They won their first state title last year. They’ll try for a second really soon.

A public school has not won back-to-back state girls’ soccer titles in more than a decade. On Saturday night, West Jessamine will get an opportunity to end that streak.

The Colts defeated Sacred Heart in the KHSAA Girls Soccer State Tournament semifinals Thursday night at Lafayette. West Jessamine advanced, 2-1, after a 6-5 decision in sudden-death penalty kicks. The teams played to a 1-1 draw following regulation and two five-minute overtime periods.

Overtime almost didn’t happen. Sacred Heart nursed a 1-0 lead for nearly 40 minutes of game time after Cassie Amshoff tapped in a ball that went off the fingertips of Colts keeper Anna Rexford in the 33rd minute.

Just as the 73rd minute go underway, Morgan Pence collected a through ball from Hailey Cole and touched it past Sacred Heart keeper Eliza Kelly to equalize.

No. 3 West Jessamine (21-2-5) defeated Sacred Heart (22-3), the top-rated team in the most recent Maher Rankings, for the second time this year. It also eliminated the Valkyries from the state tournament for the second straight season.

BOX SCORE: Notre Dame 2, Daviess County 0

BOX SCORE: West Jessamine 2, Sacred Heart 1 (6-5 PKs)

West Jessamine Coach Kevin Wright said Thursday’s win might have been sweeter than last year’s tight win over Sacred Heart en route to the program’s first state title. The Colts won 1-0 after a goal by Eva Mitchell in the waning minutes.

“So many teams would’ve quit at halftime and said, ‘Oh, we can’t beat that powerhouse.’ Not our team,” Wright said. “ ... Coming from behind so late in the game?”

Rexford, a sophomore, saved a breakaway shot by Sacred Heart’s Brielle Heuglin in the 71st minute. Two minutes later, West Jessamine equalized.

“She’s a flat gamer, winner, whatever there is,” Wright said. “ ... She’s not cocky but she’s got some quiet swag to her. It’s like, ‘I’m getting it done, enough was enough.’”

Both teams connected on their first five penalty-kick tries, Sacred Heart starting and West Jessamine answering. Rexford blocked the sixth Sacred Heart attempt and senior Edie Meyer placed the deciding goal between the cross bar and the hands of Kelly.

“The first five I was just like, ‘I’m gonna make the save if I can’ and then the second came around and I said, ‘I know my team can make their PKs so I’ve got to make out a save here,” Rexford said. “ ... She went right and it happened for me.”

Wright said West Jessamine practiced penalty kicks for a month earlier this season. Last year the Colts won their opening-round game after a 9-8 sudden-death decision at Notre Dame; Meyer also had the winning goal then.

Notre Dame will seek revenge on Saturday: the Pandas defeated Daviess County, 2-0, earlier Thursday evening to reach the finals for the first time since 2012. It is their first championship appearance under fourth-year head coach David Gronotte.

The Colts will get a chance to become the first public school to repeat as titlists since Highlands did so in 2005 and 2006. Sacred Heart was the last champion to repeat, period, winning three straight from 2007-2009.

West Jessamine’s top-two scorers from a year ago — Mitchell and Anna Lee — signed with the University of Kentucky and are long gone. Pence has 14 after Thursday night, leading a foursome who’ve all hit double digits on offense (Sophie Bish, Kami Yantz and Saraya Young). Cole and Caroline Absher aren’t far behind with eight apiece this season.

“Everybody was like, ‘What are you gonna do?’ since we lost our best two scorers,” Young said. “But we were like, ‘We’ve got people that are gonna step up and we’re all gonna step up. People that did really good last year, they’re gonna step up even more and we’re just gonna pull it out.’”

West Jessamine’s almost stepped up all the way back to its throne.

This story was originally published November 3, 2017 at 12:40 AM with the headline "They won their first state title last year. They’ll try for a second really soon.."