Lehighton faced its first test of the District 11 Class 3A playoffs on Tuesday at home against Pottsville, a rematch from last year’s quarterfinal.

The Tide initially overwhelmed the Indians with their physicality and aggressive playstyle, but the Tribe stood their ground and turned up the tempo in the second half to take the lead and hold on for a 2-1 victory.

Without a couple of key starters, an already short-staffed Lehighton squad was tasked with some early obstacles to overcome.

Head coach Carl Wolter had no concerns about going to his bench knowing how far along his team has come.

“We have a small bench, so it’s very difficult for us because we don’t have a lot of subs to go around, but we make the best with what we have, and these girls have improved so much since the beginning of the season,” he said.

“It doesn’t matter who’s coming off the bench or who’s out on the field. They know whoever comes off the bench that they’re going to go out there and they’re going to play their hearts out for all 11 girls that are on that field.”

The Indians had another obstacle to overcome: a physical and gritty Pottsville defense that made advancing the ball up the field a nightmare.

The counterattack from the Tide almost resulted in an early lead for the visitors, but Lehighton defenders managed to cut off any fast breaks and weren’t afraid to match Pottsville’s physicality.

Tribe goalkeeper Cassidy Litts, who finished with seven saves, received constant help from her defense, clearing numerous scoring chances that she couldn’t deny herself.

“My sophomore defender, Halle Chrisman, she saved us multiple times,” Litts said. “There’s multiple shots where I couldn’t get there, and if she wasn’t there, this would be a different game. I think my defense mainly had my back. I can’t take all the credit.”

Despite holding Pottsville to a scoreless tie at halftime, it was evident that Lehighton needed to speed the pace of the game up and avoid being intimidated by the Tide’s physicality.

“We got a (much) more physical team out of Pottsville than we thought we were going to see, and they played extremely well in the first half,” Wolter said.

“So in the second half, we made some adjustments. I told the girls, ‘This is what we need to change, this is what we need to clean up,’ and credit to the girls. They did exactly what they needed to.”

After a quick scoring chance to start the second half, the Indians converted on a corner kick when Pottsville goalie Lucille Dougherty knocked the ball down straight to Haley Wehr, who booted home the ice breaker.

Roughly two-and-a-half minutes later, Christman sent a long pass ahead to Claire Bridy, who cut in on a Tide defender and launched a high shot over Dougherty to extend Lehighton’s lead.

With this goal, Bridy also tied the program’s single-season goal record with her 37th marker.

“I just recently figured out about it like a game or two ago, and I was amazed because I really do work so hard at practices, and I wouldn’t be able to do it without the rest of my teammates,” Bridy said.

Pottsville refused to go away and managed to cut the deficit in half over 11 minutes later.

Gracie Weiss cut off a clearing attempt and fed Riley Davis, who raced ahead and deposited the Tide’s first tally of the contest.

That would be as close as the Tide would come.

“We lost a lot of seniors the past few years, and I know I’m a new coach this year, but it was very exciting,” Tide coach Jacey Williams said.

“It meant a lot to have an opportunity to continue our season just because throughout our league season, we built a lot of great things. I’m really happy with the girls and how we’ve progressed through our season this year.”

With the combination of the Tribe holding the fort in front of Litts and matching the physicality of Pottsville, Lehighton held on for the remainder of the game to advance to the semifinals.

“It feels so unbelievably good ... and just knowing that we’re going on to the semifinals, I’m just so excited to see where this is going to take us and hopefully lead us to the championship game,” Bridy said.

NEXT CHALLENGE ... Lehighton will take on North Schuylkill in the district semifinals, hosted at Northern Lehigh, on Thursday. The Spartans defeated Pleasant Valley 8-1 in their quarterfinal matchup to advance.

Lehighton 2, Pottsville 1

Pottsville 0 1 - 1

Lehighton 0 2 - 2

Goals: Pottsville - Riley Davis 1; Lehighton - Haley Wehr 1, Claire Bridy 1; Assists: Pottsville - Gracie Weiss 1; Lehighton - Halle Christman 1; Saves: Pottsville - Lucille Dougherty 8; Lehighton - Cassidy Litts 7; Shots: Pottsville - 10; Lehighton - 11; Corners: Pottsville - 2; Lehighton - 3.

Records: Pottsville (6-12-1); Lehighton (12-7-1).