EAGLE HARBOR - Green Cove Springs Junior High girls soccer coach Ashleigh Nosse was almost resigned to not getting her fourth straight Northeast Florida Athletic Conference girls soccer title until her Lady Cougars, down 1-0 to an upset-minded Oakleaf Junior High team, set up for a corner kick with just seven seconds left in the crucial second five minute overtime periods.

"We never give up," said Nosse. "I just kept telling them to fire away on the goal and make something happen."
On the critical corner kick, Green Cove forwards Angel Coyle and Ashley Warner found themselves in the middle of the goalie box with bodies flying and the ball ping-ponging around after the corner kick landed, got kicked, got headed and just hung in front of the duo.
"It was crazy," said Coyle. "I was going to kick with my left foot and Ashley was coming in with her right foot and I got there first. I just hit it and watched it."
Coyle's swing went up and toward the upper right corner of the goal with Oakleaf defenders trying to contact it, but all efforts failed and the game became tied at 1-1 to bring penalty kicks.
Oakleaf had scored off a penalty kick in overtime to forward Onyx Gross, who was a pesky breakaway threat all game for the Lady Cougars defense.
"We knew she was fast and could move the ball quickly," said Nosse. "We were planning on collapsing on her if she got in the box, but on that penalty kick play, we knocked her down and she got the kick."
Green Cove recovered enough to win the penalty kick shootout for the championship.
For the boys game, Green Cove Springs coach Tony Bartel was going after a fourth title as well, but Lake Asbury coach Tim Hamel, a multiple title winner for Green Cove Springs before going to Lake Asbury, had another plan.
In the game, with both teams flying up and down the field, and Lake Asbury using their much bigger lineup to press the center of the field; large sized forwards Julius Nobore and Jaiden Benjamin, Nobore got loose on a run and got a lead pass from Zach Beck that he buried for the lone goal off a left foot stab.
"Lake Asbury has been in the finals a bunch of times, but we've never won it," said Hamel. "Green Cove has a bunch of fast, well skilled players out there and we wanted to just try and slow them down."