Thursday night at Tiger Stadium was the sixth time in nine games this season that Northwestern Lehigh’s opponents have been unable to find a goal.

This time around it was the Lehighton Indians who were unable to crack a defense that is young, but has come together well as the season has progressed.

The end result was a 10-0 win for Northwestern.

Senior Dean Carl was in goal for the first 58 minutes of the game, before Liam Scanlon took over from there. Both goalies had an easy night and were only called on to make one save each.

Defenseman Russell DeLong saw some varsity playing time last season and is part of the young group that plays in front of Carl. He believes that the defense is better than it was at the start of the season, and will be even better as the season goes on.

“We have a freshman at right back, and another sophomore at left center back, so we’re young, but it’s been great to have these guys to work with,” said DeLong. “It was a struggle during the preseason and early in the regular season, but once we started to roll and have better communication it really started to come together.”

It took nearly 13 minutes for the Tigers offense, which is as young as the defensive side of the field, to come up with a score, but when they did it was perfectly executed.

Ben Hawk played a ball to the front of the goal from the right corner and delivered it perfectly to Cole Mertz, who was in the perfect spot and beat goalie Peyton Ginder for the opening goal of the game. Mertz collected two more goals later in the half.

Mertz also notched two assists in the first half to give him eight on the season and put him at 70 career assists, the most ever by a Northwestern Lehigh player.

“Last year I was pretty close to getting it, and this year I only needed a few, so it feels awesome to get the record,” said Mertz, who is also closing in on the 100-goal milestone for his career. His three goals on Thursday give him 21 on the season, and 89 for his high school career.

Mertz’s opening goal seemed to open the spigot, and Northwestern was able to come up with two more goals in five minutes, with sophomore James Bissell getting both goals to give the Tigers a 3-0 lead by the time the first 20 minutes were gone. The record-setting assist for Mertz came on a goal by junior Logan Shurr, who placed a shot perfectly to roll it past Ginder for a four-goal advantage.

Mertz picked up the final two goals of the first half, with the last one being fired from 20 yards out, giving Northwestern a 6-0 halftime lead.

Sophomore Bryce Leslie also had a multi-goal night with a pair of second- half goals. The Tigers’ final goal of the night appeared destined to be stopped by Brady Litchauer, who replaced Ginder early in the second half, but it hit a Lehighton defender and ricocheted into the goal.

GOING FOR PERFECTION ... The Tigers are the only team in District 11 that does not have a blemish on their season record. Northwestern is 9-0-0 overall and 7-0-0 in the Colonial League. Minersville and Emmaus are the only other teams who have not lost this season, but Minersville has three ties its their record, while Emmaus has one.

Northwestern 10, Lehighton 0

Lehighton 0 0 - 0

Northwestern 6 4 - 10

Goals: Lehighton - None; Northwestern - Mertz 3, Bissell 2, Leslie 2, Shurr 1, Masenheimer 1; Assists: Lehighton - None; Northwestern - Mertz 2, Milks 2, Masenheimer 1, Hawk 1, Schmoyer 1, Wehr 1; Saves: Lehighton - Ginder 6, Litchauer 3; Northwestern - Carl 1, Scanlon 1.

Records: Lehighton (1-8-1, 1-7-1); Northwestern (9-0-0, 7-0-0).