The Northwestern and Salisbury girls soccer teams have already played twice this season and it won’t be surprising if they meet for a third time when the district playoffs get underway.

When they met early in the season, the teams battled with the Tigers getting a 2-1 win over the Falcons. After that game, both coaches talked about the playoff atmosphere of the game and predicted they would meet again in the postseason.

The two teams met Tuesday night in the Colonial League semifinals and played 80 minutes with the same 2-1 outcome in favor of Northwestern Lehigh (17-2-0).

“It’s always a very tough game against Salisbury,” said coach Kelly Bleam. “Rick [coach Rick Babyak] does a great job with them and they have a lot of talented players.

“We were all at the game between Saucon Valley and Salisbury on Saturday and when they won, we all knew we were in for a battle.”

Northwestern changed the scoreboard first when Sophia Motolese scored with 34:46 left in the first half.

Motolese was in the right place at the right time after Hallie Bleam had put a shot on goal that bounced off goalkeeper Lilly Schimeneck, but stayed near the mouth of the net.

A Salisbury defender turned to clear the ball and it bounced sharply off Motolese and past Schimeneck to give the Lady Tigers a 1-0 lead.

The two teams took turns having opportunities to score and with 25:12 left in the first half, Salisbury’s Aaliyah M’Bai fed a perfect ball to Quinn Wittman, who found the back of the net to tie the game 1-1.

The Salisbury defense played well in front of Schimeneck, with Olivia Hoeing making a nice save to clear a ball from in front of the goal. Just a few minutes later, the defense kept Olivia Motolese from getting a clean look and her shot went over the crossbar.

Both teams came out putting pressure on the opposing goalkeeper in the second half.

Schimeneck went down making a save that bounced off of her, but the rebound was played wide right of the goal by Northwestern. Salisbury responded quickly and got the ball to Hoeing, who put a shot on goal, but over the crossbar.

Northwestern put together a nice collection of passes and forced the Salisbury defense to come out to make a play on Kayla Bardonner, who passed off to Kylie Zentz. With Schimeneck out of position, Zentz beat her to the goal and scored to put the Tigers up 2-1.

“I made a diagonal run and Kayla Bardonner really made a nice play on that ball and got it over to me,” said Zentz. “The defense was up and I just had to beat the goalie.”

The goal wound up being the game-winner as the Tiger defense handled things the rest of the way.

“Kylie made a great play on that ball,” said Bleam. “We had a lot of girls working hard for us tonight. Jenna Lowthert played really well and Kayla Bardonner also played really well.

“We need girls to step up in games like this and they all did a fantastic job and played really hard for us.”

While the game was evenly matched on the field, Northwestern had a distinct advantage in shots on goal.

The Lady Tigers put up 11 shots, while the Lady Falcons (14-6-0) were able to manage just three shots on goal in the game. Schimeneck made some athletic saves to keep the game as close as it was.

In the second half, the Lady Tigers were without two players who left the team at hafltime, one a starter and the other a backup. Northwestern leaned on other players to fill in the gaps and pick up the win.

Northwestern will now play for the Colonial League championship against Southern Lehigh (13-4-2), who defeated Moravian Academy (15-4-0) in the other semifinal game.

The championship will be played Thursday night at Salisbury High School.

Northwestern Lehigh last won the Colonial League championship in 2014, with Southern Lehigh winning the title every season since then.

“We’ve been playing pretty well and we really worked well together tonight,” said Zentz. “We really want to win the league and head into districts on a high note.”

A third showdown between the two teams could come in districts, which begin next week.