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CANFIELD -- During overtime of the United Eagles' Division V district championship soccer match, it appeared that they may have let several opportunities to win the contest slip away.
But senior Jace Medure finally delivered the knockout blow with a game-winning goal late in the second overtime to send the top-seeded Eagles to the regional semifinals with a 4-3 victory over the 23rd-seeded Warren JFK Eagles.
"We play them every year in the regular season and I know their coach well," United head coach Curtis Jones said. "We knew what we were getting ourselves into. They played differently than in the regular season where they played very, very defensively (during United's 2-0 win on Sept. 19)."
With the match deadlocked at 3-3 since early in the second half, United controlled the play throughout the remainder of regulation and into the overtime sessions Saturday. United had 16 shots on goal in the contest compared to only six for JFK.
"Very frustrating, very frustrating," Jones admitted about United's inability to put the game away. "I have coached these boys for a long time, and I have seen their growth. There is not much that happens that I haven't seen before. But it was getting a little nervy."
Then when JFK had a free kick directly in front of United's goal late in the second overtime, it appeared that the domination that United was enjoying may be shattered. However, United's defense came up with a deflection and goaltender Seth Blake made the save to instantly flip the momentum. United proceeded to move the ball into JFK's territory with a side out with just over three minutes remaining in the extra session.
The inbound pass came to Medure high in front of the net, who made a hard kick toward the goal. The ball deflected off a defender and trickled past the JFK goaltender into the right corner of the net for the winning goal.
"I have been waiting on just about every free kick for the ball to pop out," Medure said. "I wasn't going to have a shot there because there were a lot of people there. But I looked at the clock and I saw that there wasn't a lot of time left so I figured that I would hit it and hope for a deflection. And that is exactly what happened."
"In my fifteen years, we have never had to go to penalty kicks," Jones said. "At about the six-minute mark left we said we better start figuring out penalty shooters. One of my assistants said once we get this list, someone will score, and we won't have to worry about it. When we got that fifth name down, we scored right after it. I threw that board down and sprinted out."
United improves to 17-2 on the year and is headed to a third regional appearance, including a second in the past four years. They will face Kidron Central Christian (13-4-2) at 7 p.m. Wednesday at Copley High School.
The Comets beat United, 2-1, on Aug. 28. The teams have played the last four years with United winning 4-2 in 2023 and 3-0 in 2022 and Kidron Central winning 3-0 in 2021.
"It feels great, especially for this senior class," Medure said. "To be at four district finals in four years, it doesn't get much better than that. And then winning two of them. We are going to keep pushing and go one game at a time."
"Six trips to districts, and we have won three," Jones said. "For this senior class, they are the first to go to four district championships, them and the juniors are the first to win two in their career. But the next game (Regionals) has been a hurdle that we have not been able to get past."
United jumped on JFK right off the opening kick with Maddox Andrea scoring less than two minutes into the contest. Jude Andrea added a second goal for United five minutes later to give them a quick 2-0 advantage.
"We tried to get them from the start," Medure said. "We know that they are not going to give up and we aren't going to give up. So, it was important to try to get the game under control."
JFK cut the deficit to 2-1 at the 17:57 mark of the first half on a fluke goal by Dom Ryan as the ball appeared to handcuff goaltender Matt Wagner with a strong wind re-directing the ball on a high bounce. But United reclaimed a two-goal lead with 7:58 remaining in the half on a deflected goal when Maddox Andrea kicked toward the net and the ball snuck out of a scrum to find the back of the net.
"We felt confident," Jones said about the team's attitude at the intermission. "They (JFK) had not had a lot of legitimate attacks. Their goal was from around half-field when he kicked it. It kind of skipped in front of Seth. Other than that, they had no opportunities."
But JFK copied United's quick start from the start of the contest as they stormed back with two goals early in the second half. JFK scored at the 36:34 mark on a scrum in front of the United's net with the ball trickling past Wagner in the left corner. JFK added another goal with 29:43 remaining after a kick by Nick Ryan deflected off the left post to knot the game at 3-3.
"They threw a monkey wrench in our plans there," Jones said. "They threw both Dom (Ryan) and Nick (Ryan) up. It's not often that both of them are attacking at the same time. They usually flip-flop, and usually one will sit back. So, that put pressure on our back line that we weren't quite expecting."
"I don't like to complain about conditions, but the wind was going and their second one (goal) kind of went in the back of us, and you can't really blame anyone," Medure said. "We just had to stay united as a team and keep going. Things are going to happen."
WARREN JFK: 1-2-0-0--3
UNITED: 3-0-0-1--4
First Half
38:51-United, Maddox Andrea.
33:40-United, Jude Andrea.
17:57-Warren JFK, Dom Ryan.
7:5 -United, Maddox Andrea.
Second Half
36:34-Warren JFK, Dom Ryan.
29:43-Warren JFK, Nick Ryan.
First Overtime
None
Second Overtime
3:08-United, Jace Medure.