CATASAUQUA — Tuesday night became a matter of too little, too late for the Northwestern Lehigh Tigers.

Northwestern started and ended the game strong but Southern Lehigh dominated the middle two quarters and defeated the defending Colonial League champions 2-1 in the semifinal round of the league playoffs at Catasauqua’s Alumni Field.

Neither team was able to gain an advantage through the first two quarters, but Northwestern controlled the first and Southern Lehigh, after a fiery speech from coach Adrienne Searfoss, came out with a renewed approach to dominate the second 15 minutes of the game.

The first goal of the game didn’t come until the third quarter when Southern Lehigh’s Leah Colley sent the ball to the front of the net where Lily Thode took control and put a shot past goalie Charlotte Gober.

Thode struck again with 7:28 left in the quarter when she launched a rocket that snuck just inside the post and under a diving Gober. The goal not only made it a 2-0 lead, but knocked Northwestern Lehigh back on their heels.

“We had some things in the middle where we didn’t fully execute,” said Northwestern coach Lissa Opolsky.

“I don’t know that I could point to one thing that really didn’t happen, it was just execution.”

In the fourth quarter, Northwestern started to get a second wind and took control of play.

The Spartans defense bent but didn’t break until the clock wound down to 5:56 left in regulation. That’s when Faith Slifer broke through for the Tigers’ first goal to make it 2-1.

Northwestern then controlled play through the rest of the quarter, taking the game down to literally the final second.

The Tigers were awarded a corner just as time ran out and turned that into two additional corners, but were unable to take advantage of the opportunities.

One of the problems that the Spartans presented was their speed up front. Northwestern always seemed a step off the pace being set by Southern Lehigh.

“They like to go forward a lot, so we knew that coming in and we only subbed a few times and we played with 13 people tonight, so not ideal,” said Opolsky.

“We’ll just go back to the drawing board; I think there was a lot of resilience in there.”

Southern Lehigh also came into the game looking for a little revenge since it was the Tigers who defeated the Spartans in last year’s league championship.

NO THREE-PEAT ... Northwestern’s loss takes away its chance for three straight Colonial League championships. Prior to that, Southern Lehigh had won three straight league titles. Either Northwestern or Southern Lehigh has won the past eight Colonial League championships. Southern Lehigh will look to take back the league title when it faces Salisbury Thursday night at Bethlehem Area School District Stadium. The Falcons defeated Bangor 2-1 in the other league semifinal game Tuesday night.

NOT DONE YET ... The loss doesn’t end the season for Northwestern. The Tigers are the top seed in the District 11 1A classification. District playoffs begin next week with the matchups to be announced this weekend.

Southern Lehigh 2, Northwestern 1

Southern Lehigh 0 0 2 0 - 2

Northwestern 0 0 0 1 - 1

Goals: Southern Lehigh - Thode 2; Northwestern - Slifer 1; Saves: Southern Lehigh - Gerhart 4; Northwestern - Gober 10.

Records: Southern Lehigh (15-5); Northwestern Lehigh (13-6-1).