It seems to happen often. Two teams play to a scoreless tie through regulation and just a few minutes into overtime, somebody finds that elusive goal and sends their team home happy. Such was the case Tuesday night when the Northwestern and Salisbury field hockey teams were scoreless through 60 minutes and then Sydney Derr broke the tie a little over three-and-a-half minutes into overtime, allowing the Tigers to celebrate a 1-0 win.

For the winning goal, Derr broke down the left side of the field, cut inside and beat Salisbury goalkeeper Josie DuBois for the lone goal of the game. The play was nearly a carbon copy of Derr’s first attempt to snap the scoreless tie a few minutes earlier when she dribbled through a couple of defenders before getting open and firing a shot that went just wide of the goal cage.

The goal was set up by Allie Lister, who hit Derr with a near-perfect pass to allow her to move freely toward the goal. The passing throughout the game was a key for Northwestern as the Tigers moved crisply through the Salisbury defense but couldn’t find a way to finish their scoring opportunities until the overtime period.

“We work hard on executing our passing,” said Northwestern head coach Lissa Opolsky. “It’s obviously easier to execute on turf and we took advantage of that tonight. We didn’t change our game plan in overtime. We just wanted to connect on our passes and it just so happens that Sydney is often the last one in the string of passes and she’s in the position to score goals.”

The game was originally scheduled to be played at Northwestern, but rain left the field unplayable so it was moved to Northern Lehigh’s artificial turf.

Early in both halves of the game, Salisbury (3-5 Colonial, 4-5 overall) controlled play and kept pressure on the Northwestern defense. Taylor Page started in goal for the Tigers and held the Falcons scoreless through the first half. At halftime Opolsky switched to Alena Smargiassi to give a different look. The two goalkeepers, both seniors, have shared time in goal for the past couple seasons and it has worked to the Tigers advantage.

“They’re both a little different in their game and how they play, but they’re both very good,” said out Opolsky. “They work well together and neither of them gets a chip on their shoulder about playing time. They both perform well when we call on them.”

With Salisbury pressuring in the second half, Opolsky called a timeout with 17:38 left in regulation and reminded her players of their game plan. Quickly, the tide turned and the Tigers were the ones on the attack, but they were unable to finish any shots on goalie Josie DuBois, who was playing in place of the injured Emily Silberman.

The win for Northwestern (4-1, 4-2) sets them up for a showdown with undefeated Bangor (4-0, 5-0), the leaders of the East Division in the Colonial League. The Tigers hope the field at Northwestern will be dried out enough for that game to be played there. After Bangor, the Lady Tigers have a string of four games in five days next week. They open the week at home against Palmerton (2-2, 2-2) on Monday followed by a trip to Pen Argyl (1-2, 2-2) on Tuesday. Next Thursday and Friday are back-to-back home games against Moravian Academy (4-2, 5-2) and Northern Lehigh (5-1, 6-2). The Tigers currently trail Northern Lehigh in the West Division race.

Northwestern also picked up a 2-0 win in the JV contest on goals by Paige Merschman and Alayna Harding.