Maddie Crew is Northwestern’s last line of defense and the team’s designated corner kicker and penalty kicker. Crew was happy to do triple-duty Tuesday night against Northeastern in a Division II girls soccer sectional final.

Crew and her fellow defenders held the Jets to only a few scoring opportunities. Then with the scored tied midway through the second half, Crew’s corner kick was headed in by JoAnn Byrum. And just for emphasis, Crew scored on a penalty kick to ice the Warriors’ 4-1 victory at Wertz Stadium.

The Warriors (16-3) play Alter in a district final at 2 p.m. Saturday at Trotwood-Madison. The Warriors, looking to return to regionals for the first time in four years, lost to Alter 3-0 in the district finals last year. Northeastern (12-4-3) played in a sectional final for the first time.

Northwestern coach Vicki Packard-Cooper had to replace two-time all-state center backer Lauren Bischoff this year, and it took a few games before Crew took full-time possession of the position after playing center midfielder last year.

“She has definitely been the difference-maker in our season as a whole,” Packard-Cooper said.

Crew said it took a while to get used to the new position.

“I’ve come to absolutely love it back there because I love having a leadership role,” Crew said. “That’s exactly what it is because I see the whole field, and I love it.”

Crew’s No. 1 job was to hang back and keep Jets speedster Megan Simpson in front of her. Northeastern coach Dayna Ranard said that’s the style of defense Simpson has seen all year, so she put Simpson in the middle at times to give her more room to run.

“The bad thing was that our passes weren’t hitting the corners to get away from the sweeper,” Ranard said. “When you don’t hit your spots where you can use your strategy to attack, it makes it a rough game.”

Crystal Cruz’s first-half goal for Northwestern was matched by Ashley Hamm’s penalty kick early in the second half. But 18 minutes later Crew and Byrum broke the tie on the corner-kick play they practice every day and have scored on several times this season.

“I usually try to put it in the middle and find her head,” Crew said of Byrum. “She’s usually the one that gets on most of them. I was just happy to get it inbounds because yesterday (Monday) I was struggling at practice. So I had to focus to get it inbounds and to find her forehead.”

The Warriors put the game out of reach at 3-1 with 6:05 left on Hannah Lees’ goal. Byrum had the assist.