By MICHAEL KELLY

For the Express

BROADALBIN — Shoulders slumped, the Broadalbin-Perth Patriots watched as the South Glens Falls Bulldogs took a celebratory lap around Patriot Field with just over two minutes to play in Friday’s soccer match.

The Bulldogs’ Ben Firlit had connected off a pass from Kyle Ogden to break the scoreless tie in the contest’s 78th minute. After stopping a shot directly before Firlit’s, B-P goalkeeper Madison Wilcox had the ball stripped away from as he fell to the ground, the ball eventually making its way to Ogden.

But, as the Bulldogs chased Firlit around , the game’s referees met 20 yards in front of the Patriots’ goal and came to a popular decision with the home team’s crowd, as the officials waved off the goal, saying Wilcox had possession of the ball and thus could not be stripped it.

“It sounds like, according to the officials, they thought the (B-P) goalie had possession of the ball when he came down with it,” said South Glens Falls head coach Travis Birkholz. “I think it’s controversial, but it is what it is — they made the call and that’s what you have to live with.”

“I came out and actually caught the ball and then I got knocked over and had the ball kicked out of my hands,” said Wilcox. “That’s against the rules.

But, Wilcox said, his heart dropped when the ball squirted away from him and eventually into the B-P goal, unsure whether the referees would see the play the way he had and take away the goal.

“I wasn’t sure — you never know,” said Wilcox. “But, thankfully, they did.”

With the game set back to a scoreless tie, the teams entered into a sudden-death overtime minutes later.

“I think the guys felt pretty relieved and saw [overtime] as a second chance,” said B-P head coach Brian Henry. “You take advantage of your second chances and we did that tonight.”

The Patriots sure did, as Ethan Church slid a shot past South Glens Falls goalkeeper Chase Brooks off a pass from Dominic Kwiatkowski in the extra session’s second minute to deliver the Patriots a 1-0 victory.

“[Church] finds a way to get those game-winners,” said Henry. “That was a great goal.”

Church began his own victory lap, but was brought down 15 yards into his romp by his dogpiling teammates. Well worth celebrating, the victory for B-P (13-0-3) clinched the team the Foothills Council’s regular-season title, outright, and was also the 100th career victory for Henry.

“We’re really happy ... it’s ours, the title is ours by ourselves,” said Henry. “It’s nice to be the only ‘B’ school in the league and hold the title. I couldn’t be more proud of these guys.”

When asked to elaborate on personally hitting the century mark in career wins, Henry’s response was quick.

“One hundred’s nice — but the title’s nicer,” he said.

While the undefeated regular season was certainly in doubt after Firlit’s almost-goal, the first half was not much better for the Patriots. Seemingly the entirety of the opening 40 minutes of play was spent with South Glens Falls (10-3-1) on offense, as Wilcox needed to make three saves to keep the Bulldogs off the scoreboard.

But the Patriots reversed the tide in the second half, generating several scoring chances and generally controlling the ball. But it seemed to take the scare of Firlit’s near-score to fully wake the Patriots up on the chilly afternoon.

“With that, you get that moment of desperation and once that goal got taken away, we got so much more motivation going forward,” said Wilcox, who made five saves in all.

Of course, having the score wiped away worked the opposite way for the bewildered Bulldogs.

“I think it definitely was on their minds and it was difficult to get back going,” said Birkholz. “The emotions were obviously very high and then they plummeted down. It was hard for them.”

With the victory Friday, the Bulldogs could have claimed a share of the Foothills Council’s title.

“It stings, it hurts — the kids wanted this title,” said Birkholz. “But this is an opportunity for us to overcome adversity and make us better.”

The win catapults B-P into a position of strength with sectionals starting next week, as the victory should secure the Patriots a top-two seed in Class B. More importantly, said Henry, the win against one of the top Class A teams in South Glens Falls continued the wave of confidence the Patriots are riding into the playoffs.

“I don’t know if we’ll see a team better than South High in sectionals,” said Henry. “We passed the test today.”