Sometimes, you just know you’re in trouble.

When teams fall behind Northwestern Lehigh, they know they’re in trouble. The offense is powerful, and the defense is very stingy about allowing much pressure.

The Troy Trojans had the look of a team that knew they were in trouble very early in their PIAA first round state playoff game at Tigers Stadium Tuesday night.

Northwestern’s offense came out hot and didn’t let up. The end result was a 6-1 win that sends the Tigers into the quarterfinals as they defend last year’s state championship.

Sofia Schaffer put the Tigers on the board just :36 into the game when she took a pass down the right side from Kherington Yezik and moved toward the goal to beat goalie Izzy Renzi with a shot to make it 1-0.

Kiersten Klein picked up a highlight-worthy goal just six minutes after Schaffer gave the Tigers the lead. This time, Schaffer was the one who started things when she fired a shot that Renzi blocked, only to have it bounce to Juliet Snyder. Snyder reacted quickly and put a shot on goal that went off the far post and bounced to Klein, who also reacted and put it past Renzi for a 2-0 lead.

“A lot of goals at this point in the season are kind of like trick plays,” said Klein. “Juliet hit a really good ball, and it came back at an angle where if anybody put a toe on it or put any body part on it, it would have gone in. I just got my foot behind it and put it in.

“I think it helped our energy early to get that early goal from Sophia 30 seconds in; that really helped with our momentum.”

Snyder played a role in the middle of the second goal and picked up an assist on the third goal when she played a long through ball down the field that hit Schaffer in stride, allowing her to get another shot on goal and again beat Renzi for a 3-0 Tigers lead.

Later in the half, Schaffer — a junior — picked up her third tally of the night to give her 108 career goals.

“We had a good game plan coming in, and we knew their defense was going to play pretty high, so we were just looking for those gaps and just wanted to get an early lead so we could have a lot of energy going into the first few minutes of the game,” explained Schaffer.

“It sets the tone of the game if you can come out and set the tone in the first few minutes. I think it kind of scares teams into thinking about how the game is going to go, and that’s what we did tonight.”

In the midst of the scoring by Northwestern, the Trojans didn’t hang their heads and came up with their own goal midway through the first half.

Earlier in the game Khya Renzo had put up a shot from 30 yards away, only to see goalie Olivia Reinhart punch it over the crossbar. This time, it was Giana Renzi from about 30 yards away who put a perfectly placed shot into the top corner on the far side of the goal to prevent the shutout.

Schaffer may have been done scoring goals, but she wasn’t finished helping the offense. Just nine minutes into the second half, Schaffer dished off a crossing pass to Amelia Glassberg that was well placed, and Glassberg put it past Renzi for a goal. With just under 13 minutes left to play, Yezik found herself with an opening from 17 yards out and picked up what would be the final goal of the game for the Tigers as they took a 6-1 lead.

If the Northwestern defense was good in the first half, then it was phenomenal in the final 40 minutes of the game. Troy was barely able to break past the midway point of the field until the game clock was down to about 9:15 to play in regulation.

Troy was awarded a penalty corner, its first of the second half, and put a ball in front of the goal, but were unable to get a shot to find its second goal.

Northwestern dominated the stats with nine corners compared to just three for Troy. The Tigers also put 13 shots on goal, with Renzi making eight saves. Conversely, the Trojans had just three shots on goal.

“We built up from the back with a lot of good combination play, and it seemed like every early chance that we got we put in the net. When a team has a long bus ride to get here and then you put the ball in the net early, it’s pretty tough for them to pick their heads up after that,” said Tigers’ coach Jordan Smith.

“I saw them play over the weekend live and watched some film; they’re not a bad team, they’ve got a lot of good players, but we played a strong game tonight.”

SATURDAY PLANS … Northwestern advances to the quarterfinals, where it will have what seems to be an annual meeting with Central Columbia. The game will be a matchup of two teams who between them have won the last three 2A state championships. Central Columbia’s streak ended last season when the Tigers were the 2A state champs with a perfect season. The Blue Jays defeated Wyoming Area 6-1 in another first round game of states. The time and location of Saturday’s game will be announced.

Northwestern 6, Troy 1

Troy 1 0 - 1

Northwestern 4 2 - 6

Goals: Troy - G. Renzi 1; NW - Schaffer 3, Klein 1, Glassberg 1, Yezik 1; Saves: Troy - J. Renzi 12; NW - Reinhart 4.

Records: Troy (17-5); Northwestern (25-0).