Coppell junior Haley Wenzel was tripped. Her penalty just next to the goal was set up, and she made the shot. With little more than a minute left in the game, Coppell came back hard in the second half to tie it up at 16.

Another few minutes later, with five seconds left in the game, Keller put away its 17th goal to take the game, 17-16.

“Our team in the second half was able to come together and we definitely won that second half,” Coppell junior Claire Bryant said. “Yes, I wish we had won, yes I wish that goal had not gone in but ultimately we did what we could. I was just so proud at that point. That feeling is everything – when you’re down that much at halftime and come back and tie it.”

Though Coppell contested that the buzzer went off before the goal was made, as proud as it was about the results of the game, it let the contention go easily.

“Our last couple of years we’ve been struggling with coaches so we have been struggling with the second half, but we absolutely killed it,” Coppell junior Sadie Harp said. “We were winning our draws, getting the ground ball, the only thing was just not talking enough in the first half. We dug ourselves into a whole we couldn’t get out of. We knew that they were a good team, so we just went into it with ‘We’re just going to be better’ and honestly, we would’ve been if we’d just come out a little longer. We were just so proud of ourselves for coming back, but it did hurt a little bit.”

After halftime, Coppell was determined to prove its worth, not caring that they were down by a handful of goals.

“We’ve had a couple of seasons that have not gone our way in terms of wins and the team became familiar with what it felt like to lose and not win,” Coppell coach Logan Hendrick said. “So far, we’re just going up. Every game, we’re making improvements and getting better. Tonight, they remembered what that fight felt like and that was what made the difference.”

Follow Anjali (@anjalikrishna_) and @SidekickSports on Twitter.