valley’s tally. That goal came from Schaffer, who fired a shot from the left side of the goal to the top corner on the far side, well out of reach of Jacavage.

Yezik added her second goal of the night on a free kick 32 yards away as she floated it to the top of the goal, out of the reach of keeper Rachel Baier, who had come on in relief of Jacavage. Juliet Snyder then used the right side of the net for another Northwestern goal with just :58 left in the half.

In the second half, Northwestern worked primarily on defense but did find time for three goals.

Sophia Schaffer finished off her hat trick with a score that went off of Baier and into the net and 1:17 later, Ava Snyder delivered a nearly identical goal to make it 8-1. Snyder made it a multiple-goal game for herself with her second score with 8:10 remaining in regulation.

“Even with how well we’re playing, we have to stay focused because we’re at the point where we can lose this with just one loss, so we stay focused on getting the gold and having fun in these games,” said Snyder.

That focus is making it tougher for opposing teams to find holes in the Tigers game that they can exploit. Even against a team that they had handled in two previous games, the players never took anything for granted.

“I think we all have this mentality that we don’t want to go home, so we always try to bring the same energy and bring the same mentality to every game; that’s been working for us so far,” said DeLillo.

TWO MORE … With one win, Northwestern guaranteed itself at least two more games. The Tigers will face Allentown Central Catholic in the District 11 finals, and the top two teams from the 2A classification in districts go to states, so they will have at least one state game to play. The difference is that if they win gold in districts, that PIAA game will be at Tigers Stadium, giving the seniors one more game on their home field. District finals are Thursday night back at Palmerton.

Northwestern 9, Saucon Vy. 1

Saucon Valley 1 0 - 1

Northwestern 6 3 - 9

Goals: Saucon Valley - E. Policare 1; Northwestern - Schaffer 3, Yezik 2, J. Snyder 2, A. Snyder 1, Glassberg 1; Saves: Saucon Valley - Jacavage 5, Baier 2; Northwestern - Reinhart 2.

Records: Saucon Valley (13-6); Northwestern (23-0).