With his players gathered at midfield before their penalty-kick shootout against rival Notre Dame, Chattanooga Christian soccer coach David Stanton chose to sit on the bench and just watch.
"There's no coaching at that point," he said. "You hope to get some Irish luck."
Chattanooga Christian's Porter Black and Notre Dame's Davis Bostain battle for the ball Tuesday at CCS.Tuesday evening, the "Irish luck" came against the Irish.
The Class A/AA sixth-ranked Chargers claimed a 6-5 shootout win to advance to the District 7 championship match Thursday. They'll face Signal Mountain, which defeated Sequatchie County 6-0 in the other semifinal.
Both CCS and Signal qualify for the Region 4-A/AA tournament next week.
"I'm surprised we survived," Stanton said. "I think we're good enough to stay alive, and if we can survive a scare like we did tonight, we have a little more time to heal."
CCS has three or four players currently walking around in boots or with wraps on knees, plus two others making their way back from injuries.
The Chargers (10-4-1) won the regular-season match 5-0 against Notre Dame on April 17. They led 1-0 after a goal by Chad Carney in the 19th minute and carried that lead into halftime, but a misplayed ball early in the second half led to an opportunity for the Irish, and Alex Buechler put it away for the equalizer.
Each team had fruitless opportunities after that. Notre Dame had a pair of nonkeeper saves on dangerous chances by the Chargers late in the match, and CCS goalkeeper Cameron Close ranged to his left to make a big save on a shot by Michael Quatrano. Close also was right in place for a left-footed attempt from point-blank range by Quatrano late in regulation.
He then had a save in the penalty-kick shootout, and the match ended when a shot sailed high and wide on the eighth round of kicks.
"I thought we played really well today," Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn said. "When we played them last time, we made some bad mistakes. Tonight we had a different mindset.
"We practice penalty kicks all the time, but you can't duplicate that type of pressure in a game, in practice."
Contact Gene Henley at ghenley@timesfreepress.com. Follow him at twitter.com/genehenleytfp.