For 79 minutes, Palisades and Northwestern Lehigh played scoreless soccer last week.

In the last minute of play, the Pirates got the game’s only goal to hand the Tigers (4-3 Colonial League, 6-3 overall) perhaps their most difficult loss of the season. The goal came off the foot of Jacob Davis as he was able to slide it toward the corner of the goal as players battled in front of the net.

“It really hurts to lose this way,” said coach Nate Hunsicker. “Our guys played a great game and they were able to get that one shot that gave them the game. It’s a tough one to handle, but we’ll get over it and come back strong.”

The game gave Northwestern a two-game skid that saw them go scoreless through both games in losses to Saucon Valley (6-0, 6-1) and Palisades (5-1, 6-3). After downing Palmerton 9-0, the offense went into hibernation, scoring just two goals in four games.

“We’ve struggled scoring all season long,” said Hunsicker. “It’s something that we have to fix and we have to get a couple of key guys back that we’ve been missing all season, but it’s no excuse. It’s starting to catch up with us, but the fortunate thing is that we played well enough to win, but we’re just not scoring.

“I couldn’t tell you the last time that I had a team go 63 minutes without scoring and that’s kind of necessary to win soccer games.”

In the second half against Palisades, Northwestern played well and were able to get a couple breakaways and open shots on goal, but weren’t able to capitalize. It was an improvement from the first half when the Tigers had difficulty getting effective shots.

“We had some openings and that’s been the problem,” said Hunsicker. “We kind of threw caution to the wind and changed our formation at halftime and I thought it gave us a plethora of chances in the second half, but we just couldn’t find the back of the net.

“We put a couple balls at the keeper, but we were giving him simple plays and he did his job.”

Since those struggles, the Tigers have come back with two wins, downing Faith Christian Academy 1-0 and then erupting for five goals in a 5-2 win over Notre Dame of Green Pond (4-2, 6-2) on Monday. Hopefully for Northwestern, the offense can continue to put goals on the board.

Matthew Johnson led the offense against Notre Dame with three goals and an assist, while Josh Zellner chipped in with a goal and an assist and Jacob Van Lierop also netted a goal for Northwestern Lehigh.

The Tigers have a busy week with games against Pen Argyl and Wilson before a non-league game against Pennsbury on Saturday. Tuesday, Northwestern travels to Salisbury before hosting Northern Lehigh on Wednesday.

The team held its annual Senior Night prior to the contest against Palisades, highlighting 11 seniors in Luke Brady, Mason Brensinger, Colin Coffield, Mason Crocco, Miles Meadows, Dylan Moss, Skyler Romanuski, Christian Sikora, Philip Taylor, Lucas Van Lierop, Jared Wallander and Dominic Yeakel.

“This group of guys has done well for us,” Hunsicker said. “They’ve worked hard. They’ve been very coachable and have helped the program to keep moving forward. It’s unfortunate that we couldn’t get a win on the night that we’re saluting them, but that’s how soccer goes sometimes. It’s just the game of soccer.”