For the senior class of Northwestern Lehigh, the district tournament means they are adding more gold medals to their collection.

For the fourth season in a row, Northwestern field hockey has won the District 11 1A tournament, including their latest win Friday night at Palmerton’s Bomber Stadium. The fourth gold in the set came against Wilson in a 6-1 district championship game.

“The senior class comes with a lot of different personalities and a lot of different skill sets, and I think each bring something to the table, whether it’s leadership or field hockey skills,” said Tiger head coach Lissa Opolsky. “You really saw that on display today and they all got to finish the game together; we had all of the senior players on the field.”

Senior Taylor Langley had a good day in the championship with three goals, two of which came off corner plays. In all, three of the six goals that the Tigers scored were the result of penalty corners.

The one constant on all of those corners is that junior Faith Slifer is the one inserting the ball to start the play.

“It just all starts off with Faith and her getting the push out. She’s had probably one of the most important roles, and she doesn’t get enough credit for it all,” said Langley.

“No one gets to see the work that she puts in, and like I said, it all starts with her.”

Northwestern’s first goal came off of a corner when Slifer inserted the ball to Hannah Gober, who moved into position to get a strong shot off that worked its way past goalie Abrielle Dayton for her 23rd goal of the season.

While Gober’s goal was the only one in the first quarter, Northwestern added a second goal in the second quarter. This time, it was Langley who scored her 23rd goal of the year to give the Tigers a 2-0 lead.

Wilson put on its toughest attack of the game when the third quarter got underway. A couple of shots went wide or were kicked away by goalie Ryan Smolinsky. It took four minutes of trying, but eventually, Carli Apgar was able to get a goal for the Warriors and cut the lead to 2-1.

Apparently, the Tigers weren’t happy that Wilson cut into their lead and the defense stiffened making sure that Wilson wouldn’t be able to tie the game.

Meanwhile, the offense kept working to rebuild the lead to two goals. It literally took the rest of the quarter for Northwestern to get that tally, but with one second remaining before halftime, Haley Kerschner poked the ball through a group of players in front of the cage and Langley found it and put it home for a 3-1 advantage.

“Our team has been working hard since the summer. We’ve put in the effort and we’ve had the goal of winning districts again,” said Kerschner. “We gave up that one goal and that was unfortunate, but we bounced right back and kept them from getting too many other opportunities.”

Knowing they were 15 minutes away from gold medals, the Tigers dug in their heels defensively to thwart any chance of giving up any more goals. With Wilson having to focus more on offense to try to catch the Tigers, the defensive play of the Warriors got a little shaky.

Langley got her third goal of the game on a corner play, and Gober scored her second goal when she wound up and fired a shot from about 18 yards away from the goal. Dayton barely had a chance to move on the shot, and it went to the back of the cage.

McKensey Miller closed out the scoring when she tipped in a ball that came toward her at the front of the goal.

“We were all just working together and trying to get some goals into the back of the net, and have some fun while we were out there,” said Miller, who is also a senior. “I think that the whole team, but especially the seniors, really kicked it in after they got their goal. We were determined not to let this one slip away, so it was important to shut them down and then look to keep scoring.”

Y’ALL READY FOR THIS? ... Both teams head into the PIAA tournament which begins on Tuesday. The difference is that the gold medals come with one final home game in the opening round of states, while Wilson will be on the road for its opener. The opponents and the time of the games will be determined over the weekend.

Northwestern 6, Wilson 1

Wilson 0 1 0 0 - 1

Northwestern 1 1 1 3 - 6

Goals: Wilson - C. Apgar 1; Northwestern Langley 3, Gober 2, Miller 1; Saves: Wilson - Dayton 3; Northwestern - Smolinsky 3.

Records: Wilson (12-7-1); Northwestern (18-5).