The P.K. Yonge girls soccer team’s special season came to an end at home on Wednesday night in the Class 2A-Region 1 Final.

Following a win last year against Episcopal (Jacksonville) for the school’s first-ever final four appearance in program history, the Lady Blue Wave were believing in another final four run.

However, visiting Episcopal outscored No. 1 seed P.K. Yonge, 4-2, in penalty kicks after two 10-minute overtime periods with the score still locked at 1-1.

“We’re crushed,” said P.K. Yonge coach Rebecca Schackow. “The girls are so sad; the coaching staff is sad. A lot of hard work poured into this season starting way back from the last day of last season, so this group was hungry to go back to the final four again and I do believe we have the team that could have done it, but tonight it just didn’t work for us.”

If it had not been for a deflection, P.K. Yonge (16-3-1) may have won the game in regulation.

Trailing 1-0, Episcopal sophomore Lila Ranalli’s corner kick hit off PKY freshman Lily Tomlinson and into the net with 17:29 remaining in the opening half.

“Yeah, it was an unfortunate deflection,” Schackow said. “She was trying to guard the opponent from getting the first touch on the ball, but she turned her body and then when the ball hit her, just the sheer physics of it, it deflected into the goal instead of the other direction.”

Schackow was quick to credit the Eagles, which kept the Blue Wave out of rhythm.

“Episcopal, apart from that goal, they played so hard tonight,” she said. “They’re probably the most aggressive team that we have faced all season. They play in a different kind of gritty way as far as a ton of aerial balls and then coming in hot when the ball is in the air, and that can rattle you a little bit. They bumped us around quite a bit and it made it really hard to get control of the ball and pass, which is definitely our strength.”

The game-tying goal came a little over five minutes following the Lady Blue Wave’s only goal on a shot from just outside the top of the box by Palm Beach Atlantic University signee Faith Hardy.

P.K. Yonge seemed in control during the first half, but the No. 2 seed Eagles (13-5-3) “had a great strategy.”

“I felt like they put the ball in the air a lot with a lot of force which kept us kind of on our heels, but then also they do a good job of attacking the ball when it is in the air,” Schackow said. “That’s a long time, 100 minutes, for us to be responding to that, so I felt like eventually we were just kind of reacting instead of anticipating and being able to take charge of the game, so it was tricky.”

Just like other sports, soccer is a game of inches and University of South Carolina Aiken signee Mae Dodd’s potential game-winning shot just under a minute into the second overtime sailed slightly over the crossbar.

“So close,” Schackow said. “You’re just a hair away, and those are just the opportunities that get harder and harder to have, scoring opportunities, facing teams like this the deeper you get in the game with fatigue.”

Despite winning a sixth straight district title and making a fourth consecutive region final appearance, it was a disappointing end to the season for the Lady Blue Wave, who had not lost since a 1-0 defeat at nationally ranked St. Johns Country Day (Orange Park) on Nov. 19.

“I told my group to go and cry all night, and mourn, because this was a beautiful season and having it end shorter than we’d like is worth being sad about, so I’m not going to rush that process,” Schackow said. “I’m going to let them be sad. If we had won, I would be telling them to go celebrate all night, so I’m letting them have that time to process it and be sad and we will train tomorrow…and put it behind us and move on.”