LEWISBURG– The District 4 Class A field hockey quarterfinal between Lewisburg and Central Columbia got off to a defensive start, and it stayed that way for the duration of the Blue Jay’s 2-1 comeback win on Thursday night. With just one combined shot on goal in the first half, the Green Dragons and Lady Jays went to the break tied at 0-0 after a battle for quality chances.

The Green Dragons sustained offensive pressure into the third quarter, but couldn’t break through until a string of corners led to a flurry in front of the net in the waning minutes of the frame. Julia Opperman had the ball bounce to her stick in close proximity to the cage, but the iron deflected the ball to Chloe Kerr, who put the ball home for the first score of the game.

The Green Dragons’ defense held strong throughout the rest of the third and kept Central Columbia off the board until the very last minute, when Avery McNamara collected a rebound and put it away with just 8.1 seconds left on the clock.

“That’s an incredibly tough loss,” Lewisburg coach Tonya Berge said. “Eight seconds is crazy, so I’m not feeling good about it, and I’m sure that the girls aren’t feeling good about it, but we played a really good game.”

Lewisburg grabbed the first few chances of the seven-on-seven overtime period, but Gwen Herb found Jude Flick on a breakaway, and the sophomore sent Central Columbia to the District semifinals.

Despite the tough loss, Berge said the team had a lot from this season to look back on. It wasn’t always easy, but Lewisburg remained steady all the way to the end.

“This was just a really good group of girls that went through a lot of adversity, but they just kept fighting,” Berge said. “We have three amazing seniors that are going to be missed, too. They were captains, and they led this group really well. That’s something that’s going to really be missed.”

Central Columbia 2, Lewisburg 1

L–Chloe Kerr (Julia Opperman), 4:40. CC–Avery McNamara, 0:08. CC–Jude FLick (Gwen Erb), 4:18.

Shots: CC 3, L 3. Corners: CC 1, L 7. Saves: CC 2 (Claire Rohrbach), L 1 (Addi Sims).