Free State's McKenzie Liebl makes a sliding kick to keep the ball in play against Shawnee Mission North. The Firebirds earned a 2-1 overtime victory Tuesday.

Leah Williams had just scored the game-winning goal in overtime against Shawnee Mission North to give the Free State girls soccer team its first victory of the season, and she went to her coach after the game to apologize.

“I thought at first I had missed it,” she said.

Free State coach Jason Pendleton wasn’t entirely pleased after his team’s performance in the 2-1 overtime victory, but he didn’t need an apology from Williams.

“That was a brilliant goal in overtime to hit a game-winner off the inside of the far post,” Pendleton said.

Had the ball gone wide right and not hooked back into the goal, it would have been fitting after the day Williams had. She had numerous shots at the goal during regulation, but they all seemed to find the SM North goalie. Then, early in the second half, she was pulled from the game when she let her frustration affect her play.

“I couldn’t get my shots on, and I kept not taking enough touches to get close to the goal when I had the opportunity,” she said.

In overtime, when Williams dribbled into the box with a defender on her hip, she made sure to take enough touches. As she dribbled, she was hip-checked and almost tripped, but stayed on her feet as the referee prepared to blow her whistle.

“I actually thought about falling because I was tripping, but I knew we might miss the PK, so I decided to go for it and finish it then,” Williams said.

The Firebirds (1-3-2) failed to finish off the Indians in regulation when they had the chance. Free State took a 1-0 lead 18:34 into the second half when Lucca Wang took a shot from about 40 yards out that skipped off the ground and past the goalie, who slipped on the wet grass.

Pendleton said he felt fortunate to have that 1-0 lead, because as Wang took the shot, he was yelling from the sideline for her to do something different with the ball.

North answered with 13:04 left in regulation. The goal was a result of the Free State defense failing to clear the ball.

“While we like winning, we feel fortunate to get out of here with a win because for portions of the game I feel like they outplayed us,” Pendleton said. “I think we were the more dangerous team for most of the game, but there were some key opportunities when they took advantage of the lull in our effort and made us pay for it.”

Although the win was Free State’s first of the year, Pendleton told his girls after the game that he thought they had played better games.

“Sometimes winning when you don’t play as well as you’re capable of, it leaves a bitter taste in your mouth,” Pendleton said. “We’re a much better team than we exhibited today and we just lacked a spark and emotion. We had a lot of opportunities to create goals and just were not able to finish them off.”