The senior players on the boys soccer team don’t know what it’s like to finish the Colonial League tournament without gold around their necks.

Make it four straight seasons now that Northwestern Tigers have been crowned Colonial League champions, after beating Moravian Academy 3-1 Wednesday to take home the championship.

Northwestern completely dominated play from the start of the game. The problem was that while they were controlling the ball and getting good looks at the net, they were unable to get the ball into the back of the net. Within the first nine minutes of the game, they had a free kick from 25 yards out be deflected by goalie Ethan Buck, and another free kick clank off of the crossbar and carry over the net and out of bounds.

“It really was getting frustrating, but they weren’t able to take anything to the net, so I wasn’t too concerned,” admitted Northwestern senior Sam Seyfried, who would finally change the scoreboard with 27:59 left in the first half when he got an open look to beat Buck and give the Tigers a 1-0 lead.

Late in the first half, the Tigers (18-1-1) seemed to lose some of their dominant style of play, and came out much the same in the second half. Before long, Moravian Academy (15-4-0) was the aggressor and had Northwestern on the ropes. Just over halfway into the second half, Austin Recinos broke free down the right side of the field and put a shot past goalie Zach Rosamalia to tie the game 1-1.

“I was most nervous not that they equalized it, but just how they were capitalizing on the momentum, and we were under duress non-stop,” said Northwestern coach Nathan Hunsicker.

The good news for Northwestern was that Seyfried wasn’t done. Just 1:20 after Moravian’s goal to tie the game, Seyfried made a run down the left side of the field and took a picture-perfect pass from Luke Taylor and turned it into the go-ahead goal.

“I definitely knew we were the better team and we had been taking it to them the majority of the game. I thought ‘there is no way we’re not putting another one in’, but I didn’t think it was going to come so soon after,” laughed Seyfried. “I got a phenomenal through-ball from Luke Taylor, who played it beautifully over the defender and I was able to get control and take it in.

“I’ve been playing with Luke and a lot of other players on our team since we were eight years old, so there’s a lot of familiarity there. A lot of times, he’s going to see my runs just because we’ve been playing together for so long.”

Moravian Academy continued to play intensely and Northwestern found ways to shut down their attacks. With 6:46 left in regulation, Northwestern got just what they needed; a final goal. This time, it was junior Jason Blaine, who fired from 25-yards out and put the ball sharply past Buck to make it 3-1 and decrease the pressure level for the Tigers.

“Honestly, I was feeling good about tonight and when I went in late in the game, I was just looking to make an impact,” said Blaine. “It definitely allowed us to settle in and just finish out the game.”

Northwestern has advanced through districts to reach the PIAA finals in each of the past two seasons. They start their district run next week and hope for a return to play in Hershey.

R-E-S-P-E-C-T ... Sam Seyfried admitted that he was a little disappointed to not be a first-team all-league player. Instead, he was voted onto the second-team postseason list. Rather than sulk, he used the snub as motivation to help lead the Tigers to Colonial League gold. “If I’m being honest, yeah, that really motivated me. I was a little frustrated but we got the Colonial League championship and that’s all that I really care about.”

PLAYING A HUNCH ... Sometimes, coaches win games because they play a hunch that they’ve got. As it happened, Hunsicker played a hunch when he put junior Jason Blaine into the game in the second half. “I said ‘Jason, I’m going to put you out there and you’re going to score one,’ and that was the nail.”

THE STREAK ROLLS ON ... With the playoff wins over Southern Lehigh and Moravian Academy, the Tigers have now gone 58-0-1 in their last 59 games against Colonial League opponents.