When Tuesday night’s Colonial League boys soccer semifinal between Northwestern and Moravian Academy ended, multiple players from both teams were limping around looking battered and bruised.

The war between the two teams ended in a 1-0 win for Moravian Academy, which will now play Southern Lehigh Thursday night for the Colonial League championship.

The Lions opened the season with eight straight wins before they ran into Northwestern, which knocked them from the undefeated ranks with a seemingly comfortable 5-0 win.

“They put some guys in different spots, and that definitely went a little bit better for them,” said Northwestern coach Nate Hunsicker about the difference from the regular season game.

The only goal of the game came with 9:22 left in the first half when Dale Berkove got a pass inside to Archie Debbage, who was able to lay a shot just past the outstretched arms of goalkeeper Zach Rosamalia.

“We set ourselves up with several quality shots; we just couldn’t find the back of the net,” Hunsicker said.

The best opportunity to find the back of the net came just minutes after Moravian had taken the lead when the Tigers were awarded a penalty kic.

But Moravian Academy goalkeeper Ethan Buck was up to the task, and stopped the shot by Jeff Garcia to preserve the 1-0 lead. Garcia’s shot bounced off of Buck, but Northwestern was unable to gain control of the ball and Moravian Academy (16-1-0) cleared it out of its defensive zone.

The loss ends Northwestern’s four-year streak as Colonial League soccer champions. Moravian Academy was the last team other than the Tigers to win the title, capturing the crown in 2014. Last season, Northwestern and Moravian Academy met in the championship game, with the Tigers winning 3-1.

The season isn’t over for Northwestern (13-4-3), which will refocus and look to get on a roll in districts, which begin next week. The Tigers went to the district final last season where they lost to Saucon Valley, breaking a three-year District 11 championship streak for the Tigers.

“It’s both a blessing and a curse,” said Hunsicker of the extra time that the loss gives Northwestern to prepare.

“Now we’re fighting for our season, and if we don’t want to be playing our last game, then we have to be on the positive side of the results. I think for these guys, that’s going to fuel them, and that’s going to motivate them.

“We’ve got a little bit of a break between now and our next game, so I think we’ll be able to come out more focused. We’re a little banged up. We had a lot of guys log a lot of minutes tonight, and it was a physical game. We played well, we just came up a little bit short.”

GOAL ORIENTED ... During the regular season, Northwestern was shut out four times, including scoreless games against Southern Lehigh and Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg. The Tigers came into Tuesday’s game averaging just over three goals per game this season. Northwestern has now been shut out in two of its last three games, dating back to its regular season finale against Notre Dame.

FAN SECTION ... Northwestern Lehigh showed up for the game at Northern Lehigh early and sat in the visiting bleachers to cheer on the girls team, who beat Salisbury 2-1 to advance to the Colonial League championship. After its win, the girls team voted to stick around and cheer on the boys team in its battle with Moravian Academy.

BY THE NUMBERS ... Both of the Colonial League soccer brackets played out exactly how the seeds suggested they would. The top four seeds played in the semifinals, with the top two seeds advancing to the championship games on Thursday in both the boys and girls brackets.