HUGHESVILLE -- Selinsgrove just seems to have Midd-West's number this season. And in Monday night's District 4 Class AAA semifinal, that number was 10.
It took 10 rounds of penalty kicks before the Seals finally pulled out a 7-6 victory at Spartan Stadium; it was 2-2 after 80 minutes of regulation and two overtime periods. Selinsgrove's Echo Wertz -- the 20th and final player to step to the penalty mark -- finally ended the contest more than 2 and a half hours after it began.
"This was a great game on both sides," Seals coach Matt Metzger said. "Balls bounced off the post. They had opportunities to finish; we had opportunities to finish. ... It was a treat for fans. It had its ups and downs. I've never seen penalty kicks go to the 10th player."
Selinsgrove (14-2-3), the No. 2 seed, will face Danville in the final Thursday night at a site and time to be determined. It will be the Seals' first appearance in a district final since they won their last title in 2005.
Third-seeded Midd-West, last year's District 4 runner-up, ends its season at 13-4-1. The Mustangs tied the Seals 2-2 in the teams' first meeting and then lost 1-0 in overtime in the second matchup.
"That speaks to the volume of how close these teams are," Metzger said. "There's not a whole lot separating the two."
Kelsey Fisher, Lauren Hackenburg, Kelsey Heimbach, Corinne Aucker, Oriana Long, Sarah Wenrich and Wertz all scored on penalty kicks for the Seals. The Mustangs' Brittney Kuhns, Taylor Folk, McKenzi Herbster, Brielle Snyder, Allison Ebright and Gracie Kratzer all scored on PKs.
Kuhns and Cheyenne Spade scored in regulation for Midd-West, with each of those goals giving the Mustangs a lead. Fisher tied it at 1 for Selinsgrove and Brianna Brancato evened the game at 2 in the 68th minute.
"We had a lot of players who contributed in many different ways," Metzger said.
Four times a player went to the penalty mark with a chance to win the game, and three times the game went a little longer. Spade, the Mustangs' star midfielder, went in goal for the penalty kicks.
She took the fifth and last shot of the first round, right after she stopped Selinsgrove's Courtney Matrey's attempt to tie it at 4.
"She's been the best at (defending) penalty kicks the last week and a half," Midd-West coach Gary Keister said. "She's the best at reading the kickers."
Spade had a chance to win it with the Mustangs' fifth kick, but Seals keeper Cameron Weaver dived right to stop Spade's shot, and Aucker then ended the first round when her shot grazed the underside of the crossbar before going in.
The second round of PKs is sudden death, and after Maddie Gessner couldn't convert on her shot, Brancato missed a chance to be the hero when she hit the left post. Both teams made their second and third shots in the second round of PKs, but both then missed their fourth shots. Selinsgrove's Krystal Duke had another chance to win it, but her shot hit the crossbar.
"How many times did each team hit the post or the crossbar?" Keister asked. "A lot of missed opportunities."
Finally, Wertz stepped to the mark and knocked her shot inside the left post for the victory.
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