EMMAUS - The Northwestern Tigers are starting to feel at home playing at Emmaus’ Memorial Field.

After beating Allentown Central Catholic in the district championship game, they returned to Memorial Field on Saturday for the quarterfinal round of states and again walked off with a win.

This time around, it was a nail-biter that finished with Jacob Van Lierop picking up the winning goal early in the first overtime period for a 1-0 Northwestern victory over Fleetwood.

Late in the game, Van Lierop looked like someone who wanted to end the game so he and his teammates could enjoy the rest of the beautiful fall day.

With 1:10 left in regulation, the sophomore midfielder put a shot on goal that goalkeeper Mitch Barr was able to tip over the crossbar.

Just under a minute later, Van Lierop again looked to put his team on top , only to be turned away.

“I dribbled down the field and found Matt (Johnson), he sent it back to me and I took a shot,” said Van Lierop of his attempt to avoid overtime. “Great save by the keeper, I could not believe he made that save; I was so upset.”

Riding the momentum of coming close to putting the game’s only goal on the board late in regulation, Northwestern came out with even more energy to start overtime.

Just over 3:00 into the OT, Van Lierop again took a pass from Johnson and made a move around Barr. Staring at a wide-open net, Van Lierop simply put an easy shot on goal and watched as it rolled to the back of the net, kicking off the celebration.

“We had a lot of momentum and honestly, we were on the doorstep of scoring two or three times (late in regulation),” said Tiger head coach Nate Hunsicker. “We were buzzing, we didn’t want to stop, we didn’t want that five-minute break there, we wanted to jump right back on the pitch and keep going. It was exciting.”

The two teams were both led by their defenses that prevented either team from getting open looks at the net.

While Fleetwood had just three shots on goal during regulation, Northwestern (24-1) had none until the final 1:10 of play. Throughout the game, Fleetwood defenders had Johnson and senior Josh Zellner well marked and kept them from getting position in front of the goal.

“This is awesome,” said Zellner. “This is the greatest moment of my soccer career, I can’t wait to play on Tuesday.

“They made life tough on me and Matt, but sometimes, all you need to win is one goal.”

The shots on goal by Fleetwood (20-2-1) were easily handled by goalie Damian Krapf, whose biggest challenge came in the first half when Danny Alvarez was in front of the net at close range and put a shot on goal that Krapf made a nice catch on to turn Fleetwood away. Many of the shots that Krapf had to play were directly at him.

IN SEARCH OF TWO MORE ... Northwestern is now two wins away from a state title. Its next challenge comes Tuesday at North Schuylkill High School when the Tigers face District 4 champs Lewisburg (20-1-1) in the semifinals. “They beat us in the semis six or seven years ago, maybe eight. We don’t know a lot about them, but we are going to be doing some digging, that’s for sure,” said Hunsicker. The championship game is Saturday in Mechanicsburg at Eagle View Middle School.

MR. BIG TIME ... Van Lierop scored what would be the winning goal in the Colonial League semifinal game against Moravian Academy, giving Northwestern a 2-1 win. Saturday’s goal was Van Lierop’s fifth of the postseason, giving him the team lead in that category.