As a graduate of Emmaus High School, Northwestern Lehigh lacrosse coach Tyler Corpora knows all about how tough any game against Parkland will be.

Corpora and the Tigers faced the Trojans Tuesday night at Tiger Stadium, and Parkland proved to be just as tough as Corpora remembered it to be and at the end of the night, the game went down as a 14-5 loss for Northwestern.

Defense has been a big story all season for Parkland. Opponents average just over seven goals per game against it, while the Trojans offense averages over 11 goals per game.

That was the story in the meeting of the two teams as Northwestern struggled to get clear looks at the goal and when it did, it wasn’t able to get a high percentage of its shots past goalie Owen Fehnel.

The Northwestern defense has been a strong point this season, and it played well against Parkland. The Trojans came out and got six first-quarter goals, exposing some holes that needed patching.

Falling behind 6-1 at the end of the first quarter, the Tigers figured some things out defensively to give their offense the time to work their way back into the game.

“Our defense got better as the game went on, but Parkland came out very aggressively and got us down early, which hurt,” said Corpora.

“They’re a good team, and it’s tough to come back against them.”

Whenever a team holds the duo of Tyler Kaas and Kendall Wikert to one goal, they’ve done something right.

Holding the pair to 13 total shots is also no small feat, and Parkland was able to do that as well.

Wikert scored a goal on six shots, while Kaas was limited to just seven shots and was unable to score in the game. Brayden Uricchio found himself limited to just three shots, but was able to get two past Fehnel for Northwestern.

“We didn’t have a lot of real opportunities to get high-leverage shots in the game,” said Corpora.

“We had some good looks, but not enough to make an impact, plus their guy [Fehnel] played really well for them.”

The second quarter was much more competitive despite the fact Parkland managed to extend its lead to 9-3 going into halftime.

Halftime gave Parkland the opportunity to make a couple small adjustments, and it stayed aggressive even with a solid lead.

The second half played out much like the first, which enabled the Trojans to improve their record to 8-4.

In addition to Wikert and Uricchio’s goals, Northwestern got a goal from Grayson Christman.

Parkland had an advantage in face-off wins as well, as they took that battle 13-9. Fehnel made 13 saves, while Dane Kauker had eight saves for the Tigers.

“We see where we’re at now and what we have to do better,” noted Corpora.

“Our guys always work hard, and we’ll be able to get back up from this. We have some tough games coming up and we’ll get prepared for those and see what happens.”

NINE DOWN, NINE TO GO ... The game put Northwestern at the halfway point of its regular season schedule with a record of 5-4. The team has averaged 10.4 goals per game, and has allowed 8.7 goals per game. The numbers don’t give much of a margin of error for the Tigers. The bad news is that the strength of their schedule is stronger in their last nine games than it has been to open the season. The Tigers still have undefeated Easton (10-0), the only District 11 team without a loss this season, on their schedule. There are also two games against Moravian Academy (7-2) that have to be played. The combined record of their first half opponents is 44-49, a .473 winning percentage. The second half schedule has teams with a combined .610 (47-30) winning percentage. The Tigers are currently third in the district standings, ½ game behind Central Catholic in the 2A classification. They trail Moravian Academy, the top team in 2A, by two games.