Freshman forward Alisha Netus told her teammates to stay away from the crossing ball into the box. She knew she had it.
She tracked down the ball on a bounce and put it into the right-side netting.
Next thing she knew, fans and teammates were swarming her on the heels of scoring the game-winning goal with 5:24 left in double-overtime of a 2-1 victory in the Interscholastic Athletic Association of Maryland C Conference girls soccer championship game against Chapelgate at Reservoir High School in Fulton Saturday night.
“I was really excited because we won the championship,” Netus said. “It was unbelievable.”
“I think that’s awesome for a freshman,” said Glenelg Country coach Christy Cole. “She came in in August and is tough and really fast, and she’s worked really hard to compete with these kids that are really physically much bigger and stronger than her.”
For the Dragons (15-0), capturing the title was anything but easy in windy and cold conditions.
Glenelg Country couldn’t find the net despite several chances in the first half, and had two goals called back on offside calls.
The adversity picked up when the Dragons found themselves trailing for only the second time all season when, after a handball called in the box, Chapelgate freshman Rachel Terry scored on a penalty kick in the 18th minute.
“They haven’t had to face that kind of adversity before,” Cole said. “This was our time to show it, and bring it, and they did. ... We outnumbered them in shots, so it was there, it was just a matter of getting it in.”
Throughout the second half, Glenelg Country continued to miss on chances the team had converted on all season. But Cole knew if they kept their composure, the goal would come.
And it finally did when sophomore forward Kiersten Moore, who had missed on an opportunity inside the box in the 15th minute, found the ball again inside the box.
Her defender missed on blocking the through-ball up the middle, and Moore put the game-tying goal into the left corner with only 12 minutes remaining in regulation.
“I had so many emotions,” Moore said. “I was crying, I was happy, I was yelling at my team, but it was all positive.”
Both teams had a chance to put the game away late but couldn’t capitalize.
With only five minutes left in the second half, Chapelgate freshman forward Jasa Curry almost put the game away, but her shot on a breakaway went just wide right of the goal.
The Dragons almost scored two minutes into the first overtime, but a shot off a corner kick was cleared off the line by a Yellowjackets defender.
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Eventually it was the freshman Netus who put away the game-winner on a cross from another freshman, defender Hannah Glaros.
The win culminates a historic season for Glenelg Country. Cole said her headmaster told her that this is the only team in school history to finish a season undefeated.
“To go 15-0 is pretty mind-blowing when you think about it for high school sports,” Cole said.
“It means the world,” Moore said about winning the championship and finishing the season undefeated. “Even though it’s only C division, it’s amazing.”
Chapelgate (10-2-2) coach Christen Gjeldum knew it was going to be a tall task to beat the Dragons, but she was happy with how her team fought until the end.
“[We] played our best game,” Gjeldum said. “They may have won, but [we] definitely earned their respect. They weren’t used to losing at all, and we had them a little nervous.”
After Glenelg Country scored to force overtime, Gjeldum told her team to push themselves and go for the goal.
"If you’re not going to try in the last 10 minutes, then I don’t know when you will," she said. "And they did a really good job the whole entire game, even in the last 10 minutes. They just beat us to it.”