Tuesday’s Lawrence High-Free State soccer match was so intense that after four overtimes, neither team had scored.

With a shootout on the horizon, LHS sophomore Heather Miller told goalkeeper Emma Lumpe to place a tiny piece of grass from the Free State soccer field behind her shin guard for good luck.

It worked.

Lawrence High defeated Free State, 1-0 (2-0) in the first round of the Class 6A Regional Tournament after Lumpe made a diving save on Clare Robinson’s penalty kick attempt.

The victory represented the Lions’ first regional girls soccer playoff victory in school history.

“I’m framing this,” Lumpe said of the piece of grass. “Heather just came to me before these PKs and said, ‘Here’s a lucky piece of grass,’ so I put it in my shin guard and there we go – I saved two.”

Before the shootout, the teams played two 40-minute halves, two 10-minute overtimes and two five-minute overtimes. Four overtimes, 110 total minutes of soccer, no goals.

Junior Madison Bertrand scored the game’s first goal on Lawrence’s first penalty kick. Bertrand drilled a shot with her left foot and caught the right corner of the goal.

“Going into it, I was thinking, ‘Please just make it,'” Bertrand said. “Just get us 1-0. Right after I hit it, I saw her jump and was like, ‘Oh my goodness, it’s in.’ I was just relieved and so happy.”

Lumpe got a hand on Free State’s first penalty kick, but the ball bounced up after the stop. It dropped on the ground near the goal line, but Lumpe knocked the ball out of the way before it crossed the goal. Referees conferred near the goal and corroborated the initial call: no goal.

The Lions and Firebirds missed their next two penalty kicks. LHS sophomore Stef Stuever gave the Lions a 2-0 advantage in the shootout with her goal, which caught the upper-left corner of the net.

Lumpe then made a diving save on Free State’s ensuing try to seal the victory. As Lumpe bounced up from making the save, she stood near the goal with both hands in the air, looking up at the sky. The sophomore goalkeeper then raced toward the Lions, who jumped around the field in triumph.

“Right before that shot, I asked the ref, ‘If I save this, are we done?'” Lumpe said. “And I have so much homework and thought, ‘I have to get this. I have to go home.'”

Lawrence coach Matt Anderson said he didn’t have to say anything to Lumpe or his kickers before the shootout. The situation spoke for itself.

“It’s the easiest shot we’re ever going to have,” Anderson said. “In practice, there’s constantly somebody on them. In shooting drills, the ball’s always moving. This is a free throw. Granted, there’s somebody there blocking it, but this is going to be the easiest shot they see.”

Free State finished the season 5-9-2. Coach Jason Pendleton said he anticipated another battle with LHS like the 1-1 tie in the April 1 meeting. As a result, the Firebirds practiced penalty kicks in practice for the last two weeks.

“It’s a tough, pressure-packed situation,” Pendleton said. “It was a really good high school game but just disappointing that we had to come out on the losing end. We had such great kids and good senior leaders that it’s going to be tough not seeing them around here next year, and I had hoped their season would end on a better note than that.”

Lawrence High (5-8-2) went through an 0-8-2 stretch before defeating Topeka High to end the regular season. Lawrence will face top-seeded Washburn Rural (12-3-2) at 6 p.m. Thursday in the Regional Championship. The game will be in Topeka at Washburn Rural.