As the ball flied in the air, the final minute and a half ticking away, it seemed meant to be when it came down into a Westminster attackman's stick with a seemingly open net in front of him.
But then came Howard goalie Collin McClelland to stop the shot, and what seemed destined to be a second straight overtime meeting between the two teams in the Class 4A-3A North Section I final.
The shot would be the final attempt for the No. 9 Owls as the visiting No. 7 Lions kept possession the rest of the way and pulled out another one-goal victory, 8-7, on Monday in the battle of unbeaten teams.
"It was just insane. Everyone was going crazy," McClelland said. "The kid shot it, I saved it, and Alex [Stephanos] got the ball, which was great, and cleared it. ... I made one save, but my defense was there for me all night."
"Huge, man. That was a great look, that was a great save," Lions coach Jimmy Creighton said. "Collin bailed us out tonight a bunch of times, for sure. He had a great game."
Howard midfielder Brad Zulick scored three goals in the first half as the Lions held a 6-3 lead going into halftime. But Westminster (15-1) came out firing in the third quarter as they scored three straight to tie the game, 6-6, with 2:41 left in the quarter.
"They tie it up at six, and you're thinking, 'Oh man, here we go,'" Creighton said. "It kind of felt like we were shooting ourselves in the foot on offense, and they were making some solid plays on their offensive end."
Lions junior Malik Anderson, who was cleared to play last week after suffering a torn labrum in his shoulder during the football season, quieted the buzzing home crowd with a shot from 15-yards out that found the back of the net and stopped the Owl's momentum.
"Huge goal by a kid who's been out all year ... We actually weren't expecting him back," Creighton said. "He just let that thing fly. That's what he does."
Howard senior Scott Bruner tallied another one 45 seconds into the fourth quarter to increase the lead to 8-6, but Westminster made it a one-goal game with 2:48 remaining when Andrew Raines scored.
The Lions (16-0) fought off a one-minute penalty with two minutes to go, and then stalled out the final 1:30 to take the win.
"We know Westminster is a good team, we had to come out fast," Zulick said. "It was a battle. Going up against this team — they're a great team. They have a lot of great players. ... To get this win is really nice. We knew it was going to be a close one and we just stuck it out until the end."