Millbury - With all of the negative issues surrounding the Perrysburg women's soccer program the last 72 hours - a positive came and it came with dramatic fashion. Senior forward Allex Brown finished off a brilliant finish with 22 seconds remaining in the match to give the Yellow Jackets a 1-0 win and their second Regional final appearance in three seasons. Before the Brown goal, the match was looking to head towards extra time - in the first half Sylvania Northview came out with reckless abandoned and looked to create a lot of opportunities, while Perrysburg was more on the defending end of thing but looked dangerous when getting into the attack. Sylvania Northview saw junior Karlie O'Keefe and senior Allison Rieger create opportunities but shots went wide, while the Yellow Jackets were not able to connect with their senior forward Brown and sophomore Leah Tilton. Both goalkeepers were not super busy inside of their penalty area but did have to see some balls out in heavy traffic by both teams pressing the goal. In the second half the game picked up with physical play and scoring chances for both - Northview would have to play with ten after senior Hannah Creech was sent off after an infraction. Perrysburg began to pick up the pressure and gain more and more momentum, Allex Brown would start it off with a great effort weaving through the Northview defense and just pushing a shot past Northview goalkeeper Kathleen Duwve and then moments later Perrysburg junior Lauren Culp would see her effort hit the top bar over the outstretched hands of Duwve. Minutes after the Culp shot off the bar - Northview would see a chance come off the top bar and Perrysburg clearing deep in in their own territory...the game was waiting for that defining moment and with 22 seconds left in the contest Brown beat her Northview defender Abbie Bacon and blasted a shot to the far post over the head of Duwve to give Perrysburg the game-winner. "It was almost like slow motion in reality - I saw it sail over her [Duwve] fingertips and hit the back of the net and I was just super excited" said Brown "We had a couple of players out this game and we talked about fighting for our family - and the soccer team is my family and we worked really hard and kept fighting and pressuring and its a whole 80 minutes you gotta play 80 minutes". Perrysburg head coach Jorge Diaz was impressed with the effort shown by his ladies on the field against a quality opponent "The biggest thing for us was taking care of O'Keefe - she was doing a great job creating a lot of them in the attack, offensively we just had to move the ball better and find feet and be dangerous" said Diaz. "Allex Brown was a difference maker today, she finished the opportunity we needed to get us to the next match". Perrysburg had to discipline and play without 3 key players in the semifinal but coach Diaz was very positive about the outcome of the players participating "We gathered the girls together and said we can crumble or come together - we needed players to step up and show their true character and these kids showed it and I am proud of their performance tonight". Sylvania Northview finishes the season at 13-5-2 and have nothing to hang their heads down - as for Perrysburg (16-2-2) they will advance to the Regional Final where they will play last year's Regional champion Rocky River Magnificat (17-2-1) at a site to be determined Saturday afternoon, Perrysburg was defeated by Magnificat on October 4th by a score of 1-0 but Final Four implications make this game a crap shoot.
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