Every once in a while, there is a moment in a game when everything stops, the crowd goes dead silent, and everyone is barely able to watch the drama that’s about to unfold. The players find a level of focus they never knew was possible and try to shake the entire colony of butterflies that have manifested inside of them.

The GLIAC Championship game that was played Saturday night between the Ashland men’s soccer team and Ohio Dominican was one of those moments. Those in attendance were able to witness one of the most bizarre and rarest forms of deciding a game – a penalty-kick shootout. Not only that, the shootout went past the customary five shooters for each team, progressing to the sudden death stage. All of this provided for more time-freezing than the early 2000s movie Clockstoppers.

All year, one of the main goals for the men’s soccer team was to get back to the GLIAC Championship and reverse the result of an overtime loss to Tiffin. Saturday night, they got that chance. The only differences were that they had home-field advantage this time and the opponent was a first-year member of the conference, Ohio Dominican.

Both teams played their hearts out from the get-go, fouls and cards being handed out like candy even though Halloween was last weekend. Michael Kennedy was the first to get his name in the book in the 10th minute.

Fifteen minutes later, Adam Spannbauer found a little treat in the form of a flicked-on header by Louis Clark.

“I couldn’t really ask for more with the ball falling at my feet,” Spannbauer said. “From ten yards away pretty much all I had to do was bang it on frame and that’s what I did. Louis did all of the work, I was just there to clean it up.”

The lead didn’t last long for Ashland, as a penalty-kick was awarded to ODU in the 27th minute. Duncan Campbell converted the kick for the Panthers; one of nine shots on goal that keeper Justin Nolan faced in the game. Nolan made eight saves to keep the game alive, which set the tone for the drama that would unfold in the shootout.

The score stayed tied throughout the rest of regulation and through two overtime periods, but not for lack of chances on either side. In the closing seconds of regulation, forward Louis Clark got the ball at midfield and streaked down the left sideline towards goal. When the whistle sounded, Clark found himself on the ground listening to the outcry of supporters and teammates after being dragged down just before making an attempt at winning the game. No foul was awarded and the game headed to overtime.

In overtime, the game was nearly ended by the unlikeliest of heroes. Senior wing Tom Rankin, who had been nursing an ankle injury and has been out of action for the majority of the season, blasted a shot from the right side that shook the crossbar.

All of this brought us to the shootout: five shooters for each team versus the goalkeepers in soccer’s form of Russian roulette.

James Livingston, Adam Spannbauer, Kenny Hewitt and Jamie Dollar all converted for Ashland and Nolan saved one for the Eagles, setting up freshman Louis Clark to drill his and win the game. No such luck. Clark stuttered trying to draw the keeper one way or the other, but the keeper didn’t budge and made a fantastic diving save.

Bring out the next set of shooters for sudden-death. Danny Lusheck converted but so did Liam Fitzgerald for ODU. That left freshman defender Brian Ruhaak for Ashland. He converted. Then ODU’s Justin Wheeler stepped up only to be denied by Nolan, who dove to his left and held on to the little white sphere with all his might before running towards the sideline where his teammates met him, piling on top of him in a ball of relief and euphoria.

Senior Adam Spannbauer expressed how it felt to accomplish something that the team has worked for all season.

“It’s a long time coming,” Spannbauer said. “The past three years we’ve made it to the final four of the GLIAC championship and we’ve made it to the final twice and came up dry. For me, since I’m a senior, it’s just the cap on my year. It’s the perfect feeling.”

Head Coach Jon Freeman got the ice bath and the trophy that he deserved after leading the team to their first GLIAC Tournament Championship.

“It feels great,” Freeman said. “I do still give a lot of credit to John Hall for mentoring me and setting these boys up in the right way. I came in and I just didn’t want to mess it up. It feels good and at the end of the day the credit has got to go to the team. We got performances from literally everyone on the field today. We hung together, we dug deep and we knew what we had to do to get the result.”