Junior goalkeeper Ashton Gully made two diving saves and had the opportunity to win the match by taking the Lady Tigers fifth penalty kick with the shootout score tied at 3-3.

Georgia Henkel was up to task and deflected Gully’ shot over the crossbar, sending the shootout into sudden death.

“I was trying to go left but she didn’t dive so it went straight to her,” Gully said. “Lot of anxiety, lot more pressure kicking them.“

After her miss, Gully went back to what she does best, keeping the ball out of the net. For the third time she guessed right and went sprawling to save freshman AK Ford’s attempt.

“I kind of helped her with the first two [penalty kicks] and I was wrong, so I said, ‘You know what? I’m going to let it go.’ And then she made the saves,” Consol coach Stuart Keogh said. “I said ‘I’m just going to shut my mouth.’ She did that by herself. That is all her.”

With the match on her right foot, Ashton’s twin Brooke stepped up and sent the ball above and behind a diving Henkel.

“My sister did all the work,” Brooke Gully said. “I love her so much. She saved so many balls, so she should have got [the game-winning penalty kick], but I backed her up.”

Consol’s first three penalty takers left no doubt as the Lady Tigers went up 3-2. Seniors Susan Saca and Brooke Shirley calmly went to the keepers’ right and beat her even though she guessed correctly.

Sophomore Sydney Fox then found the upper third to the right.

Nicole Vaughn, who cleared a ball off the goal line with only seconds left in the second overtime and easily could have been player of the match if not for Ashton Gully, was denied by Henkel, who then extended the match with her save of Ashton Gulley.

“Sometimes I think you can be a little conservative on penalties when you know you have the chance to win,” Keogh said. “We practice them all the time and we are 5 for 5 normally and our keepers know where we are going. The penalties, they were side netting, the first three. There’s a little bit of pressure on you when you are that game-winning shot. These girls, can’t say enough about all of them.”

Ashton Gully got Consol into the PK portion with her second straight playoff shutout. Her point blank save of Ford with two minutes remaining in the overtime followed up by a gathering of the corner kick near the goal line denied the District 19-5A fourth-place finishing Lady Spartans from continuing their run through the playoffs.

Gully also fell on a Gracie Jones corner in the second half that appeared ticketed for the near post. The Lady Tigers had the better of the first half with the wind, but had to withstand wave after wave of attacks in the second half.

“We handled it,” Keogh said. “It wasn’t pretty. It was not our best game, our first half was better than our second half but again its playoff soccer and we got a result.”

Spartan keepers were just as influential. Henkel punched a Khyj Thomas shot over the crossbar in the first half and Carsen Durham stuck out a big right mitt to deflect a shot from just inside the penalty box by Shirley, who had been sent one-on-one with the keeper by a Rebecca Curry through ball minutes before the end of regulation.

“The effort was unbelievable,” Keogh said. “They’re a family. They’re close. They’re a team. They won’t quit on each other they are too important to each other and we played like that tonight.”