NorthWood’s Lexi Parisi drives through West Noble defenders Karian Ramirez and Lydia Lowe during a 7-0 win Thursday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

WATERLOO – NorthWood sure didn’t play like a team that hadn’t won a soccer match in over two weeks. The Lady Panthers dismantled West Noble, 7-0, in the semi-finals of the DeKalb Girls Soccer Sectional Thursday night.

NorthWood entered the sectional having gone 0-3-1 in its last four matches with just one goal to its credit in that stretch. That all ended at the expense of West Noble, which had no answer for NorthWood’s suddenly potent offense.

West Noble keeper Maria Guajardo makes a save while NorthWood’s Morgan Stickley closes in.

It took all of four minutes for the Panthers to get on the board. Lexi Parisi drove into the West Noble penalty box and fired a shot on target that keeper Maria Guajardo couldn’t handle. The deflection went right to Emma Martz, who tucked away the gift for the quick lead. Five minutes later, Avery Bontrager sent a lofting shot into the box that carried right over Guajardo’s hands and into a 2-0 advantage.

Kali Parisi continued to exploit West Noble’s inability to cover the wing, and sent in a textbook cross in the 25th minute that Martz had no problem burying for a 3-0 lead.

In the first half, NorthWood hung a remarkable 14 shots on its opponent, 11 of which were on target.

“We knew that first one would be contagious,” said NorthWood head coach Phil Ummel. “It’s been a struggle to score goals lately, not because we didn’t have the opportunities, we just haven’t been able to put any away. We knew if we could just get that first one, we could settle in. It was really nice to start the game that way.”

NorthWood pushed in two more goals among the first six shots taken in the second half. Lexi Parisi stole a pass in the Charger midfield and made the necessary moves to free herself for a shot and finish. Another steal and feed to Martz had her shot blocked by Guajardo, but the rebound went to Morgan Stickley, who scored her only goal of the match.

Angola’s Reace Peppler works for position on DeKalb’s Madison Arnold.

Martz and Kali Parisi finished off the goal scoring for the Panthers, which took a robust 31 shots in the match, 26 of which were on target in some fashion. In all, 13 different Panther shooters took at least one shot in the game. Kira Robinson, on the other end, made three saves for her eighth shutout of the season.

The offensive explosion not only made for a lopsided and easy night for NorthWood, but helped shake off some offensive rust. NorthWood was 2-5-2 in matches this season in which two or less goals were scored in the contest against a schedule that featured eight state-ranked teams.

“Our competition in the Northern Lakes Conference and our non-conference schedule sets us up for the tournament,” Ummel said. “Sometimes that’s difficult to play teams constantly like that, but that will bring out the fine points that we need to work on, and that helped us tonight make some quick adjustments. We had a lot of opportunities, and we were able to capitalize.”

The Panthers (7-6-4) head to the championship to defend its title in a rematch of the 2017 final against DeKalb. The Barons (11-7-1) had no trouble in disposing Angola, 6-0, in the day’s first semi-final. Saturday’s championship is set for 2 p.m., NorthWood looking for its second straight sectional and DeKalb looking for its third title overall, winners in 2013 and 2016.

“In some ways, our expectations coming into the season hurt us here or there,” Ummel said. “We had some struggles at times that I think was a wake-up call, but the nice thing about the state tournament is you get to reset in the postseason. This is a brand new season and a chance for us to live up to those expectations we had before the season. I think they came out with a fresh attitude and a little more urgency, and overall just played very well.”

NorthWood midfielder Caroline Jenkins works during play against West Noble.