The Bishop Guertin girls soccer team celebrates its dramatic penalty kick win over Nashua North in the Division I quarterfinals on Friday at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

NASHUA – If anyone knew how the Nashua High School North Titans were feeling at the end of Friday’s dramatic Division I girls soccer quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium, it was the Bishop Guertin Cardinals.

They had lost to North in penalty kicks 2-1 almost exactly a year ago in this same quarterfinal round. But on Friday, the result was reversed, as Guertin’s Hadley Comeau buried a sudden death penalty kick into the right corner of the net to give the Cards a 2-1 win and a trip to a Tuesday 4 p.m. semifinal in Manchester vs. No. 2 Pinkerton.

“I just remembered being in the same position we were in last year,” Comeau, a senior fullback said. “I knew that my team was relying on me, my keeper was relying on me. I knew if we made this we would win and be in the top four for the first time in four years.”

Yes, the last time the No. 3, 15-1-2 Cards were in the semifinals was in 2021, the year they won the title.

All that was going through her mind but so was something else as she had tried to find a tendency in North’s superb keeper Kathleen Schreiner.

“I was just thinking, which way was she diving,” Comeau said of Scheiner. “I was studying her in the line. And which way does she mostly dive. And I saw that if she thinks it’s going wide and out she’s not going to move so I tried to go to the corner as far as possible.”

“That is a four-year varsity player,” BG coach Chris Millett said. “A four-year varsity starter, a three-year captain, stepping up in a big moment, with just ice in her veins, and she just buried it.”

Ecstasy for one, agony for the other. North winds up at 13-5.

“It is the worst way to lose but as I said to the girls there’s no one in this Division that has 21 girls in its entire program,” North coach Jacqueline Thompson said. “And we took 21 girls and we put them in the top 10. And we came out and held off to not even lose in regular time to a top seeded team in the top three. So to me that’s a win, that’s all I can ask of from these girls and be proud. I know it’s not an outcome we want and it’s not what’s on the scoreboard, but in theory I just hope it brings fire and hope to all the young athletes that are out there. … You might fall a little short, but that doesn’t mean your time’s done. It just means there’s an opportunity somewhere else.”

The unfortunate aspect was it marks the end of the incredible high school soccer careers of the talented Frye twins, Alli and Sarah. It was Alli’s goal, pushing through two BG defenders five minutes into the second half that tied the game at 1, where it stayed through the rest of regulation and two overtimes. Emerson Brown’s 30-yard free kick had given BG a 1-0 lead about midway through the first half.

“It’s incredibly tough,” Thompson said, understandably fighting back tears. “It’s been an incredible four years with those two … I said to them in the locker room we’ve been here before, you’ve got it. The greatest thing about them is not just their talent but their ability to lift up their teammates and never give up. They both looked at me and said ‘We’ve got this. This is not a problem.'”

sNashua North’s Alli Frye battles to try to get the ball in between Bishop Guertin’s Madison Long (14) and Sophia Hickey (6) on a corner kick during the first half of Friday’s Division I quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

The wind seemed to be a factor. Sarah Frye had a chance to tie the game in the final seconds of the half with a free kick but it sailed over the goal. Other balls either died in the wind or sailed.

It almost didn’t get to penalty kicks. Guertin’s Kelsey Ackerman was in perfect position to knock home a rebound of a Kareena Sondhi shot nearly eight minutes into the second 10-minute sudden death overtime period but the ball sailed high over the crossbar.

Thus to penalty kicks they went, rounds of five. They traded three goals each, North with the Fryes and Rosalie Clark and BG with Zoe Horton-Sousa, Emerson Brown and Charlotte Accomando.

But it got tense when BG netminder Olivia Baker made a save on North’s Shelby Goldstein, and Ackerman scored. North’s Maja Ray-Hokanson scored in the Titans’ fifth frame, but BG’s Sophia Hickey put hers high over the goal to keep things tied.

Nashua North goalkeeper Kathleen Schreiner gives it a valiant effort but BG’s Emerson Brown’s shot was out of reach for a first half goal duirng Friday’s Division I quarterfinal at Stellos Stadium. (Telegraph photo by TOM KING)

Now they entered the sudden death phase, like extra innings in baseball. In the top half, North’s Abigail Azevado couldn’t connect, but Comeau did.

“Jackie had a phenomenal game plan against us like she did last year,” Millett said. “They’re a phenomenal team…Let’s be frank, they have two of the best players in the state in Sarah and Alli Frye, who have had monumental careers. …

“We had a lot of seniors on this team that want it, want to go out with a bang. They just battled, every single touch today. I’m just super proud of their ability to just grind it out, even to the last six rounds of PKs.”

Both teams had that competitive trait.

“Honestly, I’m just so proud of the girls,” Sarah Frye said. “We were down 1-0 going into the half, couldn’t be prouder of them. Honestly this was the best group of girls I’ve had the honor of playing with. PK’s, it’s always going to be what it is. Honestly just so proud of them for putting everything they had on field.”

It was that kind of day, that kind of game.

“Emerson had a great free kick and Alli had a great goal,” Millett said. “Talk about a great playoff game. This was an awesome, awesome playoff game. … I’m just happy it fell our way in the end.”