Tuesday night’s field hockey game at Tiger Stadium had a very different ending than how it started.

Northwestern struck within the first two minutes to take a quick lead over Salisbury, but it proved to be the only goal it was able to score in a 2-1 loss to the Falcons.

Northwestern quickly took control of play and put pressure on Salisbury goalie Olivia Wilde. Salisbury was called for a foul in the attack zone to give the Tigers an early corner, and it didn’t miss the opportunity.

Bekah Gottlieb got the ball to Riley Stoudt, who fired from 10 yards out with Wilde out of position. The shot glanced off of the stick of a defender who had moved in to cover the hole and bounced into the goal for a lead with 13:29 left in the first quarter.

For a young team that has struggled to find goals at times, the quick start was exactly what Northwestern needed to get a jump in the rematch of teams that played in the Colonial League semifinals last season.

The quick score didn’t put Salisbury back on its heels, as it just stuck to its game plan and started to figure out the Northwestern defense.

“As soon as they responded, we had a hard time picking ourselves back up,” said Northwestern coach Lissa Opolsky. “Hopefully, in hindsight, we’ll understand that and make changes for it in the future.”

The response came from freshman Charlotte Harpster, who played a ball that rebounded off goalie Charlotte Gober and was able to get her shot past Gober to tie the score with just 1:15 left in the first quarter.

Throughout the rest of the game, Northwestern had trouble gaining any offensive momentum.

Defensively, it had a bend-but-don’t-break-type of play that allowed Salisbury to get into the attack zone only to be turned away. The Tigers gave up eight penalty corners, but were able to turn away all but one of them.

With 5:03 left in the third quarter, Salisbury was again awarded a corner and senior Ellie Schneider worked herself into a position 10 yards out from the goal with one of her own players positioned directly in front of the cage.

With one white jersey and a couple of teammates in front of her, Gober was screened from the shot that Schneider put a foot inside of the post for the tiebreaker.

From there, Salisbury’s speed and aggressiveness toward the ball carried the rest of the game. Opolsky believes that her team’s play didn’t help to level out the speed advantage.

“Our lack of communication was a problem in that area, because if we would have communicated, we could have probably stifled a little bit of the speed,” noted Opolsky. “I don’t think we knew who was coming or who was going at any particular time, so we confused ourselves a little bit.

“They definitely have some speed down the middle of the field, but when we kept the ball on the outside of the field we had some opportunities that we couldn’t necessarily capitalize on.”

IN GOOD STANDING ... Northwestern falls to 7-4-1 overall and 7-2-1 in league games this season. However, it still holds the lead in the West Division of the Colonial League, and has a perfect 2-0-0 record against division rivals Northern Lehigh, Palmerton, and Lehighton. Of its remaining six games, Northwestern plays Northern Lehigh (5-5-0) and Lehighton (3-6-0) once, and has two games left against Palmerton (3-6-0). It also plays Catasauqua (1-7-1) in a league game, and has a showdown with Crestwood (7-0-1), a dominant team in District 2 on the regular season schedule. Salisbury was the last remaining league opponent with a winning record on the schedule. Northwestern is close to clinching a league playoff spot, and has already locked up a spot in districts.

Salisbury 2, Northwestern 1

Salisbury 1 0 1 0 - 2

Northwestern 1 0 0 0 - 1

Goals: Salisbury - Harpster 1, Schneider 1; Northwestern - Stoudt 1; Corners: Salisbury 8, Northwestern 3; Saves: Salisbury - Wilde 3; Northwestern - Gober 6.

Records: Salisbury (10-1-1, 10-0-1); Northwestern (7-4-1, 7-2-1).