ALLENTOWN – It might be a pretty good omen that the rebuilding Allentown High field hockey team is performing one aspect of the game better this year than last season, when it won the CVC Tournament and reached the sectional finals.

“Any win is a good win and this year, especially, we’ve been doing really well in winning the close games,” coach Kayla Peterson said after Addie Meyers’ fourth-period goal gave the Redbirds a 2-1 win over Northern Burlington Monday. “Last year we struggled a little bit. We’d play a good team; we’d be with them the entire time and the last quarter we’d lose by one goal. This year we’ve done a great job winning by one or two goals.”

Allentown (5-3) has won three straight, and four of its five victories have been by two goals or less.

This latest success came against an NBC team (4-3) that seemed evenly matched with the Redbirds. Both squads entered the game with two straight wins. The Greyhounds had outscored opponents 15-12 and was 11th in South Jersey Group III power points, while Allentown outscored foes 15-13 and was 12th in SJ II power points.

In one of those strange sports things, Northern emerged with a huge statistical advantage, outshooting Allentown 17-2 in shots on goal while getting 11 penalty corners to the Redbirds 5.

But the home team gutted out the win.

The first half was fairly even and both goals came from scrambles off corners. Junior Kaitlin Haddock’s first career goal (off the first of two Susannah Morino assists) gave Allentown a 1-0 lead 3:43 into the second period. NBC answered 1:14 later on Sammi Christensen’s second goal of the season.

After intermission, the game turned drastically in every way but on the scoreboard.

NBC completely dominated with a 9-0 shot advantage and five penalty corners, including four within a span of 1:35.

“I think we started to get a little frantic,” Peterson said. “When that happens we’re trying to get the girls to settle down When we settle we play our game. We were just playing to their game. That number 16 (Sydney Roche) in the middle was just getting everything.”

But goalie Anna Simonds was her usual self, making seven of her 16 saves in the quarter.

“Anna is always incredible,” Meyers said. “She’s always such a life saver. Just an amazing goalie.”

Peterson agreed, saying, “She’s incredible. She’s a brick wall. It’s hard to even compare where we’d be without her.”

The coach was just hoping that the rest of the team would make Simonds good work count.

“Unfortunately we’ve been getting a lot of corners on us and then Anna steps up so well and gets the ball out,” Peterson said. “That’s where you have to pick up your teammates. When our defense is working so hard we have to be able to capitalize and pick them up. We have to take the pressure off somehow.”

They did just that early in the fourth quarter, when Morino sent a pass to Meyers, who shot one in from the top of the circle.

“I was just hoping if it went in, it went in, or if we got a rebound someone would get on it,” Meyers said. “It was incredible for us. Everyone was able to just bring it down the field and change the momentum. I think that sealed the deal. We were able to hold on to that goal.”

It was almost like someone put a pin in Northern’s balloon, as they could did not have the same offensive thrust from that point.

“That goal was huge,” Peterson said. “The pressure was building and building. Thankfully the end of the quarter came at the right time and to come back immediately and be able to capitalize was huge.”

It’s the way things have been going for Allentown as the Redbirds’ youth continues to gel.

“It’s just staying positive,” Meyers said. “Just keeping the energy up even if we start slow.”

Peterson feels it has helped that the Redbirds got some strong teams out of the way early. The combined record of the three teams they lost to was 12-6 entering Monday and they have knocked off two quality programs in Princeton and Northern.

“The first half of the regular season was tough for a young team to be thrown into those games,” the coach said. “Not that the rest are easy but we were challenged so much at the beginning, we’ve seen some of the toughest teams we’ll see. So I think we’ll be able to go into CVCs stronger because of it.”

And that’s when winning close games really comes in handy.

No. Burlington (4-3) 0 1 0 0 – 1

Allentown (5-3) 0 1 0 1 – 2

Goals: N: Christensen. A: Haddock, Meyers. Assists: A: Morino, 2

Shots on goal: N: 17, A: 2 Saves:  N: Morgan 0, A: Simonds 16