When the referee pointed to the penalty spot during first-half stoppage time on Thursday, Apex senior Katy Dodd said no one wanted to take the kick.

After a few moments of team-wide deliberation, she was chosen to try and convert it, which would have given the Cougars a 2-1 lead over Green Hope.

“I’m a captain, it’s my senior year, it’s one of the biggest games of my senior year,” Dodd said. “So I’ll step up and take it. When I stepped to the line, my heart was beating so quickly. But I was like, ‘I’ve got this.’ And it went in.”

And it held up as the game winner.

After they split their regular-season meetings and both went 13-1 in the Tri-Eight, Apex and Green Hope met Thursday to determine which team would earn the league’s No. 1 seed in the NCHSAA 4-A playoffs. Apex earned that and will have home-field advantage through the first five rounds of the playoffs. Green Hope will be the No. 2 seed from the Tri-Eight. Apex will play Wakefield in the first round, and Green Hope will play Wilmington Ashley.

“We knew the experience of last year, playing home games throughout the playoffs, and to be the No. 1 seed in our conference, we’d be home as long as we’re in the playoffs [this year],” said Apex coach Kevin Todd, who guided the Cougars to their first state championship in 2007. “They know the feel of the home crowd and the home environment. That was just a huge motivator.”

The season’s third meeting played out much like the first two, with the winning team coming back from a one-goal deficit.

In the 10th minute, Green Hope forward Taylor Rovito stole a misplayed ball in the box. And as she made her move to the goal, she was taken down. Nicole Danford stepped to the spot and converted the penalty for an early 1-0 lead.

“I couldn’t believe it happened so soon, but we weren’t going to let down at all,” said Apex midfielder Steph Partenheimer.

Green Hope almost got on the board again in the 34th minute. Rovito sent a cross to Ashley Stokes, who headed it back toward the middle of the goal. A scrum ensued, and Apex goalkeeper Caity Jones somehow came away with the ball. Green Hope appealed that the ball had crossed the goalline to no avail.

Apex evened the match in the 38th minute when Sydney Reed headed in a corner kick at the back post.

Two minutes later, Reed drew the game-changing penalty. She tried to dribble through three defenders and as she cut toward the goal, she was taken down.

Seconds after Dodd converted the PK and gave her team a 2-1 lead, the halftime whistle blew, and Apex went into intermission with all the momentum.

“It was all about momentum. And that momentum yields confidence. And that confidence just spread,” Todd said. “That was the turning point of the game.”

Though the game had completely turned in Apex’s favor in a matter of two minutes, the Falcons kept their cool during the break.

“They don’t feel like a deficit’s any big deal,” said Green Hope coach Bobby Peterson. “They know they can score if they’re playing their game. I was thinking I’d have to say something to them, but they were saying, ‘We’ve been in this position before. We can get this back.’”

And they nearly did early in the second half.

In the 43rd minute, Danford’s shot from 18 yards hit the crossbar and popped straight up. Rovito crashed the goal and got her head on the ball, but it went over the frame.

That opportunity proved to the Falcons’ best over the final 40 minutes. The loss snapped their 12-match winning streak and it was just the third time in 19 games this season that they did not score at least two goals.

Nevertheless, Peterson was not at all concerned about how the result might affect his team heading into the playoffs. “I should be ticked off about the loss, but I feel really good about the whole game,” said Peterson. “There’s nothing like this to get you ready for the state tournament.”