For nearly 100 minutes, the Ironmen and Moline Maroons were knotted at 0-0 in the 3A Soccer Sectional Semifinal’s match.

Scoreless for 80 minutes of regulation, for the first 10-minute overtime period, tied as 9:53 ticked off the clock of the second overtime.

But those final seven seconds were all that would matter on Tuesday, Oct. 24, at Normal West.

Moline’s Andres Segovia launched a seemingly impossible shot at net from far left of the pitch–putting the ball out of reach for Community’s keeper Parker Michels–to launch Moline onto the Sectional Finals with a 1-0 win over the Ironmen.

The shot, Head coach Mr. Matt Chapman said, was “a miracle finish” for Moline.

“The angle that the ball was shot at seems unreal,” Chapman said, “our goalkeeper Parker Michaels was amazing all night long. And so there’s no fault of his at all.”

Michels had his share of highlights during the game, recording eight impressive saves for the Ironmen to force the extra period.

“There were maybe four times that Parker just out of his mind made a save that kept them off the scoreboard,” Chapman said. “He’s been terrific for us all season long, and he earned some postseason honors. We’re really proud of him.”

The loss, Chapman said, was “definitely crushing,”

“We were doing very well,” Chapman said. “We felt like we played a pretty good game.”

Community was a man down after a player received his second yellow card late in the game.

Down a player, the team tried to escape overtime with a 0-0 tie.

“We liked our chances with penalty kicks,” Chapman said.

But that wasn’t the case: Segovia off-foot score sent the Ironmen home.

Despite a player receiving two yellows, Chapman said he wasn’t upset with the officiating.

In the playoffs, against good teams, what matters is how the team performs.

“We have to play so well,” Chapman said, “that what the officials do or don’t do doesn’t affect the outcome of the game.”

The game was “physical” and “hard fought game” on both sides of the field.

“Both teams were strong and physical, and played and got after it,” Chapman said.

Offensively, the Iron had their scoring chances, tallying 17 shots to the Maroons’ 15.

“They had some chances, and we had some chances,” Chapman said. “It was a well-deserved tie at the end of regulation.”

Despite a heartbreaking finish in the final seconds, Chapman has nothing but positive things to say about the Iron’s effort.

“They did everything they were supposed to do and everything they could have,” Chapman said. “It just didn’t go our way.”