It seems as if every time Northwestern and Salisbury step on the same soccer field, a close game is surely to follow.

During the fall season, the Tigers came out victorious in a 1-0 decision over the Falcons in mid-September. When the District 11 Class AA playoffs got under way, the Falcons got a bit of revenge with their 3-2 victory in the semifinals.

Over half of a year later during play in the Lehigh Valley Summer Soccer League (LVSSL), the same still holds true between these two Colonial League foes. But unlike the last meeting, the CSG Falcons were on the short end of the stick in the summer months.

In the semifinals of the LVSSL playoffs, the Tigers outlasted the Falcons on Thursday to secure a 2-1 victory and advance to the championship game against Saucon Valley. It was the second one-goal loss for the Falcons against the Tigers this summer.

As Group B's fourth seed entering the playoffs, the Falcons advanced to the semifinals with their 2-1 overtime victory over Southern Lehigh, the top team out of Group A, last Wednesday.

"It's definitely a booster going into the regular season," Connor Wagner said of the team's victory over Southern Lehigh. "It's good to see what they're going to be in the season. I don't know if they'll have more players or not, and I'm not sure of their roster or anything. It is definitely good to win and move on, especially it being our final year."

A 1-1 game after regulation triggered a five-minute golden goal overtime session before penalty kicks would be in store should neither team score in the extra frame.

Once overtime got under way, the Falcons wasted little time in scoring the deciding goal against the Spartans.

Wagner, the team's leading goal-scorer last season, made the biggest play of the game as a facilitator. Dribbling up the right side of the field, he found an open Ben Heydt, who punched in the winning goal past the Spartans' goalkeeper.

"He [Heydt] played me through the middle, and there was only two defenders back," Wagner said. "Danny [Walters] was making the run down the right side, and the defender on the left came and tried to take the ball from me. I just played it off to Ben because it was a wide-open shot."

Heydt also broke a scoreless game in the second half when he fired a low shot into the right side of the goal in the early moments of the half.

Moments later, however, the Spartans scored on a deep free kick from roughly 25 yards out that landed in the upper 90s to tie it at a goal apiece.

"We have most of the younger kids here," Wagner said. "It definitely helps us going into the season seeing what everybody else has.

Their win over Southern Lehigh was their sixth consecutive.

"The few games that we lost, we were short players," Wagner said. "People started showing up, and we started to click more and play a lot better."

Saucon Valley topped Northwestern in the LVSSL championship game on Friday, 2-1.