There are actually a lot of things you can do in a three-minute span.

For Northwestern, that span of time proved to be the perfect length to score goals in the first half of its quarterfinal round playoff game against Wilson. The Tigers finished with five first-half goals and rolled to an 8-1 win.

The three-minute drill actually started with a near-miss when they were awarded a direct kick with 25:30 left to play in the first half. Colin Coffield approached the ball, but veered off in favor of Jeff Garcia, who put a shot on goal, only to have the ball bounce back to Cayden Fitch. Fitch launched a shot that went up and over the crossbar, allowing Wilson to dodge an early bullet.

But from there, the shots began to land hard and heavy.

“The first five or six minutes, we were really struggling,” said Coffield. “My teammates put me in a good spot, and all I had to do was put the ball away, and that changed the momentum of the game. It’s always important to get that first goal when you can.”

Just about three minutes later, Coffield scored the first goal of the game with 22:44 left in the first half. At the 19:36 mark, Coffield would pick up his second goal of the night when Phil Taylor’s shot came off the crossbar and Coffield didn’t miss the opportunity, giving Northwestern a 2-0 lead.

After 3:28 ticked off the clock, Taylor fired a shot across the field that went into the far top corner of the goal. Just 2:52 later, Seth Brady would pick up his first of two goals when he also found a rebound and sneaked it into the front corner of the goal. Brady waited another three minutes until he would get his second of the night, ending the series of goals coming every three minutes for Northwestern.

The Tigers scored five goals in a span of 11:57 to take a commanding 5-0 lead going into halftime.

“I thought tonight the teamwork that we had and the buildups that we had were really good, and we played with a lot of hustle and heart,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “We were just making sure that we were putting them on frame. Colin’s two goals kind of got things going, and that seemed to loosen everybody up.”

Garcia got in on the scoring in the second half when he put up a shot that went across the front of the net and bounced off the inside of the far post, bouncing to the back of the net to give the Tigers a 6-0 lead.

The Warriors got their only goal of the game right after Garcia’s goal when Wilson Bibano was able to sneak a shot into the net. Northwestern was awarded a late penalty kick, and Donovan Martinez converted to cap the scoring with 5:29 left to play and put the Tigers up 8-1.

The win moves Northwestern - seeded third - into the semifinals against the No. 2-seeded Moravian Academy Lions. The Tigers will travel to Moravian Thursday afternoon, but they’re not concerned about not having home field advantage in the semis.

“We should have won the game that we played there during the regular season,” said Brady. “They’re definitely beatable if we play a good game, and we all believe we can beat them no matter where we play.”

JUST WHAT THE DOCTOR ORDERED … Finally, the Northwestern soccer team is healthy. After playing much of the year with pieces of the lineup missing here and there, they’ve finally got their full roster on the field. The healthy version of the Tigers is much different from the one that worked their way through the regular season, and they showed it Tuesday with their dominating win. “We haven’t been 100-percent healthy for the lion’s share of the season, so finally we’re healthy and have everybody back in place where we want them, and we’re finally clicking and making the connections we need to make to win,” said Hunsicker.

THE OTHER GUYS … On the other side of the bracket, fifth-seeded Bangor beat fourth-seeded Notre Dame-Green Pond 1-0. That puts the Slaters into the semifinals against top-seed Southern Lehigh. If Northwestern advances to the finals, the game would be played at Palisades. If Northwestern isn’t involved in the finals, the Colonial League will shift the game to Tiger Stadium.