NW girls soccer falls in league semis

ALLENTOWN — While the top four seeds all advanced to the Colonial League semifinals, neither of the top two teams made it out of them on Monday.

No. 2 Saucon Valley lost a 2-1 game to third-seeded Palisades, and Southern Lehigh knocked off the Northwestern Tigers, the league’s top seed, in a 1-0 defensive battle.

Through most of the game, Northwestern was able to control the tempo with the Spartans, only occasionally getting any sort of sustained offensive challenge. What they were able to do, which Northwestern wasn’t, was finish on a big opportunity in the second half for the game’s only goal.

Freshman Kaya Mobley was able to get to a loose ball and get it through to sophomore Kristen Cocozza, who beat a defender and got a shot off to the corner of the net past goalie McKenna Amey.

“Southern Lehigh is a great team, and they played very well, and they have quite a bit of talent. I’m really proud of the way they played tonight, and I’m really proud of the way they defended all over the field. It’s unfortunate that we gave up that one opportunity, and to their credit, they were able to finish it,” said Northwestern coach Kelly Bleam.

Bleam bemoaned the fact that the one real issue that has plagued her team throughout the season reared its ugly head again when her players declined to take early shots in favor of passing off to one another and trying to work closer against a staunch Spartans defense.

“I feel like it’s been the story of our season,” said Bleam. “We possess the ball well, we control the tempo pretty well and we defend very well, but we’re not taking shots, so we can’t score if we don’t take them. We’ve struggled with finishing the entire season.”

Northwestern (15-3-1) held a 3-2 advantage in shots on goal in the first half, but was able to get just one shot in the final 40 minutes of the game.

Southern Lehigh (11-6-2) wasn’t able to do much against Northwestern’s defense, but needed just that one opportunity. Northwestern did get some open looks, but fired a couple of shots just over the crossbar, including one on a free-kick in the first half that barely cleared the bar, before landing harmlessly out of play.

“I don’t know if they lack confidence. We work on opportunities to shoot early in practice, we work on through balls and finishing through balls. I feel like we work on it all the time, and then we get to the game, and we’re hesitant to take that shot,” Bleam said.

“Maybe they’re so unselfish that they just want to keep giving the ball to someone else, I’m not really sure. If you were to ask them, they would say ‘I don’t know, I shoot in practice and it’s fine.’ I don’t know, I’m not really sure what it is.”

NOT QUITE DÉJÀ VU ... Both games were rematches of recent games that went into overtime, but had different outcomes. Saucon Valley downed the Pirates 1-0 in double overtime two weeks ago, but they got their revenge in the semifinals. Northwestern and Southern Lehigh played an overtime game exactly one month earlier, with the Tigers getting a 2-1 win.

BETTER DAYS AHEAD ... Northwestern’s loss, combined with the Palisades win, might have cost the Tigers the top seeding in districts. Either way, Bleam believes that her team will regroup well and make a run at a district championship in the 2A ranks. “Districts are a whole new tournament and it doesn’t start until next week, so we’ll take a couple of days off and then little-by-little get back into it,” she said. “There’s still time for us to improve, so we’ll see what happens.”