EMMAUS -Northwestern's recipe for success this season has consisted largely of sound defending and ball control.

And timely scoring.The Tigers utilized the formula once again in Tuesday's PIAA Class AAA first round game to top Athens, 1-0."Possession and solid defense in the back has been our bread and butter all year long," Northwestern head coach Nathan Hunsicker said. "We don't score a ton of goals, but we always seem to get one more than the other guys, so that's what it's all about at the end of the day."That goal came from junior Noah Meyers with 8:46 remaining in the first half. Meyers took an assist from Kenneth Gawelko and slid the ball into the back of the net."We were definitely putting them under pressure," said Meyers. "They were going to crack eventually, and they did."Though the score came late in the first half, it was setup by what the Tigers (22-0-1) had seen early in the contest."In that first five or 10 minutes of the game, we really noticed that they were leaving a big gap on the outside back," said Gawelko. "So we got a long ball to my head, and I just tried to put it right where that gap was. Noah made the run perfectly and he finished it."The District 4 champion Wildcats (18-2-1) were able to fend off three Northwestern corner kicks minutes before Meyers' goal. But the defense couldn't withstand the Tigers' attack in front of the net."They had some sustained pressure," said Athens head coach Jake Lezak. "We were knocking the ball out and just trying to keep them off target in those corner kicks, and that was tough. They were good out of the air, and they have some big players."Northwestern's defense was able to neutralize Shane Colegrove, who led Athens with 34 goals and 13 assists this season."We knew he was probably going to be their strongest player, and he was," said Hunsicker. "We treated him similar to how we treat a lot of the better players we see in the Colonial League and I thought we did a great job shutting him down."One of the big things we found was that he scores a ton of his goals off of set pieces. So thankfully for us we limited him to just the one and he put that wide right so that was nice."After advancing to the Class AA semifinals a year ago, the Tigers seem to have all the ingredients for another memorable run this postseason."The experience that our senior class brings to the table as far as varsity playing experience, especially in big games like the state tournament, it definitely bodes well for us," said Hunsicker. "I think they (Athens) were a pretty young squad on the other side so they'll definitely be back. On to the next one for us, though."Northwestern advances to face Daniel Boone on Saturday in the quarterfinals.SOMETHING NEW… An injury to senior defender Noah Seng-DeLong in the District 11 title game forced Hunsicker to alter his lineup against the Wildcats. "We had to juggle things around for the first time all season," the coach said. "We literally rolled out the same lineup every single game this year up until tonight. So that was nice that the boys stepped up and did a very nice job."