The Northwestern Lehigh soccer team has a lot of goal-scoring weapons at its disposal. On Monday, though, it wasn’t one of the higher-profile players that scored the winning goal to beat Southern Lehigh 3-2 in overtime.

This time around, it was Jake Sacco, who is accustomed to coming off the bench to contribute but was on the field to start the overtime period for the Tigers.

Late in the first half, Southern Lehigh was awarded a penalty kick when one of its players was pulled down in the box.

Kyle Hoff took the kick and with 1:20 left in the first half, fired a shot past Tiger goalie Zach Rosamalia for a 1-0 lead that stood up until the second half of the game.

Northwestern’s first goal came in an improbable way when Jeff Garcia looked to simply center a corner kick but got an assist from Mother Nature to tie the game. Garcia’s kick was bent sharply toward the goal by a strong wind that affected play throughout the game.

Without any other players touching the ball, the breeze sliced the ball past goalkeeper Dean Zannakis to tie the game.

“I had done that before in youth soccer but never in high school,” said Garcia. “I have to admit that I got a lot of help from the wind on that one, you could see it just start to move toward the goal and nobody was even near it.”

Just nine seconds later, Caleb Danner hammered home a goal to give Northwestern a 2-1 lead. The goal seemed to shift momentum and there was a noticeable sigh of relief from the Northwestern faithful as the momentum shifted squarely toward the Tigers.

“Was it that quick?” asked coach Nathan Hunsicker about the timing of the two goals. “I knew it was quick but I didn’t realize it was that quick. That’s pretty impressive.”

Just as the second half reached the halfway point, Hoff scored his second of the game to again knot the two teams, this time at 2-2. The teams traded opportunities through the rest of regulation and as the Spartans looked for one final shot, Northwestern goalie Zach Rosamalia made a diving stop to his right on a hard shot that seemed destined for the goal.

“I loved our effort,” said Hunsicker. “I loved that we clawed back to tie the match against a team that you could easily fold against.”

Halfway through the first overtime period, Sacco took a pass from Sam Seyfried coming down the right side of the field with a little room to maneuver, but two defenders closed quickly from behind. As he moved down the field, his angle started to close and he knew he had to take the shot.

“Sam [Seyfried] got me the ball and their outside back pinched in and once I saw the space, I took it and put it away,” said Sacco of the game-winner. “I didn’t know if the goalie was going to get there. After he got a fingertip on it, I knew it was going in because he didn’t get a whole hand on it.”

Sacco’s goal preserved Northwestern’s unbeaten streak against Colonial League opponents. The Tigers are now 48-0-1 in their last 49 league games, with just a tie against Salisbury a couple seasons ago keeping it from being a win streak.

“It’s not something that we stress over, but it’s on our minds and we’re aware of it,” said Garcia. “You just want to keep it going.”