Northwestern Lehigh ran away with a 9-0 win over Tamaqua in the District 11 quarterfinals Wednesday night at Tiger Stadium.

If not for some unlucky shots that went off a post, the crossbar or were stopped by Raiders goalie Sophia Sitlinger, the game may have been out of hand even earlier.

In the first 12 minutes, the Tigers put four shots off the posts and another off the crossbar. Sitlinger also made three saves in the first five minutes.

Among the close calls, senior Sophia Schaffer fired a shot from the left side on a ball that was sent to her perfectly by Juliet Snyder. The goal put Northwestern up 1-0 with 36:47 left in the first half.

Snyder was a constant thorn in the side of the Raiders. The junior sent several good passes to teammates and was one of the players who flirted with an early goal, including putting one off the left post.

Snyder’s patience was rewarded when she put a shot to the top right corner of the goal that Sitlinger was unable to get to as Northwestern took a 2-0 advantage.

“I thought we did a really good job adapting,” said Schaffer. “It was frustrating that we weren’t able to get some of those early goals, but we didn’t get down on each other.”

Tamaqua struggled to get much pressure, which is understandable considering coach Clem McCarroll arrived in New Tripoli thinking his list of injured players was at eight and then was told by a trainer that another starter would be unable to play.

That left McCarroll with five freshmen in the starting lineup.

“Being down nine players and having a lot of freshmen and sophomores out there, I thought the girls did everything they could,” said McCarroll. “They’re a really good team and especially early we kept them in check a little but just couldn’t get any kind of attack.”

If Snyder’s patience was rewarded, so was Schaffer’s. The senior’s assault on the career goals mark in District 11 continued. With four second-half goals, Schaffer tied Whitehall graduate Kayla Cunningham’s mark of 166 goals.

Schaffer and Snyder teamed up to get a goal just 22 seconds into the second half on a set piece that the pair has run plenty of times.

Snyder fed Schaffer, who put a low shot just inside the post for a 3-0 lead.

It wasn’t a minute later when Schaffer went high and found the upper part of the net past Sitlinger.

“I’m really proud of how we adapted in the second half,” said Schaffer. “We came out and scored early, and we also held that zero on the scoreboard as well.”

Schaffer almost found another goal with 18:09 left, but Sitlinger blocked the shot only to have it rebound off her hands and right to freshman Elliana Fluke who picked up her first goal of the game.

Over the final 15 minutes of the game, Schaffer and Fluke both scored two more goals to get the 9-0 win and a trip to the semifinals.

“I feel like I have really grown into my role where I come in to give some players a break,” said Fluke, who has 14 goals in her first year as a varsity player. “I learn a lot just by watching the older players while I’m on the bench. I think it helps me to become a better player.”

“We made some adjustments in the second half,” said Tiger head coach Jordan Smith. “And the goals that we weren’t getting in the first half started dropping for us. We talked about a few things that needed to happen and they went out after halftime and just executed it flawlessly.”

PIRATES SINK THE BOMBERS ... Palisades will provide the opposition for Northwestern Lehigh in the semifinals. Palisades and Palmerton played through overtime and went to penalty kicks with Palisades winning the competition 5-3. The new PIAA rule on overtime periods does keep overtime periods in district and state playoffs but not in regular season games, which it considers league playoff games to be. The Tigers won the Colonial League championship game on PKs against Notre Dame of Green Pond.

Northwestern 9, Tamaqua 0

Tamaqua 0 0 - 0

Northwestern 2 7 - 9

Goals: Tamaqua - None; Northwestern - Schaffer 5, Fluke 3, J. Snyder 1; Saves: Tamaqua - Sitlinger 14, Honey 2; Northwestern - Hamm 1.

Records: Tamaqua (10-10-1); Northwestern (20-1-1).