East Duplin midfielder Kendra Baysden brought an end to Washington’s girls’ soccer season when she beat backup Lady Pack goalkeeper Samantha Sheppard. The goal came in the waning moments of the second half of Tuesday’s first-round game and broke a 1-1 tie.

The game was an emotional rollercoaster throughout. Sheppard was called upon after starting netminder Julissa Perez went down with a shoulder injury with about eight minutes to play. Perez had stopped 27 of the 28 shots she faced in about 72 minutes of action. Sheppard made three saves in relief before getting beat for the decisive goal.

“This is (Perez’s) first year playing goalie,” coach Ed Rodriguez said. “She did a great a job. It was the best game she played all year. That what a champion does.”

The contest started off in rough fashion for the home side. The Panthers scored two minutes in to take an early 1-0 lead. The opposing attacker streaked down the right wing and chipped a shot into the far side of the goal.

About five minutes later, captain Sydney Edwards took a stiff tackle. She hit the ground hard and suffered a shoulder injury that resulted in her being carted off the field. Midfielder Blake Swanner, also a team captain, hurt her leg early in the second half.

“I told Berenice (Chavez) that she had to go in the middle,” Rodriguez said of the changes he made after Edwards’ injury. “Even though she’s powerful on the outside, we needed somebody to distribute the ball in the inside. She did a great job. She’s one of the smallest girls I’ve got here and the youngest girl. She’s only 14, but she stepped up, battled and did a great job.”

The Lady Pack rallied when it could have hung its heads after falling behind and losing a key player less than 10 minutes into the game. The girls showed a tremendous amount of resilience, especially for a group that is mostly underclassmen.

Forward Jordan Prescott proved to be the driving force for much of Washington’s offense. She was the go-to option for free kicks. She nearly responded for the Lady Pack with a well-placed set-piece shot in the 13th minute.

With less than 10 minutes left in the half, Prescott finally broke through and knotted the game at one. She got a good touch on the deep throw in and worked her way through East Duplin’s defense. She had the ball knocked loose, picked it right back up and found the twine behind diving goalie Hailey Jackson.

Chavez nearly gave Washington the lead in the final minutes of the first half. She was in alone and had Jackson beat, but the open-net shot dinked off the far post.

“That could have let us play a little defense,” Rodriguez said. “I think we could have held them.”

Perez and the Lady Pack defense continued to hold strong throughout the second half. The visitors tallied over 30 shots in the contest to Washington’s nine. However, with overtime seconds away, East Duplin’s overwhelming advantage in scoring chances finally caught up with the home side.

“(East Duplin) plays in a tough conference where they have to play good defense, otherwise they’re going to get blown out,” Rodriguez said. “I was expecting them to be good defensively and they were. Having said that, had we had all of our components, we could have done a little more. We had our chances. I can’t complain. With what we had, we made things happen.”

The game may have marked the end of Washington’s season, but the girls have a lot to be proud of. The young squad shattered all sorts of expectations — both with their potent offense and improvements on defense.

“A group of mostly underclassmen played a heck of a team,” Rodriguez said. “(They played) without one of our big components and still made it a game. It could have gone any way.”