If you were at the Northwestern and Southern Lehigh soccer game on Monday and thought one team had the advantage, in the time it would take you to get a pork roll, egg and cheese sandwich at the concession stand, the tide of the game likely would have changed.

When all was said and done, the two teams needed five minutes worth of overtime with the Tigers picking up a 3-2 win on Jake Sacco’s goal.

The senior player took a pass from Sam Seyfried coming down the right side of the field with little room to maneuver, and with two defenders closing quickly on him from behind. As he moved down the field, his angle started to close and he knew he had to take the shot.

“Sam [Seyfried] got me the ball and their outside back pinched in. Once I saw the space, I took it and put it away,” said Sacco of the game-winner. “I didn’t know if the goalie was going to get there. After he got a fingertip on it, I knew it was going in because he didn’t get a whole hand on it.”

The scoring started with Southern Lehigh going up 1-0 on a penalty kick. Kyle Hoff took the kick with 1:20 left in the first half and nailed it for the lead going into halftime.

If Sacco had little angle left in which to shoot, Jeff Garcia had no angle for the goal when he inserted a corner kick with 26:41 left in the second half. He was looking to simply center the ball and allow one of his teammates to redirect it toward the goal. Little did he know that the wickedly blowing wind would get the assist as he centered the ball, and before anybody could get a foot on it, the wind redirected it toward the goal and past goalie Dean Zannakis.

“I had done that before in youth soccer but never in high school. I have to admit that I got a lot of help from the wind on that one, you could see it just start to move toward the goal and nobody was even near it,” said Garcia.

Just nine seconds later, Caleb Danner hammered home a goal to give Northwestern a 2-1 lead. The goal seemed to shift momentum, and there was a noticeable sigh of relief from the Northwestern faithful as the momentum now shifted squarely toward the Tigers.

“Was it that quick?” asked coach Nathan Hunsicker about the timing of the two goals. “I knew it was quick, but I didn’t realize it was that quick. That’s pretty impressive.”

Just as the second half reached the halfway point, Hoff would score his second goal of the game to again knot the two teams, this time at 2-2. The teams traded opportunities through the rest of regulation and as the Spartans looked for one final shot, Northwestern goalie Zach Rosamalia made a diving stop to his right on a shot that seemed destined for the goal.

“I loved our effort,” stressed Hunsicker. “I loved that we clawed back to tie the match against a team that you could easily fold against.”

STILL UNBEATEN ... The win preserved Northwestern’s unbeaten streak against Colonial League opponents. The Tigers are now 48-0-1 in their last 49 league games, with just a tie against Salisbury a couple seasons ago keeping it from being a win streak. “It’s not something that we stress over, but it’s on our minds and we’re aware of it,” said Garcia. “You just want to keep it going.”

SEE YOU AGAIN ... While Hunsicker doesn’t want to get too overconfident, he believes that the Tigers and Spartans will be seeing each other again – possibly twice – in the postseason. “They’re a good team and I think you can easily see how it would come down to that,” said Hunsicker. “Our goal is to play them again in the league finals and the district finals. It could happen and we’d like to see that happen.” Northwestern is just one win away from clinching a spot in districts, while Southern Lehigh needs two more wins.