The Canterbury girls entered Friday night's District A-8 championship soccer matchup as a heavy favorite over Evangelical Christian School, having already defeated the Sentinels twice during the regular season.
The Cougars (20-3) were also undefeated in district play and had outscored their opponents 16-1 en route to the final.
That was until Sentinels senior Victoria Valentine recorded a hat trick, including what would turn out to be the game-winning goal with less than two minutes left in regulation as ECS defeated Canterbury 3-2 to win the title.
“The girls played their hearts out today," Sentinels coach Steve Magner said. "Big push for us, we lost our leading scorer of the team Monday night, so for all of them to step up and play their hearts out, leaving everything on the field was exciting.
“Hats off to Canterbury, they’re a great team. They played well, moved the ball well, it was an exciting game.”
Tied at 1 at halftime, the defense for both sides seemed to take over before ECS was awarded a free kick from 10 yards out.
Valentine was able to sneak the ball past the Canterbury defense for her second goal and a 2-1 lead as time started to run out for the Cougars.
Canterbury was able to tie the game in dramatic fashion as freshman Jasmine Perez streaked down the left side and scored with under six minutes to go.
With the game looking to go to extra time, Valentine struck again from the left, all but sealing the win in the waning minutes.
“God gave me strength to be able to do this, and without this team, we would not have been able to make it this far. It was not me at all,” said Valentine, who was playing without her teammate, friend, and the team’s top scorer, junior Mallory Hayden.
“It means so much to me. Honestly,
I wasn’t sure about this game because I knew that we’d lost one of our prime players, but I knew with our confidence we would be able to do it.”