After an early goal, the Jefferson City Jays thought they were sitting pretty.
"I was encouraged, I thought we had the opportunity to keep things going by scoring in the first 15 minutes or so," Jays coach Scott Blake said.
After tying it up midway through the second half, the Southern Boone Eagles thought momentum was on their side.
"We were in it, we made some plays," Southern Boone coach Chris Miller said. "I thought we were the more dangerous team down the stretch."
It came down to the coin flip that is penalty kicks. The flip favored the Jays, who hit four of six after a pair of scoreless overtime periods to take a 2-1 decision Tuesday night from the Eagles at the 179 Soccer Park.
"I won't say all of our PKs were struck well, but we should have a little confidence in them," Blake said.
The Jays got on the board about 13 minutes into the contest on a good pass from Isaac Johnson to Erick Ortiz. Ortiz found the back of the net to give Jefferson City the early advantage.
"You have to put teams away," Blake said. "When you let teams hang around, they are one counter-attack away, one great shot away from making it interesting."
But despite an 11-4 edge in shots in the first half, that was all the scoring.
"We're going to get better on offense," Blake said. "We got the shots we were looking for, we just didn't hit them. And then we weren't following up on them to the net. That's something we have to work on."
The Jays have concentrated on the defensive side at the start of the season.
"We've spent so much time working on the back half, finding our grit and grind back there," Blake said. "We've got that piece. We just don't have that in the front half just yet. We're working on it and we'll get it, it's just going to take time."
The Eagles tied it midway through the second half. Rece Gilmore, a freshman, got the ball near the midfield stripe and unleashed a bending shot that found the top corner of the net.
"That was a phenomenal shot," Miller said.
And not a fluke.
"He hit one just like that the other day," Miller said. "He's really suited to hit that shot, he can hit the shot.
"I had to pull him from the game in the first half because he had three opportunities to shoot it and he didn't. We had talked about that before the game. He shut me up after hitting that one."
Blake said he was ready to go out on the field to congratulate Gilmore if something like that was actually allowed.
"You just have to tip your hat on that one," Blake said. "Those kinds of shots normally don't find the net."
The Jays and the Eagles swapped scoring chances in the two 10-minute overtime periods, but both came up empty to set up penalty kicks.
After the first five attempts, the teams were knotted at 3. That meant each subsequent round could end it.
The teams needed just one. Ortiz converted in the lower corner on the ensuing attempt for the Jays, while the shot for the Eagles went wide.
"I think we came close to stealing one," Miller said. "This one slipped through our fingers.
"There have been years where we've had to come in her and play in a shell. But this time, I think we did a good job of playing the game."
Southern Boone, which won the abbreviated JV game 1-0, is now 8-2.
Jefferson City (4-2) will host the Capital City Invitational on Friday and Saturday.