Northwestern Lehigh’s superbly oiled soccer machine doesn’t have anything to prove. It’s the other guys that need to come up with answers.

For the fourth straight season, the Tigers are headed to the Colonial League championship. They dispatched an upstart Southern Lehigh team 2-0 Monday evening on the turf of Salisbury High School as part of a league semifinal doubleheader. The next victim on the horizon is Moravian Academy which downed Saucon Valley 3-2 in the opener.

Spurred on by Jacob Sacco, who used a late first half goal to snap a scoreless contest, the Tigers rallied in the second half, getting another score by Sacco after teammate Caleb Danner had knocked in the second score for the eventual winners.

“It took us a little bit to get our feet, but once we started rolling we got our possession game working,” said veteran Northwestern head coach Nathan Hunsicker.

Sacco’s first score didn’t come until the 4:20 mark of the opening half on a corner kick. There was a golden opportunity midway through the first half to get an early point, but an offside call killed off the potential rally before settling with a 1-0 lead after 40 minutes.

Hunsicker felt the second half was huge. Calling it a near-perfect play.

“I thought we played a pretty flawless second half,” he said. “We started to fly on all cylinders. We played really well in that second half.”

An offside call at the 9:33 mark when it looked like the Tigers were going to have a big breakaway might have cost the Tigers a goal. However, things got back on track when Danner at the 29:50 mark when the senior defender booted in his team’s second score. And when Sacco kicked in the next score for the Tigers at 23:13 mark, it was curtains for the Spartans (11-5-1, 8-3-1).

“(We were) just a little bit off, but I don’t know exactly what it was,” said Hunsicker of the first half. “We just weren’t able to find our Hunsicker felt that his team capitalized on the momentum, which got started when Sacco made the first point of the game. “Once we got the positive energy flowing we were able to take advantage of that and it was a big boost for us.”

The win vaults the defending league champions back into the title game improving to 13-0 in the league and 17-1-1.

We need to get that intensity earlier,” said Hunsicker. “But we’re excited to be back playing for another league championship.”

Northwestern Lehigh will be working on four straight league titles and a fourth straight District 11, Class 2A championship when the tournament rolls around next week. And the Tigers hope to make it to the state finals for a third straight season.

Northwestern had the advantage in just about all phases of the game, including a 6-1 shots-on-goal, and five corners to one.

Hunsicker had praises for Sacco’s leadership and said the bench play, which featured Danner on the outside, Zach Creighton up top, defensive back line Michael Rebert and Luke Taylor, who the coach said played phenomenal games.

Zachary Rosamalia was the winning goalkeeper.