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After Rowland Hall defeated rival Waterford 2-1 at home in overtime earlier this month, players and coaches knew that they would be in for a heated battle when the second meeting arose.

That being said, no one could have predicted the dramatics that would ensue in the two teams' second meeting as Rowland Hall once again came out victorious in overtime, by a score of 5-4.

After a back-and-forth first half that saw each team score two goals apiece, Rowland Hall came out as the aggressor in the second half. Having scored a goal in the first half, junior Airam Perez sent in a corner kick that eventually found the foot of sophomore Aislin Mecham inside the 6-yard box. Mecham chipped a shot into the top netting to give her team a 3-2 advantage in the 50th minute.

Mecham would add another goal in the 59th minute via a penalty kick to give the Winged Lions a two-goal lead with only 20 minutes to play.

That's when the flurry of offense began to mount for Waterford as junior Makenna Mumford finished off a hat trick with a free kick goal to begin the comeback for the Ravens. With precious seconds dwindling down in stoppage time, senior Maddie Duke found some space and netted the equalizing goal to give Waterford another chance to take down its rival on its home field.

Unfortunately for Waterford, its second chance didn't last long, as Rowland Hall freshman Jordan Crockett chipped home the golden goal in only the fourth minute of overtime.

"My defender was man-marking me the whole time and we were starting to get at it," Crockett said. "I wanted to show her who's boss and just finish the game. I looked at the goal and thought 'it might go in and it might not' so I just took a shot and thankfully it went in."

Crockett, who finished with two goals on the day, said that beating Waterford again was immensely important for Rowland Hall's confidence and preparation for the 2A playoffs, which will be getting underway in the next few weeks.

"This game was to win 2A and it was against the best team in our classification," Crockett said. "A win against Waterford in overtime again, it was amazing. I love this team, we're very close."

Rowland Hall coach Bobby Kennedy was extremely pleased with the way his girls handled the adversity of giving up a lead, but wished that his squad would have more opportunities like this one to prepare for the state tournament.

"I love the result and I love the battle," Kennedy said. "We don't get to do this too often in our region — we used to be one of the strongest regions a few years ago but now I don't know what it's like until we all play. You'd rather be more battle tested game in and game out so that when this kind of game comes up there's not such a gap in competition. You've got to go through Waterford to do anything in 2A and that's probably still the case." —

Storylines

P Rowland Hall improves to 10-1 overall and 6-0 in Region 14 play.

• The Winged Lions have a six-point gap ahead of Waterford in the region standings with two weeks left in the season.

• Waterford remains the only 2A team to have scored against Rowland Hall.

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