THE Regional Finals vs. BV Southwest

Game 18: 17 May vs. BV Southwest in Region 2 Finals (1-0 shootout after 4 OT's)

I would say that seldom would a Regional Final demand a dog-pile, but this one was against 2-time defending state champion, heavy-favorite to 3-Peat, 15-2, a team ranked consistently in the Top 25 in the country all year, Blue Valley Southwest—and was compounded with the fact that we had just played a scoreless game, followed by 4 scoreless overtimes and that the shootout had come down to a 5th shooter, our Claire Innes who made it, and theirs who would have her ball saved by Taylor James—so, it did.

It all started with our seniors. These girls have not been going to school for a while, had left Project Graduation two nights ago at 2:45 in the morning, but they came focused and had their team focused. I was moved to see each of our players with some white tape around their left arms with #99 written on it.  We had tried to play for more than ourselves all year, and this game would make our goal so real.

I would be hard-pressed to come up with another high school match that had been played this hard for this long by two teams.  This match was an epic battle. 17 shots were fired by each team, both finding the keeper on about 7, both with many, many corners. We had 7-8 low throw-ins—great goal-scoring opportunities. Yet, both crowds and both benches were cheering tackles, headers, blocked shots towards the end of regulation and throughout the overtimes—gasping as the T-Wolves came oh-so-close with one second on the clock. A lot of Head. Heart. Guts.

It seems so fitting that we won here tonight, the field that a year ago served as the pitch for Allyiah's last high school game. She was here with us tonight. Yes, she was.

We now stand 10-7-1.

There were the 99ers, but how about these 19ers?

STATS:

First Half

Saints: Shots 4 (0) Corners: 2 (Kante, O'Keefe)

T-Wolves: Shots: 10 (3) Corners: 4

Second Half:

Saints: Shots 5 (5) Corners: 2 (Jackson, Gregovich)

T-Wolves: Shots: 4 (2) Corners: 2

Overtimes:

Saints: Shots 6 (2) Corners: 2 (Jackson, James)

T-Wolves: Shots: 3 (2) Corners: 2

Shootout: O'Keefe, Miss, Miss, Deladurantaye, Innes

Check it out!