Addie Henry cradled the big wood plaque as she walked off the field Thursday evening at Notre Dame. She wasn't going to let go.
She and her teammates earned it.
Chattanooga Christian soccer coach Cal Sneller made Henry promise that she'd bring it to school this morning.
It's a keepsake.
CCS claimed the Region 4-A/AA championship with a 2-1 overtime victory against the Lady Irish. Leah Hoffman, a senior, scored during the first half and her younger sister, Olivia, scored less than a minute into overtime for the deciding goal.
"They started moving offensively and played as a team so much better than they have in the past," Sneller said of the Lady Chargers. "I thought they did a great job offensively. They did a very fine job finding each other."
The Lady Chargers will host Boyd-Buchanan on Saturday at 7 p.m. The Lady Irish will play Saturday at Grace Academy with the time yet to be determined. The winners of those games will advance to the state tournament next week in Murfreesboro.
That sets up the possibility of the Lady Irish and Lady Chargers playing for a fourth time this season. CCS won during the regular season. Notre Dame won the district championship, and the Chargers won Thursday.
It's an even match and has been for years.
The only difference is that the winning team finishes its scoring chances like CCS did Thursday.
"I do like our chances of seeing each other at state," Sneller said. "Grace will have to play up to its utmost potential to beat Notre Dame. They're well-coached, but I don't know if they have enough players.
"We have to get through Boyd-Buchanan, too, to make that happen. They're tough."
The Lady Irish (10-7-3) were worthy foes Thursday in a game that displayed individual talent as well as team chemistry from players on both teams.
Leah Hoffman, one of five seniors on the CCS roster, put the first lights on the scoreboard. She slammed a free kick from about 20 yards away into the top left corner of the net 35 minutes into the game.
Notre Dame tied the game when Kelsey Barta blasted a Lady Irish free kick just over the fingertips of Marissa Lewis with six minutes to go in the game.
"It was two evenly matched teams, and every time we play it's a one-goal game," Notre Dame coach Jim Schermerhorn said. "I don't know if we've ever gone through an entire season without the two of us playing an overtime game."
Olivia Hoffman essentially ended the game less than a minute into the first of two 10-minute overtime periods. Hoffman, a sophomore, trickled a ball over the goal line just before Notre Dame defenders could clear it away. Her shot just trickled toward the line. But it crossed and counted as a goal.
"I was trying to get a touch on it and I was hoping I could do that before the goalie came out," Hoffman said. "It was going so slowly I was like, 'I hope they don't kick it out.'"
They didn't, which allowed Henry to take home the trophy.
Contact David Uchiyama at duchiyama@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6484. Follow him at twitter.com/UchiyamaCTFP