After falling behind 1-0 going into halftime, and falling behind 2-0 shortly into the second half, Wheeling Park battled back to knot the score 2-2 and force extra time. While the pendulum swung Park’s way in the second half, it swung away from them in extra time, the Woodrow Wilson Flying Eagles scoring a golden goal in the second extra time to advance to the Class AAA state championship game over Park, 3-2.

“It’s two good teams and they both played hard and left everything out on the field,” Wheeling Park head coach Marion Julian said. “As a coach, that’s what I’m most proud about. You get down 2-0, you could just roll over and let the other team get a couple more goals but we battled back. In the last 20, we got two goals, and in overtime we had some chances.

“One team has to go on. I respect Woodrow Wilson a lot and their coach a lot and I wished them luck after the game to try and win that state championship because it’s really hard.”

Woodrow Wilson’s AJ Bishop scored a point-blank goal with 3:15 left in the second extra time period after a quick pass from Michael Fayiah to send the Flying Eagles to the state championship against Hurricane on Saturday.

“That was just a really good little combination,” Woodrow Wilson head coach Steve Laraba said. “As the game went on we got a little tired and we were hitting big balls just to clear our lines but that’s not what we do. A little sequence we had, a really good combination play. AJ had just come on a little bit prior to that, he had some fresh legs and he was able to make the run. Michael made a great pass and he just slid it right home. Really good stuff.”

It was the second meeting between the two teams, the first contest a close one as well, which Park took 2-1 on Oct. 19.

“It’s the second time we played Woodrow, and we’re 1-1, but they won the most important game,” Julian said. “Hurricane’s really good, we saw them earlier in the season. They don’t give up a lot of goals. They’re one of the only teams to shut us out this year. The way Woodrow possesses the ball, it should be a really good matchup.”

“It’s a lot of fun playing Wheeling Park,” Laraba said. “Mario’s an excellent coach, he has a top-notch program. We try and play the best teams around the state so that we’re battle-tested and we know what we’re going to have to do to get to this point in the season. They’re very, very competitive, and we’re chatting before games, chatting after games. It’s a rivalry, but it’s one out of respect. Both teams really want to play as well as they can against each other.”

The game stood scoreless for the first 30-plus minutes. Park keeper Gavin Border made two impressive saves in the 18th minute, first deflecting a shot with a feet-first dive, then popping back up and making a diving grab the opposite direction to stop a follow-up shot.

Woodrow got on the board in the 32nd minute with a score by Coby Dillon. Dillon played a two-man game with Tyler Snyder, the ball ping-ponging from Dillon to Synder back to Dillon for a wide-open shot at the goal.

In the 53rd minute, Wheeling Park was whistled for a penalty in their goalie box, and Dillon cashed in on the ensuing penalty kick to put Woodrow Wilson up 2-0.

A few minutes later, the Flying Eagles made a multi-player substitution, and a few minutes after that, they were penalized for having 12 men on the field. The call seemed to give some life to Wheeling Park, because Tresz McLeod got free soon thereafter and ripped a shot through a crowd for Park’s first goal of the game, and first shot on-goal of the game.

“That was my fault,” Laraba said. “I didn’t get it to everybody and I made that mistake. We weren’t organized and they got the goal off of it.”

The Flying Eagles paid special attention to McLeod all day, but the senior was still able to break through and jump-start the Patriots offense.

“Their defenders are really good,” Julian said. “We knew that was going to be a tough battle for Tresz. He’s just such a great player- every team schemes for him, and there was no difference this game. He was able to get loose and get us a goal to get that comeback started. We just fell short.”

“I feel for my kids because I know how hard they worked this season. Tresz, that was his 39th goal on the season and he didn’t want anything more than to get a 40th and send us to the championship because that’s how competitive he is. They just did a nice job, their defense, it was great.”

Wheeling Park tied the game in the 11th hour, with just three minutes left in regulation, with a boot by Graham Loy punching the ball through the net after a searching cross from Wilson Hanna.

Graham Loy had a shot on goal in the first extra period, but the 10 additional minutes came and went without a decisive score.

Thursday was an incredibly physical contest. After the game, Laraba said he would be thankful for a day of rest before their championship game Saturday against Hurricane.

“There was some banging going on and some hard tackles,” Laraba said. “But there was also a lot of skill involved in this game as well. It was a little more reminiscent of the days when I was playing.”

“It was so physical because of the effort put into it,” Julian said. “I don’t think it was physical because of a dirty standpoint and guys trying to knock each other’s heads off. If there was a 50/50 ball both teams were going to go into it as hard as they possibly could. That’s where the physicality came from- good, clean, hard soccer.”

Wheeling Park finishes the year at 20-4, and says farewell to a talented senior class composed of Tresz McLeod, Gavin Border, Max Seibert, AJ Seals, Aiden Stauver, Evan Border, Joshua Albrecht, Rynder McLeod and Asa Fletcher.

Woodrow Wilson plays Hurricane at 10:30 a.m. Saturday.