Unfortunately for the Falcons, that didn’t happen.

The Pride downed Green Hope on the road, 2-0, for a NCHSAA sectional title and a berth in the 4-A East regional title game.

The first half ended with a scoreless tie as each team managed just two shots on goal. Leesville coach Paul Dinkenor called it “about as poorly as we’ve played in the last three weeks.”

The performance, or lack thereof, was enough for Dinkenor to challenge his team at halftime.

“I said ‘We can warm the bus up right now.’ We were flat, we did not play well, we had no passion, we had no junior or senior leadership at all,” Dinkenor said. “It was really alarming.”

His team got the message in the second half.

The Pride was the aggressor from the first minute of the game’s second stanza to the last, as the team ended the game with a 15-5 advantage in shots and an 8-3 edge in shots on goal.

The Pride also forced six corner kicks, while Green Hope managed just one.

After multiple chances, Leesville (21-0-3) finally broke through when sophomore Rachel Hunter sent home a rebound from the top of the 18-yard box that skipped past Falcon goalkeeper Morgan Burk with 10:36 left to play.

“It’s one of those things where there's a big mix in front. Morgan, the goalkeeper, can’t see the ball and she’s not able to make the save,” Green Hope coach Bobby Peterson said. “She took care of almost everything she could see, but they shoot it in the crowd and good things happen.”

Green Hope (18-5-0) nearly tied the game up with 6:12 to go when an Ashley Stokes shot from 30 yards away bended just north of the crossbar.

Minutes later, Leesville’s Caroline Gentry, a freshman, put the game on ice when she broke into the open field and beat Burk one-on-one with 3:04 left.

It was the final game for Burk in a Green Hope jersey, as next year the senior will suit up for the Missouri Tigers.

Eight seniors in all saw their careers end on Thursday.

Senior captain Rachel Wells, who will play next year at N.C. State, will leave a void Peterson said won’t be easy to fill.

“She’s one of those players that’s just irreplaceable,” Peterson said. “The shades of Rachel Wells, we’ll always have at this school.”

With about three weeks to go in the regular season, the Lady Falcons were coming off a 3-0 loss to Panther Creek.

The loss was bad enough to evoke Peterson to make lineup changes. The result was a defeat of Apex in the next game, a win over Apex for the No. 1 seed in the Tri-Eight, a share of the conference championship and the first sectional final appearance in school history.

“A lot of players stepped up when they had to,” Peterson said. “Sometimes losing forces you to adjust what you’re doing, and the girls made fantastic adjustments.”

By winning the sectional, Leesville win keeps the Pride one of four teams still alive in the playoffs.