The 80 minutes of regulation play were not enough to decide a winner.
Add in the two 10-minute overtime periods, not enough.
The first round of five penalty kicks? Not enough. The next five penalty kicks? Still not enough.
It took a total of 28 penalty kicks between the Capital City Lady Cavaliers and Helias Lady Crusaders to decide a winner Wednesday night.
“It’s not a great way to win, even worse way to lose,” Capital City coach Travis Cairer said after the Lady Cavaliers defeated the Lady Crusaders 1-0 in Central Missouri Activities Conference action at Capital City High School. “Helias played hard and deserved to win, too. It stinks that somebody had to lose.”
Win or lose, Helias coach Jon DeSha is not a big fan of PKs deciding a winner.
“I don’t think you’ll find too many coaches who want the game to come down to penalty kicks,” he said. “However, it will show a little bit a grit, it will show the composure of players, it shows a lot.
“But it’s not my preference. Nobody wants it to come to that, it’s just something you have to deal with. You have to be able to finish it in the run of play.”
Gallery: Helias Girls Soccer at Capital City
The game was scoreless through regulation and after the two overtimes.
“Both teams had a few opportunities,” DeSha said.
Helias finished with a 12-8 edge in total shots through the 100 minutes of play.
“We didn’t play too bad,” Cairer said. “We kept our composure, we didn’t fall off. We continued to fight and really work like we want to be doing late in the season.”
Each team selects five shooters for the first round of penalty kicks. The Lady Cavaliers and Lady Crusaders were tied at four after that round.
It then turns into sudden victory if a team has the lead after each takes its attempt. Five new shooters went for each team and both either made or missed in the same individual round and it was tied at 7.
So is their more pressure on the shooter or the keeper when it comes to the penalty kick round?
“The keeper has to face all five, but at the same time, each shooter only gets one shot,” Cairer said.
Well, not exactly. After 10, each team put its first five shooters back in the rotation.
“I guess we did start over,” Cairer said. “Crazy.”
It definitely was something unusual.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had one that went 10,” DeSha said. “I looked over at (assistant coach) Katelyn (Cowell) and said ‘I’m not sure what we do after 10.’”
DeSha said the Lady Crusaders have not practiced penalty kicks.
“Not a minute,” he said. “I’d rather spend time on how we play, not how we finish.”
The Lady Cavaliers had spent some time at practice working them.
“Not a lot,” Cairer said. “We did a couple of times last week, I think.”
In the next round, both teams converted on their first three attempts. Capital City keeper Natalie Allison made a kick save on Helias’ 14th attempt, giving the Lady Cavaliers a chance to win.
“I will always choose a player who will strike the ball well and everybody who went for us struck the ball well,” DeSha said.
Kaylee Loethen of the Lady Cavaliers then went 2-for-2 on the night in PKs to give Capital City the victory on the 28th shot.
“I don’t think I’ve ever had one go that long, I think I’d remember something that painful,” Cairer said, noting Capital City has won its last three contests that went to penalty kicks.
Helias (1-3-1 overall, 0-1 CMAC) is back in action Friday at Union.
Capital City (3-0, 1-0) will host a pair of games this weekend, facing Branson on Friday and Republic on Saturday.
The JV game, limited to one half, ended in a tie at 1.