BLOOMINGTON — It was an instant nail-biting thriller for the ages.
When it looked like the Class 3A No. 8 Columbus North girls soccer team was going to fall in regulation in Saturday night’s Bloomington South Sectional final, a miracle happened.
In the closing seconds of regulation a battle for the ball ensued in a scrum near the net with the clock winding down, the ball took several deflections and it slowly trickled into the net as time expired. After a few seconds of discussion from the officials, the goal was allowed, and extra time was in session.
In extra time, Lauren Barker got the ball into the net for the game-winning goal to complete a huge 2-1 comeback victory over No. 9 Bloomington South for the regional title.
The Bull Dogs (18-1-1) will play No. 3 Guerin Catholic in the semistate at 1 p.m. Saturday at Seymour.
In the semifinal round earlier in the day, North defeated No. 7 Evansville Memorial 3-2 in penalty kicks after a scoreless regulation and extra time session.
North coach David Young said he was incredibly proud of how his girls not once, but twice played 94 minutes in order to capture the regional title.
“I couldn’t ask for a better group of girls to coach. They’ve come together from week one to now. They understand it takes 80 minutes, 94 minutes — twice to win games,” Young said. “They don’t give up, they don’t give up on each other, and they just play. They play hard.”
The Panthers struck first in the 69th minute when Katie Majercak scored off of a free kick that was just out of the reach of Bull Dog keeper Mallory Gilley to go ahead 1-0.
Right as time expired, the Bull Dogs scored in a battle for the ball. After the dust settled, K.J. Ely was credited with the goal to equalize the game at 1-1, setting up Barker’s game-winner in extra time.
North defender and co-captain Kate Kolhouse said being a regional champion was a goal of hers since her freshman year.
“It feels great. It’s something that I’ve worked for since my freshman year to be back on this stage,” Kolhouse said. “It finally feels nice to get there.”
Gilley was without question one of the big reasons that the Bull Dogs were in the position to begin with, making a couple incredible saves in the PK shootout against Memorial. Credit also goes to her defense once again doing its part at not letting the Bloomington South offense come back to try to level the game.
“We played really good, and we played really good together,” Gilley said. “I think the defense is such a good mix of girls that we just play so well together in the back, and I feel really comfortable with my defense. Sometimes goalies don’t feel comfortable with their defense in goal, but I’m very comfortable with the girls I have on my backline.”
Of course, Gilley also was excited to be a regional champion.
“It’s very, very exciting,” Gilley said. “I’m very excited to get to experience this, especially at such a young age because I have two more years left, and especially our seniors, they’ve worked so hard for it, it’s just really exciting.”
North now has a full week to prepare for Guerin Catholic.
“We’ll be ready for semistate,” Young said. “Tonight, B-South and this morning with Evansville Memorial, both are top-10 programs. If you would have asked me in the morning, if you would have told me that we would win two games in overtime, one in PKs, against two top-10 teams, I wouldn’t have believed you, and doing it without Jenna Lang scoring, it tells you the type of team we are, and they know that whenever we step on the field, anything can happen.”
In the semifinal, neither team gave an inch in the 80-minute regulation, nor in the 14 minutes of extra time, remaining scoreless, and sending the game to a penalty kick shootout.
In the shootout, the Bull Dogs had a 3-2 lead after conversions by Lauryn Whitley, Claire Lyvers and Jenna Lang, but the Tigers still had their fifth kicker to go. The kick went right at Gilley, who cradled it in to send North to the regional championship.
Young said he worked with his team on penalty kicks for the past three weeks in case the game was to be decided in that matter. Sure enough, that practice paid off.
“We talked about it all year, putting these girls into situations that they’re going to be in in games,” Young said. “At the end of the day, we told them at the start, it was going to be either 80 minutes, 94 minutes, or it’s going to PKs. We worked on it, and we trained it. The girls stepped up, Mal stepped up, and the girls were composed, and that’s what it’s going to take. Memorial is the best team we’ve faced all year, and we sustained their pressure for 94 minutes.”
The huge credit and unsung heroes in the victory belonged to the Bull Dogs’ back line defensively and the incredible goalkeeping of Gilley.
“They have been all year, giving up 12 goals all year in 19 games,” Young said. “12 goals is ridiculous, and kudos to anybody that plays on our backline and Mal.”
