The odds were stacked against the Pinewood boys’ soccer team right up until the end, but the Panthers claimed their sixth straight state championship with a heroic effort from its seniors.
In fact, some may say it was a super heroic effort.
Pinewood entered Saturday’s SCISA AAA championship game as the five-time defending state champion.
However, to get a sixth consecutive title Pinewood had to beat Cardinal Newman, the state’s top ranked team.
Making the task even more difficult was the fact that the Cardinals entered the game with a chip on their shoulder after having to play second fiddle to Pinewood on more than one occasion over the past few seasons.
The Cardinals took control of the game early and nearly entered the half up by a pair of goals, but Pinewood began to make up ground.
After trailing most of the game, Pinewood evened the score in the 75th minute and pulled out a 4-2 victory in overtime.
“This was the toughest championship for us,” Pinewood coach Jason Birchwood said.
“Cardinal Newman is a really good team and they deserved to be the No. 1 ranked team, up until now. Hats off to our guys for battling through. I could not ask more from them.”
Pinewood had a goal each by captains Joe Sweet and Malcolm Reed and two goals by fellow senior Brandon Ferro.
After scoring his second, Ferro pulled a Spider-Man mask from underneath his uniform and put it on for the ensuing celebration.
Over the course of the season, members of the Pinewood team used the gesture of holding up six fingers to remind each other of their goal.
Ferro said the way some held their fingers reminded him of Spider-Man shooting a web and that inspired the idea.
“Passion took over,” he said. “I figure this is going to be my last game for a while so with the whole finger thing, I had to do it.”
Nick O’Rourke put Cardinal Newman on the board first when he scored off a corner kick in the 10th minute.
Gabe Roldan gave the Cardinals a 2-0 lead in stoppage time when he drew Pinewood goalkeeper Robert Beebe out of the net and sent a shot by him.
Just before the half, Malcolm Reed drew a penalty inside the box.
He sank the ensuing penalty kick into the right corner of the net for a 2-1 score.
The Cardinals maintained that lead until the final five minutes of regulation, when Ferro received a cross from Reed and hit a shot for a 2-2 tie.
After one scoreless overtime period Pinewood caught a break.
The Cardinal Newman keeper was called for an illegal touch, which set up an indirect kick for the Panthers in front of the net.
Trey Riedmayer gave the ball a quick tap and then Sweet drilled the game-winning shot into the net.
The final goal came after Ferro won a ball at midfield.
He raced toward the goal to pull the keeper out of the net and sent a shot by him for a 4-2 Pinewood advantage with just under six minutes left in the second overtime period.
Sweet said despite being down early in the game, his team never lost its confidence.
“After they put the first goal in, we started moving the ball around so we felt like we were going to be all right,” he said.
“Definitely getting that PK right before the half was a big boost. We knew we were going to be able to put another one in so we just kept fighting. Once we went into overtime, we knew it was our game.”
Collin Phillips is the Pinewood assistant coach. Other members of the team are Brandon Phinny, Dillion Thies, Peter Ruby, Taylor Katsanis, Justin White, Josh Glen, Collin Filo, Blaise Rashtchian, John Davidson, Thomas Ferro, Omar Qnar, Garret Shields, Nick Zuvia and Jerret Londergan.

You can reach Roger Lee by calling 873-9424 or emailing rlee@journalscene.com.