With all of the opportunities Northwestern generated on goal in the first half, it might have expected more than a 1-1 tie.

But when the competition of play reaches the level of district soccer, advancing is the only thing that matters at this stage of the game. And that's exactly what the Tigers were able to do in their District 11 Class AA quarterfinal matchup against Palisades.Passed the midway mark of the second half, Megan Landrigan positioned a cross in front of the Pirates' goal to set up another Tiger scoring chance. This time, McKenzi Divers was there for the cleanup, punching in the game-winning tally with 18:29 to play to advance the Tigers onto Tuesday's semifinal round."It got caught beneath my foot," Divers said, "but I just dove for it. It was a really lucky shot. Luckily Megan was there to cross it in.""When a team is as organized and defended as well as Palisades did, it made it real tough for those three [Sabrina Mertz, Angela Motolese and Sarah Segan]," head coach Kelly Bleam said. "Everybody else needs to pick it up, and they did."In all, the Tigers outshot Palisades 15-4, with many of those chances coming in the first half. Divers' tally finally broke a string of 63-plus minutes of game time in which the Tigers trailed or were tied."It was very frustrating because usually we have a lot of nice shots," Divers said. "It was just frustrating how we would work so hard, and they would be off."Sabrina Mertz had the game's first solid opportunity on a free kick just over six minutes into play. Her shot, however, fired off the Pirates' crossbar. The rebound attempt by Sarah Segan was just feet over the top as well.A little more than seven minutes later, Palisades capitalized on the Tigers' missed opportunities. Brianna Johnson got behind the Tigers' line of defense, and after Tiger goalkeeper Laura Hill came out of goal to make a play on the ball, Johnston lofted a shot into the back of the net for an early 1-0 lead.Segan had another prime opportunity on goal almost 10 minutes after Palisades took the lead, but her attempt sailed just inches over the crossbar.But just seconds after Segan's potential game-tying strike, the Tigers found the break they were looking for. It came from two of their senior leaders. Angela Motolese played a nice ball to Mertz toward the Palisades' goal. After a few dribbles, Mertz ripped a shot into the left corner of the Pirates' cage for the equalizer."Once we scored, we got to how we usually play," Divers said. "We were on a roll after that."The Tigers face Southern Lehigh on Tuesday at a site and time TBD."As the games go on, we're going to play a lot more tougher teams," Divers said. "Teams are going to be better matches. We're definitely going to have to pick up our work rate, and play how we usually play with give-and-gos.""We're very much looking forward to moving onto the semifinals," Bleam said. "Regardless of our opponent, we know we are going to have a great game. Both Southern Lehigh and Blue Mountain are good teams."