Feet drop 4OT heartbreaker in state finals

MURFREESBORO -- Just how much can a team take?

For the second straight year, Webb advanced to the TSSAA Spring Fling Class A Division II state championship soccer match only to return home after a heartbreaking loss in four overtime periods.

With 1:44 remaining in the final "Golden Goal" period, Danny Hwang scored from approximately 20 feet out to give University School of Nashville a 2-1 win and a state championship Friday afternoon at the Richard Siegel Soccer Complex.

The match was tied 1-1 at the end of regulation and remained that way through a pair of 10-minute overtime periods and nearly two 5-minute periods of sudden death.

Webb fell 1-0 to St. George in the 2008 title match.

"There were a lot of similarities in this match when you compare it to last year, but last year we thought we might have been the second best team behind St. George," Webb coach Adrian Anderson said. "This year we had already defeated University School of Nashville twice and we felt like we were the team to beat,"

The Feet (16-4) claimed a 4-2 win over USN (11-6-2) in the regular-season, then posted a 1-0 victory in the East/Middle Region tournament final. They won their regular-season game with USN 4-2 before taking them down again 1-0 in the East/Middle Region tournament final.

Webb scored first when Adam Brooks found the back of the net less than two minutes into the game.

USN tied the game at 1-all off a goal by Sam Gerstle with 4:12 remaining in the first half.

The Feet saw a great scoring opportunity slip away when Zach Wagner's breakaway shot was barely deflected by USN's goalie midway through the second half.

Webb senior goalkeeper Zach Crownover made a couple of nice stops in the final 13 minutes of regulation.

For the most part, the Feet controlled possession in each of the overtime periods with a number of scoring opportunities just missing the back of the net.

"In the overtime periods we did do a good job of working the ball around and looked to score," Anderson said. "There at the end we might have pushed a little too hard to get the goal and gave ourselves up at the back."

What do you say to a group of young men that fought so hard in back-to-back state championship games only to lose both in quadruple overtime?

"I told the guys that I'm extremely proud of them," Anderson said. "They've had the chance to play for two state titles and there's not many high school athletes that can say that across the country.

"A bounce here or a there and the outcome in both those games might have been in our favor. That's how close they were. Only one team can win at the end and I'm extremely proud of my team no matter what."

It wasn't the way four Webb seniors had anticipated to go out.

Seniors Daniel Hoover, Seung Ho Chan, James Tian along with Crownover have taken this program to a new level and set the example for others to follow.

"We're really going to miss these seniors. They've been leaders both on and off the field and they have helped me in so many ways," Anderson said. "They deserve better than they got today but they should have tremendous pride that they got to the finals twice."