The game was almost won. Almost half an hour after a brilliant goal by junior midfielder Austin Jensen put McLean’s boys varsity team up by one, there was one last chance for Langley to tie the game on May 1.

Jensen had put McLean up by one after subbing in for injured freshman midfielder Reed Johnson.

“Austin played his best game of the season,” senior forward Chris Schram said. “His efforts alone should have been enough to win the game.”

In came a miracle of a cross that found Langley’s senior goalkeeper Alex Barakat, who sprinted from the net he was defending and pounded in the game-tying goal.

All spectators were dumbfounded as to how the Langley goalkeeper could score and save his team along with several shots from McLean’s patient attackers. Yet it happened and overtime was the consequence.

Unfortunately for McLean, the shock from the equalizer carried into overtime. Senior forward John Margraf scored for Langley minutes into the final five minute period of overtime on a header to put them ahead.

Soon after this happened, with McLean committing players forward in desperation to tie the game at two apiece, Langley junior midfielder Noah Khorrami buried McLean’s chances with a shot from midfield that McLean goalkeeper Jinkwon Song couldn’t block.

Neither team scored by halftime in a very close game. The previous game saw McLean give up four goals, with two by halftime.

“Every single goal they scored the first time was a defensive mistake,” Schram said. “I think cutting back on the mistakes was the biggest thing for us.”