PENNSBURG — Players from Archbishop Wood and Northwestern Lehigh didn’t seem to mind temperatures in the 30s with wind chills falling into the 20s.

The two teams played 110 minutes of soccer and went into penalty kicks to decide Tuesday night’s PIAA Class 2A semifinal at Upper Perkiomen High School.

Senior Kylie Wiest picked up the deciding goal to open the fifth round when she grounded a ball to the right side of the net to give the Vikings a 3-1 win in penalty kicks.

The game was tied 1-1 at halftime, and then 2-2 at the end of regulation. Neither team could find the back of the net in two overtime periods, leaving the outcome up to PKs.

Northwestern has made a living out of scoring early to take a quick lead and put its opponent on their heels.

Archbishop Wood came out determined to at least slow down Sophia Schaffer, the team’s leading scorer and architect of many of those early goals.

With Schaffer having to constantly battle double and sometimes triple teams of defenders, the Wood offense was able to strike first when its leading scorer, Paige Eckert, put a shot to the very top of the goal from 20 yards out for a 1-0 lead with 22:33 left in the first half.

“We’ve been behind before, so we weren’t really concerned at that point,” said Tigers coach Jordan Smith. “We were still confident that we would be able to come back. We were down by two goals before and came back to win, so we just kept playing our type of game and the players kept battling.”

The Vikings’ tight coverage of Schaffer did no good when the Tigers were awarded a free kick from 25 yards out and Schaffer took the kick.

Rather than looking for a set play against the difficult defense, Schaffer tucked a shot just under the crossbar to tie the game with 4:08 left in the first half.

Northwestern goalie Olivia Reinhart saved the day when Wiest put a shot on goal that Reinhart was able to leap high in the air and punch over the crossbar to keep the score tied with just :40 left in the half.

Archbishop Wood’s second goal was a tough one for Northwestern to take. After having one opportunity after another turned away by the Vikings defense, Wood was able to get a steal and was able to clear the ball. Freshman Avery Miller caught up with the ball and played it inside to Eckert, who raced ahead of a defender and fired back to the far side, catching Reinhart moving toward the near-side post. The ball rolled into the goal just inside the far post to make it 2-1 with 21:28 left to play.

“We just weren’t able to get our shots where we wanted them. We had opportunities, but it just didn’t turn into anything and they were able to get the momentum and played the ball through and got the goal at the other end.”

The time on the clock was getting smaller, and Northwestern’s fans were looking for an equalizer.

Sofia Sikora delivered a long ball down the right side for Schaffer, who had one defender to beat. The ball hopped over both Schaffer and the defender, leaving the junior forward to beat the defender to the ball and tie the game with a shot to the far side of the net with just 6:18 left in regulation.

The first overtime consisted of Northwestern controlling play and finding openings for shots, but leaving their shots stopped by Catherine Gabel, or going wide of the posts or over the crossbar.

The second overtime had Northwestern fans holding their breath as Archbishop Wood controlled play but also came up empty.

That left the two teams to decide the game by penalty kicks, which very few people believe is a good way to decide a playoff game, but also want to avoid having players competing for more than 110 minutes.

Eckert was able to score on her first-round penalty kick for the Vikings to take a 1-0 lead in the best of five rounds. Reinhart came up with a key block in round two, and Dylan Ritter put her shot into the upper left corner of the goal to draw even.

Both goalies won the third round, and in round four, Brinley Miller snuck a shot into the upper left corner. Gabel made a diving save on a shot by Amelia Glassberg that gave Wood a 2-1 advantage going into the final round.

Wiest was the final shooter for Archbishop Wood, and she kept the ball on the ground to Reinhart’s left for the winning shot.

“We played really well. I couldn’t be prouder of the effort from our girls, but the other team just got us tonight,” said Smith. “We have a great group of girls, and now for some of them, they move on to their next step in college.

“We have a lot of girls coming back and others who are coming up, so we will look forward to next season.”

FAB FIVE … Northwestern had just five seniors on the roster this season. Marly DeLillo, Kiersten Klein, Olivia Reinhart, Sofia Sikora, and M.K. Yanders move on after graduation, but a large part of the core group of players will return for the 2026 season.

Archbishop Wood 3, N’western 2

Northwestern 1 1 0 0 - 2

Archbishop Wood 1 1 0 0 - 2

(Archbishop Wood wins

on penalty kicks, 3-1)

Penalty Kicks: Northwestern - Ritter 1; Archbishop Wood - Eckert 1, Miller 1, Wiest 1; Goals: Northwestern - Schaffer 2; Archbishop Wood - Eckert 2; Saves: Northwestern - Reinhart 7; Archbishop Wood - Gabel 3.

Records: Northwestern (26-1); Archbishop Wood (16-6-1).