YOUNG HARRIS, Ga. — The belief never wavered.
Even with less than 10 minutes remaining in a win-or-go home match in the Peach Belt Conference Tournament Semifinals, the No. 3-seeded Flagler College men's soccer team knew it wasn't over. No. 2-seeded Young Harris College thought it was, though, and that's when
Matteo Costa came crashing in and collected a loose ball in the box — via a free kick from
Joran Osland — before putting it home to knot the score at 1-all in the 82nd minute at the YHC Soccer & Lacrosse Field Wednesday afternoon. From there, the Saints held strong in overtime and turned the 1-1 tie into a penalty-kick, 6-5, shootout victory to advance to the PBC Tournament championship for the first time since 2011.
"Fantastic effort and grit shown by our players," Flagler head coach
Chris Kranjc said. "We started the game slow and allowed them too much time and space. In the second half, the team believed, and they preserved through a lot of adversity, as they have done all year, and never gave up. The guys battled and fought through over time to get to penalties. We told the guys, 'Andrea would make one save and we needed to place our kicks.' Really proud of this team."
For 82 minutes, the Saints (4-2-2) trailed after an assist from Riccardo Sambugaro set up Ben McKay for the go-ahead lead in the 20th minute, but Flagler's
Andrea Lubbia locked down the net the rest of the way. The Saints' goalkeeper faced 17 shots, with six on goal, and hauled in five saves along the way before Sambugaro faced him again in the shootout.
With a save, Flagler would win after Osland,
Eden Shachar,
Max Lambertz,
Jed Bowman, Costa, and
Axel Nolgren's kicks secured the 6-5 lead over Young Harris (5-2-2). Lubbia needed no more motivation as he read Sambgaro's kick perfectly, getting the jump on the ball coming into the lower right and swatting it away to secure the victory for Flagler.
The Saints will now host No. 4 Francis Marion University, who defeated No. 1 Lander University in a 5-4 PK shootout Wednesday, at 3 p.m. Sunday at Saints Field.
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