Hand of fate: Glenwood's Law capitalizes on penalty in double OT to lift Titans past Plains

Editor's note: A previous version of this article incorrectly referenced Pleasant Plains' Class 1A third-place finish at the 2023 state tournament. We apologize for this error.

PLEASANT PLAINS — It was a game that took 100 full minutes, including regulation and two overtimes. Right before penalty kicks would have had to decide the outcome of the Class 2A Pleasant Plains Sectional girls soccer championship game between defending state champion Chatham Glenwood and Pleasant Plains, a penalty kick of a different sort essentially did end it.

Junior Rowann Law’s shot just underneath the crossbar of valiant Pleasant Plains goalkeeper Elle Walker with two minutes left in the second OT gave the Titans a 2-1 victory. The free, direct kick from about 10 yards out was the result of an unlucky Cardinals handball violation. It was a lousy way for Pleasant Plains’ season to end, but rules are rules, and Titans coach Jay Lipe has seen it all in his 30 years of coaching.

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“I’ve been there on the other side, where you’ve got to console the player,” Lipe said. “It’s unfortunate. I will say this: I know most everybody now has turf fields, but I’m not sure you would have seen as many handballs on a grass field. But it’s the reality nowadays.”

The Titans (16-6-1) now move on to play Troy Triad (20-4-1) in the Troy Triad Supersectional on Tuesday at 6 p.m. For the Cardinals, it was a heartbreaking end to a wondrous season that finished 25-2, one year removed from a Class 1A third-place finish. Triad beat Waterloo 2-1 to win the Freeburg Sectional on Friday.

“They’re the defending champs, they’re one of the biggest schools in 2A, and we’re one of the smallest,” Pleasant Plains coach Greg Bryan said. “I wouldn’t change a thing, except for the score. We competed to the best of our ability and these girls fought all year long. They probably did what they weren’t supposed to do.”

Of the handball, Bryan said, “Just unlucky. Just unfortunate. When you play soccer, that’s what happens. Last year in the sectional final against Sacred Heart-Griffin, we got the breaks. This time, it went against us. In life, that’s the way it is sometimes.”

The game was supposed to have been played Friday night, but torrential rain said otherwise. Beneath the blue suburban skies Saturday, these teams settled in for a good, old-fashioned endurance test.

The game was scoreless in the 80 minutes of regulation. Glenwood had by far the better play in the first half, but Walker was outstanding in net. The Cardinals pushed up further afield in the second half and almost took the lead with about seven minutes left in regulation, when senior forward Sophia Smith’s long crossing pass nearly went into the corner of the net behind Titans keeper Abigail Smith.

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In the sixth minute of the first OT, sophomore forward Caroline Cody finally broke through, scoring to make it 1-0. Despite few good scoring chances in the game to that point, the Cardinals tied it about two minutes later.

While stunned, the Titans didn’t stay that way long. Led by Rowann Law and her sister, Rylann, the two combined for the sequence that led to the handball, with Rylann serving a nice, long crossing pass upfield to Rowann.

As she waited the several seconds to make the penalty kick, Rowann Law had one objective: “Just hit the ball as hard as I could. My mind was pretty calm. We knew we had to come out strong in the second overtime because we knew they would too. We did, and we won.”

The win for Glenwood avenged a regular-season loss to Pleasant Plains. Can the Titans go all the way for a second straight year?

“I know we can, if we just play our game,” Rowann Law said.

Adrian Dater is a freelance writer for The State Journal-Register. He can be reached through the sports department at sports@sj-r.com.

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This article originally appeared on State Journal-Register: Hand of fate: Glenwood's Law capitalizes on penalty in double OT to lift Titans past Plains