By RYAN WALKER
FORT WAYNE — Two halves, two overtime periods and five penalty kicks were the barriers to Norwell’s nail-biting 1-1 win over Heritage in the sectional semifinal.
Knights’ goalie Philip Gaier made the game-winning save on the fifth shot of the Patriots to secure their spot in the sectional championship on Saturday.
“Our guys would not quit,” a teary-eyed coach Kien Nunn said after the game. “They kept fighting, and as long as you kept fighting, we had hope.”
From the game’s standpoint, Heritage was the one making the comeback.
Norwell got on the board with five seconds left in the first half when senior captain Hudson Gerbers lofted a penalty shot from the deep left corner, and Kedric Borne swooped in to score on a header.
The penalty wasn’t controversial, but how much time on the clock was — at least for Concordia.
When the official blew the whistle for the call, it appeared that there would be seven or eight seconds remaining. Ten seconds were added instead, but the goal was scored in five seconds regardless of how much time was remaining.
“There was no communication (to me) other than ‘Hey, we’re putting on 10 (seconds back on the clock),’” Nunn said. “So that’s why I told our guys ‘Hey, we need to be back just in case.’”
Similar to the first game played between the schools two weeks ago, Norwell held a one-goal game right toward the end. But again, Heritage prevailed in the late stages.
Sai Po La scored with four minutes to go in the regular season contest to tie the game. Monharmed Ali had the rights for the postseason game.
A pass slipped in through the Knights’ defense and Ali snuck a shot in under Gaier with 40 seconds left for the tie.
Not much happened in the two seven-minute overtime halves, so the penalty kicks ensued to ramp up the action.
One by one, the Patriots and Knights traded blows. The first three went in for both teams with Norwell having Gerbers, Kyler Morris and Noah Schamerloh score in that order.
On the fourth shot, Heritage was snuffed out by Gaier. Eli Randol followed with a goal and added the pressure on the Patriots in a must-score situation.
“Goalie to goalie, my money’s on Philip,” Nunn said.
Gaier dove toward his right on the final shot and kept it out of the net. The Norwell Knights bench sprinted from the sideline and surrounded Gaier in celebration.
Nunn said that its penalty kicks have been worked on since the loss in that same fashion against Huntington North on Senior Night last week.
In that game, the Knights were down 3-0 with no response in a collapse in the period. Since then, they’ve worked on their kicks and changed their strategy, putting its best scorers at the front of the lineup rather than anchoring the back. Nunn said that Huntington North ended the game with Norwell’s best kickers not getting their turn. Nunn made sure that didn’t happen again.
“We did make an emphasis on it,” Nunn said. “Especially after the Huntington game. We needed to change something.”
With the win, Norwell will head to the sectional championship at Concordia to face the hosting Cadets.
No. 9 Concordia is now 11-6 on the season after a 1-0 upset over No. 2 Bishop Luers. Nunn admitted he would rather face Concordia, but it isn’t going to be easy regardless of who they play.
“I’m not going to lie, if I had to pick between the two, Concordia would be the one I’d pick for sure,” Nunn said. “They’re still going to be a tough solid battle. The game before it was a tough game. So, if I had picked my poison, that would definitely be the I’d rather.”
ryan@news-banner.com
