When Northwestern suffered its first loss of the season last week, 1-0 to Salisbury, the team had to choose a path.

It could let the loss pull it downward or use it as learning experience and motivation.

The Tigers did the latter. They headed into Monday’s rescheduled contest against Moravian Academy, the only other unbeaten team in the Colonial League ready to erase the loss from their memory.

The did just that, beating the Lions 3-0 to remain the only undefeated team in the league. The loss to Salisbury was a nonleague game between the two league rivals.

“One of my favorites sayings is ‘adversity builds character,’” said Tiger head coach Nate Hunsicker after last week’s loss to Salisbury. “This will kind of test our mettle a little bit. I’m excited that we have one of our toughest opponents [coming up]. This is hopefully the shot in the arm that we did need.”

Northwestern enters the final weeks of the season with a 14-1 overall record and a 9-0 mark in league games. The Tigers’ three remaining league games are all against teams with losing records. Barring a major upset, they will earn the No. 1 seed in the league playoffs.

“Is it disappointing we lost [to Salisbury],” said Hunsicker. “Absolutely. It’s a blip on the radar. We still can achieve everything we want to achieve.”

The Tigers controlled play against Salisbury and even out-shot the Falcons 16-3 in the game. But goal keeper Tyler Keller made some spectacular saves to keep the game scoreless through the first half.

“Their keeper played really well,” said Hunsicker. “You have to tip your hat to him. We didn’t do ourselves too many favors. He made a couple pretty outstanding saves. Our shots weren’t of the greatest quality but I’m not discounting anything that he did. He played and awesome game.

“The opportunities we got, when they were a good opportunities we didn’t put a whole lot of mustard behind the ball.”

The Falcons played that game with revenge on their mind after falling 4-0 to Northwestern just over a week before their nonleague meeting. Salisbury head coach Mark Allinson described that loss in the following terms: “We got hammered last week. They smoked us 4-0. We looked like a deer in headlights.”

Salisbury was without a shot in the first half of last Thursday’s game, thanks in part to center back Jonathan Blaine, who broke ups several Falcon runs.

Salisbury’s Zach Adams ended the game in the first overtime when he took a pass from his brother, Patrick, and finished it to end the game.

The Tigers and Falcons head into these final two weeks as the top teams in the District 11 Class AA rankings. Both teams will be looking to win the league playoffs and secure that No. 1 seed for the district playoffs.