CATASAUQUA — Saturday’s weather started off a little cool, but turned out to be very nice.

As fans arrived at Catasauqua’s Alumni Field for the Colonial League soccer championship, many of them didn’t even have time to shed their sweatshirts and enjoy the warmth of the sun before the Tigers grabbed a quick lead.

From there, it was just a matter of playing out the rest of the game as Northwestern captured its second straight league title, and its sixth in the past seven seasons.

Just 49 seconds into the game, Sophia Schaffer took a great feed pass down the right side and sprinted toward the goal. Her shot easily beat goalie Sadie Chilton as the Tigers took an early 1-0 lead, and immediately put the Pirates back on their heels.

Northwestern would go on to score four more goals for a 5-0 shutout win over Palisades.

“We always want to get that early goal,” said Schaffer after the game. “It’s great to get up early, and we came out looking to get one early and set the pace.”

While the pace was definitely set, it would take Northwestern over 37 minutes to get its next goal.

Much of the reason for that was the play of Chilton, the Palisades goalie. Another reason was that many of the shots taken by Northwestern were just a little off the mark, and either sailed wide or over the goal.

Chilton showed her athletic skills with several diving stops to turn away would-be goals.

Finally, with 2:02 left in the first half, Northwestern was able to get a second goal, with this one coming off of a corner play.

Schaffer played the ball in to the front of the goal, and Kiersten Klein was in good position to score and put Northwestern up 2-0 going into halftime.

In the second half, Chilton continued to turn away Northwestern and finished the day with 13 saves.

Eventually the defense in front of her started to break down from the constant pressure and the Tigers took advantage of the situation. Kherington Yezik scored her first goal of the game with 22:29 left in the second half and would get another later in the half.

Between those two goals, Schaffer found a break down the left side of the field and put a shot back to her right to beat Chilton.

While Chilton was putting on a clinic at one end of the field, Olivia Reinhart was putting on a master class at the other end.

Dakota Wizeman had a break-away opportunity just past the midway point of the first half, and Reinhart faced her one-on-one and won the battle by making a sliding stop just as Wizeman looked to take her shot.

Freshman defender Ava Snyder also made a big defensive stop when she got in the way of Mia Battoni to stop her attempt at going one-on-one against Reinhart on another breakaway down the right side.

“Our defense was really good today. We played as a unit, and we all contributed and did our job,” said senior defender Sophia Sikora. “Olivia was amazing in goal, she is so strong back there and she makes our job easier because we don’t have to worry about someone getting through because we know she’s going to stop them.”

“Our girls came in ready to play and they did a great job for us,” said coach Jordan Smith. “They know that we’re at the point in the season where you can’t take anything for granted.

“We are undefeated, but we can lose that and the chance at a medal with just one bad game. In districts, it gets even tougher, so we have to keep playing as well as we have been.”

WAIT AND SEE … Northwestern knows it will play again on Wednesday on its home field in the quarterfinal round of the District 11 tournament. All it needs now is an opponent. Palmerton and North Schuylkill play tonight at Palmerton to determine who will advance to the quarterfinals to meet up against the Tigers.

Northwestern 5, Palisades 0

Palisades 0 0 - 0

Northwestern 2 3 - 5

Goals: Palisades - None; Northwestern - Schaffer 2, Yezik 2, Klein 1; Saves: Palisades - Chilton 13; Northwestern - Reinhart 4.

Records: Palisades (15-2-3); Northwestern (21-0).