Lyric Green and Wheeler’s elation turned to disbelief, disappointment, then sadness.
After Evansville Mater Dei scored the first goal of Saturday’s Class A state championship game with less than three minutes left in the second half of overtime, the Bearcats thought their high-scoring junior forward had netted the tying goal a little more than a minute later.
But the goal was waved off by an offside call.
So instead of heading to penalty kicks, Mater Dei emerged with a 1-0 win against Wheeler at IUPUI’s Carroll Stadium.
“I felt like I was onside,” Green said. “We thought we had a good chance going into PKs and they took it away.”
Wheeler coach Bryan Murray had a good angle of Green’s header with 1:10 showing on the clock.
“It looked like she was on — she was on,” Murray said. “He said at some point she came from an offside position back on, but when the ball was played, she’s clearly onside. She may have been offside at one point, but that doesn’t matter — it’s when the ball was played. I definitely disagreed on that, but you have to stay positive with all that.
“Obviously, we wanted the equalizer to send it to a shootout, but who knows what happens there?”
The Bearcats (21-1) and Mater Dei (13-6-4) played to a scoreless standstill until the waning minutes of the second half of OT. With 2:35 on the clock, freshman Miranda Nosko pushed the ball across the line after Morgan Gries slotted a pass.
“It was a deflected ball that found its way,” Murray said.
Wheeler nearly took a 1-0 lead with seven minutes left in the second half. Sophomore midfielder Riley Garcia shot toward an open net, but defender Victoria Zigenfus knocked the ball away.
“We had one rolling in and their outside back cleared it off the line,” Murray said. “We kept putting pressure and you hope one will go.
“That’s as physical a game both ways as you’ve seen in a long time. Neither side gave an inch, didn’t want to lose.”
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Mater Dei won its first state title after finishing as runner-up in 2014 and 2015. Wheeler was making its first state finals appearance after winning the program’s first semistate championship.
“This has been the best season in my life with this team,” said Green, who finished with 44 goals. “We just worked really well together. We played our hardest ever. We did all we could do.”
The Bearcats spent most of the season ranked No. 1 in the state’s coaches poll. Mater Dei was No. 4.
“You’re left a little bit numb, but it doesn’t take away from what they did this year,” Murray said. “This has been a phenomenal year.
“They came in confident. The state tournament stage did not intimidate them. They competed like they have all year. It’s a classy group of girls.”
Wheeler started three seniors, four juniors, three sophomores and a freshman.
Murray acknowledged the Bearcats’ bright future, but was more interested in praising the “critical” senior contributions of goalkeeper Cheyenne Foor, central defender Kaitlyn Asher and right defender Frani Zeitler as well as forward Delaney Bath.
Zeitler was named the Mental Attitude Award winner.
“It’s an honor,” she said. “It can be tough to keep your head up, but I’ve really worked hard to keep a positive attitude with everything. In soccer, it makes all the difference. If you stay positive and keep working as hard as you can, you get results.”
Murray called Zeitler a “deserving” recipient.
“Frani’s a fantastic person,” he said. “She has a great ability to keep what’s important in perspective. I’m really proud of her hard work, and it paid off on a big stage for her and the school.”
Twitter @MichaelOsipoff