Four years ago, Cinco Ranch and Memorial's girls soccer teams competed in the early rounds of the playoffs and with five minutes to go in the game, Cinco Ranch was down 1-0. The Cougars fought back and scored three goals in those five minutes to win and knock Memorial out of the playoffs.

The Cougars did it again Friday night with the same group of girls from four years ago.

Tied at 1 at the end of regulation, it took two overtimes for Cinco Ranch to score one goal and eliminate Memorial again.

“I knew it was going to be a tough game,” Cinco Ranch coach Amy Pettibone said as she recounted the two teams' history.

At the half, there was no score.

“We weren’t really playing our style,” Pettibone said. “We weren’t really moving. We were just tight and nervous. At the half we told them they need to relax and that they have this if they play their game.”

The Cougars scored first in the second half at 21:59, as Riley Canfield put it in the net. Memorial answered immediately with a goal from Caroline Tricoli and at the game buzzer, Cinco Ranch’s Kaitlyn Eidson almost ended it as she made one last goal attempt but it was stopped by Memorial’s keeper.

“They were frustrated at halftime, but they kept their composure,” Pettibone said. “Then they started knocking the ball around.”

After ten minutes of overtime, neither team scored. The game went into a second overtime where one team had to score or there would be a shootout.

“We didn’t want to go to a shootout,” Pettibone said. “We kept saying lets take care of it.”

Senior captain, Canfield, and sophomore Ginsa Aspoor listened as together they scored the winning goal.

Keeping close to Memorial’s goal all night, the Cougars were bound to score. Canfield kicked it from the corner and Aspoor head butted it into the net.

“That was for the seniors,” Aspoor said. “I’m playing for them. This is the best group of seniors ever. I love them and that goal was for them.”

The Cougars will play Katy or Bellaire in a regional quarterfinal Tuesday. A site and time will be announced this weekend.

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