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For 108 minutes, Olympic and Lake Norman could not find the net. Four overtimes, a dozen near misses, and five yellow cards later, the Trojans' Tyler McMahan broke a scoreless tie to give his team a 1-0 win and berth in the third round of the N.C. 4A playoffs.
McMahan, who scored his team-leading 16th goal of the year, bent a shot from about 20 yards out over a diving Lake Norman goalkeeper Nick Hensley.
"All I wanted was one good shot in the overtimes, one chance," McMahan said, whose team will play the winner of A.C. Reynolds and Hopewell, likely at home Tuesday or Wednesday night. "The (goalkeeper) had been playing out all game. I just hit one over him and I saw it hit side netting."
The Trojans were just a minute away from a second straight game that would have gone to penalty kicks. Olympic (18-4-2) beat Mooresville 1-0 Wednesday night on penalty kicks in the first round.
"Our team fought hard for the whole game," Olympic coach Matthew Merrill said. "Lake Norman really dominated possession in the overtimes. But we just wanted one opportunity in the end. We got it, and (Tyler) made a great shot."
The Wildcats (14-7-2) outshot the Trojans 17-10 on the game, including 8-2 in the four overtimes. Lake Norman senior Parker Cromie had three close calls in the overtimes, while junior Morgan Myslinki missed a point-blank shot in the 107th minute.
But Olympic, who won their seventh straight game, made the most of the only opportunity that mattered in the end.
"We had so many great opportunities in the overtimes, especially," Lake Norman coach Jon Mertes said. "But that is the game of soccer. You have to finish, and we didn't do that."
Olympic goalkeeper Teddy Pineda, who notched his 10th shutout of the season, was also a major reason Lake Norman could not find the goal. He had 18 saves, including eight in the overtimes.
"It feels great to win another game like this," McMahan said. "We definitely feel like we're good enough to make a run (in the playoffs). We just got to keep this (streak) going."
